The Wild Place

What creatures or objects remind you of The Wild Place?

My children say green and blue are the colors and mud, pots, ice cream scoops, and minnows are the things.

What if you could pay for a Wild Place birthday party?! Instead of renting a bouncy house you rent big gross motor play tools and possibly other sensory add-ons. We set up, provide Play support, and clean up.

I really want to create a safe space- for children AND their caregivers. I am an imagining a version of The Wild Place that is less of a program and more of a community center. A place where caregivers can bring their children to Play freely without having to be “on”. Let the staff worry about Play tools, the mess, the “look what I can dos”, and the organization while you sip your coffee and work on your laptop, read, have that much needed uninterrupted chat with your friend, or use our art supplies to get your own creative juices flowing.
I am imagining the option of organized classes for kids and adults, a meeting room for you and your crew to plan your action steps, a room for parents to feed/nap/calm baby while your other kids Play safely.
We are told to “find your village” but our society is not set up for that. I am imaging The Wild Place as a place to bring your village, meet your village, and cultivate your village.
A safe space.

What do you think?

It’s November 7 and the last time I posted anything substantial or original was a year ago.
I’m sorry I disappeared. I was getting later and more uncomfortable in my pregnancy and the physical work of The Wild Place was a little too much to balance on top of everything else.
I didn’t want to say goodbye because it felt sort of like defeat or failure. I recognize that setting boundaries is actually not failure.

Anyways. I now have three children and with the results of this election I am ready to start getting back to work. But that doesn’t mean I’m diving right back in to what The Wild Place was a year ago.

I have a whole list of directions I would like to go, but I’m curious what you all need? Be idealistic! Be specific. Post your thoughts in a comment or message me privately.
Let’s brainstorm!

*picture of my littlest one eating dirt for fb tax

One of the first things we learn at school is that learning means being still.

At primary school it’s about sitting on your bottom and not fiddling with your pencil. Walking not running, and putting your hand up before you speak. Staying in your chair, even when you’re desperate to crawl under the table or lie on the floor.

At secondary school it carries on. Some schools insist that young people track the teacher with their eyes, and won’t allow them to reach into their bag for a water bottle without asking. Every move is choreographed and on command. They say this maximises learning.

We tell children that to learn they need to listen, and to listen they need to keep still. That’s particularly hard for children, and so a lot of their energy is spent trying to conform with that. For some, it’s much harder, and they get in trouble for bouncing and jumping. The movement bursts out of them, and we tell them they can’t learn like that.

It’s not true. If you watch children learning out of school, they move and twirl and jump. They lie on the floor whilst listening to stories and hang off the monkey bars whilst they think. They ask unexpected questions at inconvenient times. They make new connections whilst sitting on the toilet, bouncing on the trampoline or when watching TV. They run around and then come back to a story. They express their feelings through their body.

Schools need to control children’s bodies to manage large numbers, but that doesn’t mean that stillness is the best way to learn. As adults, many of us must work hard to reconnect to our bodies. We’ve learnt to ignore our urge to move and we can’t understand why we feel so terrible after hours at a desk.

The things we learn at school run deep. But learning is about connection, not disconnection, and we can’t leave our bodies out of that.

Let’s reclaim our right to be active.

We need to move to learn, and that goes both for our children and ourselves.

This audio on this is 1000%
In the Mind, Brain, Learning post-bacc certificate courseloqd I completed last year the very very first class was the neuroscience of creativity.

The freedom to PLAY and explore/experience creativity is a crucial part the learning process.

If you’ve been around for a while, you’ve seen lots of my experimentation (and mistakes)! #crafting #bookbinding #papercrafts

I guess you can consider this a “wear your helmet” PSA- protect your skull because it does the very important job of protecting your beautiful brain!

LOVE this!!!

There is a lot of talk about left and right brains. Each side of the brain is responsible for unique functions but a person is never “left brained” or “right brained.” Those ideas were based on antiquated information that has since been proven untrue.
The left and right sides of your brain are fully integrated in the work they do.

Some people require the surgical removal of one half of their brain or the other. In these instances it is possible to continue living a mostly normal life. This is due to the amazing adaptive ability of the human brain. The remaining half of a surgically separated brain can take on the functions of its missing side!

Isn’t amazing?!?!

Happy Halloween! Your brain is incredible!