Play Can Be Learned

Contrary to common belief, play isn’t a natural response in everyone. For many children (and their parents), it is a behavior that needs to be modeled to us first. If you or your child are struggling to play, I want to help you get silly together. Learn more about Play Coaching on my coaching page, where I offer 1-on-1 support for parents and families. But first, I invite you into The 7 Day Play Challenge!

The 7 Day Play Challenge

Anyone can participate. Here’s what it looks like:

• For each day there is a short video inviting you (adult you) into 5 minutes of playful activity that can be done solo at home or with kids/friends.

• After finishing the activity, report back by commenting on the video or on the website to share a few words about how the experience affected you.

• We learn from each other and how it felt.

The original 7 Day Play Challenge was run through my Substack Page where comments and engagement were more easily tracked - but you can still take the challenge!

This kind of thing takes guts!

So I will cultivate a safe place for you to explore the activities and discussion. I’m sure playful things will come up, but I also expect uncomfortable feelings to arise in some. All of that is welcome. The purpose isn’t success. The purpose is learning and growth. It will likely be a provocative and rich exploration for people who haven’t played in a long time.

I am the author of How to Tell Stories to Children, now in 21 languages, and an independent forest school teacher. I spend almost everyday outside with kids, adults, and elders learning, laughing, getting serious, and being silly. I am, in a sense, an expert at play.

But I don’t just mean silliness, because skillful play requires tuning to how others are feeling and being affected (and ourselves). We don’t just want to laugh our way into ruining someone else’s safe space (or our own). My expertise lies in cultivating that safety so that kids and adults can bridge play with serious inquiry and life experience. As a complete loop, this is extremely powerful learning.

“Thank you for this invitation! I needed to feel a sense of awe and wonder again. Things have been quite heavy for me lately but this brought joy and lightness and a reconnection to some of these parts that have been hiding a bit. I can both be more present and breathe a bit easier. Looking forward to tomorrow!” - Christine (Read more on Substack)

“It felt like I had a little secret, something that made me look at my surroundings differently than usual.” - Viki (Read more on Substack)

“I’ve come across so many playful, connection-based parenting tools before — but this challenge is exactly what I needed right now. Somehow it helped shift me out of thinking and into doing. Thank you!” - Paul (Read more on Substack)

“Some of the play episodes were barely challenges. I talk to critters mostly everyday, part of my morning practice with tea. Imagining things outside the window I particularly liked, because it’s easy and resonant and satisfying. Creating houses and places for objects was harder for me. I fell into my own stereotypes of my relationships and got anxious. I wanted to feel good and inspired afterward but I mostly had another thing to look at, and that quickly led to fatigue - why isn’t anything grabbing my energy and carrying me somewhere beautiful and clear and laying out my obvious next steps sort of feeling. I like what you’re up to here. And I like what you have to say about it.” - Rebecca (Read more on Subtack)

“Really appreciated this reflection and orientation toward play as a practice to process hard things, too.” - Rachel (Read more on Substack)

“The feels – initial excitement and motivation, the fullness of day, responsibilities, scheduled and feeling burdened by the extra obligation of a play assignment, resistance funneled into annoyance, determination and self accountability, doing the damn thing, feeling the clunkiness at the start, getting into it, and noticing my timer went off in what seemed like way less than five minutes! Honestly, my resistance to the practice took way more time and energy than the play itself.” - Devin (Read more on Substack)