PLAYbriola

08/04/2023

Boom!

A brilliantly simple way of explaining a concept.

People often use the word “regulated” as if it is the “intellectual-sounding” synonym for the word “calm”. People also often use the word “dysregulated” as if it is the intellectual-sounding synonym for the word “angry” or “crying” or “tantruming” or whatever else word they might want to use.

Regulated means your energy levels match the task.
Dysregulated means your energy levels do not match the task.

A child laughing hysterically and kicking and squealing and playfighting is not regulated to go to sleep.
A child laughing hysterically and running enthusiastically through an open field outside is perfectly regulated to play outside in a big open field.

Sometimes helping a child regulate means putting them into an environment where their level of energy matches the environment. Sometimes helping a child regulate means helping their body get its needs met so that their energy can match the task that’s up next.

[Image description:
A cartoon drawing of a child running through a field with a yellow kite. Handwritten text next to them reads: REGULATED means your energy levels match the task. It does not mean ‘calm’.
The image is by Neurowild. End description.]

07/29/2023

Brilliant

07/28/2023

‘This is why play is so important’ captures why play is vital to children’s development, mental health, wellbeing, and happiness. From street play to playgro...

07/04/2023

Landlords getting real imaginative these days.

07/04/2023

The children at “move, groove and play” took the opportunity to accomplish most of this …

A story from about a year ago:

We were at the empty park. My 4.5yo found a flat piece of metal sign that had been discarded. He explored and experimented with it for a long, long time, using it as a play tool and material -- a bridge, a shovel, other things that lived only in his imagination and I couldn't tell just from observing.

Then he began dropping it on the sidewalk to hear the sound it made. He was delighted in it, flipping it over and over to listen to it. At this point, I got annoyed and thought about going over to tell him not to play with it.

My own silly adult brain was lying to me about it and was like, "Huh, that could be a safety concern if that has sharp metal edges". Nah brain. You were fine with it two minutes ago. You just don't like loud noises. Fortunately I had enough of my wits about me to be able to actually have that conversation with myself, and so I just continued sitting and holding my tongue.

I thought about the article I read recently about risky play*. I thought about kids 30 or 40 years ago and the materials they might've found to play with, discarded or outside or in explorative places.

About ten minutes went by and he came running up to me, totally delighted and exhilarated. "MOOMMMM," he shouted. "I NEED TO GET LOUD AND DANGEROUS!!!"

And that felt like that summed up kids' need for "risky" play, and unstructured play, and free play, about a thousand times better than anything I could have said.

* https://www.psychologytoday.com/gb/blog/freedom-learn/201404/risky-play-why-children-love-it-and-need-it?fbclid=IwAR3z0qzSyFZf5T94X5uxBPqgS76XmbxS4dbo6jAYZw_36aNmgJ_9CDQFr74

[Image description:
The background is a picture of a skateboarder. Over the top is a white box with the header, "The 6 Elements of Risky Play". There are these bullet points:
-Great heights
-Rapid speeds
-Dangerous tools
-Dangerous elements
-Rough & tumble
-Disappearing/getting lost
A citation is given at the bottom, for the article that these 6 elements are cited from. The citation reads: Sandseter, E. (2011). Children’s risky play from an evolutionary perspective. Evolutionary Psychology, 9, 257-284.
End description.]

07/02/2023

It’s SUNDAZE…
come move, groove and play at the commons today, noon - 6pm🌞 it’s free and no need to reserve… just come and PLAY!!

06/26/2023

Pop-up Playtime at the Gabriola Commons this Sunday!

04/16/2023

Talking Down to Children
Way back in 1995 we visited Dr. Rangimarie Rose Pere at her home down in the Ureweras to make a video about parenting from her experience growing up as a designated 'wisdom holder' in traditional Māori culture. One of the things that really stuck with me was about questioning kids.
Rose was eight before she entered a state school with the state's curriculum and state trained teachers. She couldn't get over that "The teachers asked us QUESTIONS, questions they already knew the answers to". She had never experienced that before. She went on to say that 'The Old People did ask us questions, the ones they didn't know the answers to'. She said the Elders considered children closer to the Source and they hadn't been mucked up by cultural ideas yet, so they were more likely to come up with profound answers.
We do have the same acknowledgment in our Pakeha culture: "Out of the mouths of Babes". Many of us who are parents will have experienced this with our own children. So let's stop questioning our kids if we already know the answer, that's playing Master Mind. It's a test, and nothing to do with easy conversation.