“Pay attention. Be astonished. Tell about it.”
Instructions for Living a Life by Mary Oliver
Play-Making is
the interaction between play and making that fuels joyful relationship building, exploration, experimentation, discovery, and creation of new ideas.
Play-Makers are Change-Makers
They are highly engaged people who feel connected to others and use the power of their creativity and imagination to make a more inclusive and just world.
Play-Making is a right not a privilege
It’s essential to deep learning, feelings of agency, relationship building, healing, and wholeness.
We Have a Challenge to Chase
Educational systems are not paying attention to children’s need to be Play-Makers, but are dismissing Play-Making as merely recreational or as a “break” from rigorous learning.
They are not being astonished by the overwhelming and indisputable scientific evidence confirming that opportunities for play and making are essential to healthy brain development. Systems appear unmoved that a lack play harms children socially, emotionally, physically, and intellectually.
Most educational systems are not telling about the value of Play-Making to the development of children’s thinking, understanding, imagination, creativity, feelings of wholeness, their ability to be resourceful and take positive action in the world. Instead, many educational systems continue to tell the story that there is “no time” for Play-Making within standards-centered, “rigorous” curriculum.
We Also Have Hope!
Whether you are a parent, grandparent, care-giver or community member, we invite you to be a Play-Making advocate. Together we will…
Pay Closer Attention to children’s Play-Making in everyday moments, and learn how to name what we see with strength-based language.
Be Astonished by and feel awe about the beauty and joy of children’s Play-Making: how it naturally activates their thinking and ideas, cultivates their imagination and creativity, and supports them to build positive, healing relationships with themselves and others.
Tell About It by making time for small conversations and story-sharing with our children about their and our own experiences as Play-Makers in the world. Tell about the value of Play-Making by advocating for more opportunities for children to be Play-Makers, whether that is in our families, schools, and/or our communities.
Freeing children to be Play-Makers NOW leads to their being Change-Makers as adults who know how to build a better world.
WHY US?
- We have over 60 years of collective experience as educators, spanning pre K – College level.
- We work WITH you not only for you, beginning with what is already working for you in your context.
- We begin by learning who you are and what you need to help you create more access to Play-Making for everyone in your setting. We do not begin by “delivering” more siloed programming you have to learn or find time to “implement”.
- Our goal is to inspire joy and support the wholeness of our children throughout their educational journey.
YOU play a vital role!
- Parents/Caregivers are children’s first teachers and have the power to create a culture of Play-Making with their family that supports children in the most essential ways.
- Teachers are designers of learning opportunities, and have the power to incorporate Play-Making into their instruction in a manner that honors all children’s voices.
- Community members have the freedom to engage children as Play-Makers outside the standardized systems of schooling.
Who we are
Diane and Katrin have a combined six decades in education as teachers and instructional designers serving kindergarten through college-age students. As educators, parents, and community members they understand that engaging in many forms of Play-Making are vital to the development of healthy children who feel confident, whole, understood, and capable of having an impact in their world.
Diane and Katrin believe the opportunity to critically and compassionately engage in their world through Play-Making is a right, not a privilege, that belongs to every child.
Katrin and Diane are deeply concerned about educational systems impacting schools that severely limits Play-Making in children’s lives, and determines their capabilities and potential through high-stakes, narrow, and often unjust measures.
Mounting scientific evidence indicates that lack of play directly correlates to rising anxiety and depression in children, which disables their learning and sense of agency. Diane and Katrin believe that parents, teachers, and community members can work together as Play-Making advocates to contribute to a more humane and just education for children. They have a right to understand and develop their potential, and fully participate in creating a more beautiful world.