Out Of Line Explorations Early Learning

Annie Friday is joined by Playworker Adele Cleaver to talk about the newly declared International Day of Play that will take place on June 11 annually. The United Nations adopted this official day after play advocates and global partners proved the need for it through surveys, research, and data that showed children around the world don't believe adults take play seriously enough. Not only can play ignite and enhance learning experiences, play can help humans process emotions, sort through traumatic events, and make new discoveries about themselves and the world around them. Adele offers tips on how to talk to your learning institutions and other play stakeholders in raising awareness regarding the benefits of play. Adele also shares some of her recent favorite play memories with inspiration from the Orleans House Gallery, the GLUE Collective, Suzanne Axelsson of Interaction Imagination, Penny Wilson of Assemble Play, and of course The Playwork Foundation.The reality is that UNICEF estimates that about 160 million children globally are working rather than playing and learning. By declaring June 11 as International Day of Play, advocates hope that adults and decision-makers will be able to invest in, provide for, protect, respect, and support play. Play is not only essential to childhood, but rather essential to humanity. Find more info on Adele Cleaver at Big Blue Play or on social media as @AdelePlayworker

Samuel Broaden of Honoring Childhood joins Annie Friday this week to talk about his new book, Gender Expression and Inclusivity in Early Childhood: A Teacher's Guide to Queering the Classroom. Samuel shares the challenges of releasing a book on this topic with the current political strikes against the LGBTQIA+ community as well as the challenges he has personally faced in the classroom and with families. The hateful reactions that came with the book's release only affirmed the need for a book on this topic. Children and families benefit by seeing all sorts of diverse representation of humanness in their spaces. Samuel's book serves as a workbook to create self-reflection and introspection for all, regardless of personal views. Annie and Samuel discuss the beautiful side of wondering aloud with children that comes with the role of caregiver. Additionally, Samuel shares more about his next exciting project - a book on weapon play that he is co-authoring with Kisa Marx to be released in June!

Jenn and Claire of Blazing Star School join Annie Friday this week to talk about the process of opening an alternative to school with a center for self-directed education (SDE) in community. Blazing Star School is located in Chicago and serves children ages 4 to 12. Sharing a background in various roles in the education field led Jenn and Claire to realize that they were looking for something that would better support their own kids' development and growth while serving as a place for other youth needing an alternative to school. Blazing Star aims to provide authentic child-led, interest-based, natural learning that centers the relationships of those in their community. Jenn and Claire share vivid stories about moments of incredible growth and learning happening at Blazing Star without coercion, punishment, and evaluation. They share some of the resources that have been most helpful as they have developed their community and programming including other programs in Chicago like the Chicago Free School and Tallgrass Sudbury School as well as the guidance received from Liberated Learners and Ken Danford. 

In this episode, Annie Friday tries to answer some questions that new parent and early childhood educator and caregiver, Brett Sanstrom, has about unschooling. Brett shares that as a play-based professional, she is starting to see how misaligned school norms and practices are with neuroscience and child development. Brett and Annie discuss how many teachers turn to the practice of unschooling with their own family because they have seen firsthand the scars that school can leave. There's also a growing population of educators leaving the field of conventional education to open alternatives to school like group self-directed education communities and homeschool co-ops. Annie shares some of the resources that were most helpful as her own family became homeschoolers in a most unlikely way. 

Emma Tempest, AKA the Play Coach, joins Annie Friday today to talk about perfectionism, the good, the bad, and the really, really unhelpful aspects of it. Many adults have learned perfectionism through school and the constant measuring that can leave humans of all ages, but particularly children, feeling like they aren't good enough. While perfectionism can protect the ego, too much of it can be limiting and even downright toxic. Emma shares her thoughts on how to deschool, or deprogram, perfectionism when it is no longer serving a purpose. Annie and Emma also discuss strategies and methods to try to guide young people through childhood without leaving them paralyzed by perfectionism. Find more from Emma and check out her work as a positive psychology coach where she can help get you out of black-and-white thinking and into a full spectrum rainbow of thoughts to support your emotional growth.

Annie Friday is joined this week by Maile Munson, Director of Advocacy, Outreach and Public Awareness for Lives in the Balance. Lives in the Balance is a non-profit organization dedicated to creating a shift away from punitive, exclusionary discipline practices on a systemic and personal level. The organization was founded by Dr. Ross Greene, a clinical psychologist who was on the faculty at Harvard Medical school; is a New York Times best-selling author; and a practitioner who has worked with children and families for over 30 years. Through his work, Dr. Greene has developed a program called Collaborative and Proactive Solutions (CPS). Maile provides an overview of the CPS program explaining that it's a model that can be used in home or school settings to help adults be in relationship with young people in order to solve problems before they turn into challenging behaviors. This work is intended to help us get out of crisis mode by creating more supportive partnerships and reducing harmful practices like seclusion or corporal punishment. Lives in the Balance has even recently expanded the conversation to include our youngest children with a new program called "Never Too Early" centered on the most effective practices to support even infants and toddlers in this collaborative and proactive model.  Lives in the Balance hosts a free and accessible virtual summit annually where you can find out even more. Listen in on this episode and learn more about how you can be trained to use the model or become an advocator for young people.