Uncategorized | From the Playground

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5,4,3,2,1 — Blast Off! Get Going on What You’re Meant to Do and Whatever that is: “Be a Good One.”

Gallery | Posted on March 26, 2023 by Jill Telford

“I know what I want to do, and it makes sense to get going”. — Warren Buffet

Children know who they are and what they love to do from an early age. Families, educators and the community also discover what children are passionate about especially by paying close attention while being astute observers. When children arrive at school they get going in on the things they care about all while living out the mantra: being in the present moment. Something most of us could learn a lot from. While being in the present an idea enters the brain also know as a spark of joy that sends signals as what we’re supposed to be doing. An idea.

Photo by SHVETS production on Pexels.com

I had a student who had an idea. He started building a truck. More specifically, a cement mixer. In fact, he loved trucks. All kinds of trucks. His family was worried as he seemed obsessed with trucks and he didn’t like books so much. I mentioned that they just may have a builder on their hands. He gets distracted by what he cares about most because when there was a book about trucks he would study it research like and consumed by it ranging from non-fiction to Goodnight, Goodnight, Construction Site. When asked what he wanted to be when he grew up, he said a garbage truck so he could keep Earth clean. When we went to the library on Wednesdays for story time, instead of listening to the story he would instead gravitate towards the window to watch the construction workers work. He would be engrossed by the construction site across the street and name every single truck as well as what they were doing. I mentioned it to the storyteller and she prepared stories the following week in honor of my student and the site across the street. We also met the team who were building. My student’s eyes lit up and stood in awe as the team described what they were working on. He asked the most questions and even got to sit in the cement mixer he saw each Wednesday, the exact truck he was building. This came full circle and his family beams with pride as their son is an expert in building and mechanics. He drew and from what I see online still draws blueprints, creates and builds.

Our ideas are unique to only us. No one else dreams the dreams we dream. It is vital to fulfill our mission. When a child is doing something they love they don’t have to be told or rewarded to do it. Even when they grow up it is the same as they do something they love. They do it because they want to be there. They do what they love and care about. That is the greatest gift. Are you honoring your child and your own inner child?

This is where intrinsic vs. extrinsic motivation comes in.

Children are intrinsically motivated to do the things they love to do. They don’t need awards or even praise. They just do. They get going.

So what is it that your child wants to get going on? How about you? Just do it.

books, childhood, children, family, Holidays, life, lifepurpose, play, preschool, self-help, teaching, travel

The Gift of Play: Everybody Needs It

Gallery | Posted on December 26, 2022 by Jill Telford

Everybody needs a little love in their lives but you know what else everybody needs? Play.

You can discover more about a person in an hour of play than in a year of conversation. —Plato

While in Vang Vieng, Laos, we happened to catch children playing from a far distance. No grown ups present. They climbed through tree roots, explored water, caught fish and laughed a lot. They waded water in the stream made their way out and found a large paint roller and rolled it all around in the dirt. I smiled and reminisced as my nostalgic childhood materialized.

“That’s what play looks and feels like. That’s honoring childhood.” My partner and I started sharing about our childhoods. How we were fortunate that ours looked like the childhood the children were playing in right before our very eyes. Childhood is finite and infinite at the same time. It lives on.

No fences, no dittos, no rules. Freedom. To feel and play. True play gives us a push into being in our body and mind. Everything is connected: spatial awareness to making connections.

Play gives children practice to what they are learning and observing. It works for grown ups too in life, family and business. Want to learn more about your colleagues in less time? Keep it simple. Kick the typical “meeting” and get out there and play.

Play Opens Doors

No matter where children and grown ups live or what they’re overcoming, play is essential.

It opens doors and shows us what we’re capable of and what we’re passionate about. It shows us who we are and are meant to be. We all are competent, capable and creative human beings. From birth until we die, we have to play in our purpose.

Play Promotes Collaboration

Listening and talking. Everyone plays a part in it. From role play / interacting with others to make believe / symbolic thinking. Even without someone else…being able to collaborate with yourself in your own world is the art of meditation. Play is meditation.

Play Gives Grace to Fail and Try, Try Again

Riding a bike to kicking a ball. You ride, you crash. You kick, you miss. You try again.

What did you love to play as a child? As an adult? Did it change? Why?

books, childhood, children, culture, education, education, earlyed, behavior, development, children, family, help, fall, life, play, preschool

Goodbye Summer, Hello Fall

Gallery | Posted on November 26, 2022 by Jill Telford

How do you notice and celebrate the fall? There are so many ways to acknowledge it with children in natural ways. Bring in and celebrate the changing seasons with some of these creative ideas. Please feel free to share some of your family’s ideas in the comment section below: sharing is caring! These sensory and awesome activities are simple to set up and perfect for inviting your child to explore and notice the wonders of Autumn.

1. Take a Walk to Notice the Changing Leaves

Change the lyrics of the classic Bear Hunt song to “We’re going on a leaf hunt” and take a walk together as you notice the leaves falling as they crunch beneath your shoes and spy the changing colors. Walk while collecting colorful various sized leaves as you go. Invite your children to tell you what color, texture and size of each leaf in fun ways. For example…notice the size by pondering outloud: “I wonder if it’s bigger/smaller than your hand?” “How does it feel?” “Where did the green disappear to?” “How did the color change?” “Which is your favorite shade?” Once you’re home, invite your child to sort the leaves by size, shape and color.

2. Sensory Play with Fall

Sensory play is vital for babies and children and there are lots of amazing ways to represent the colors of Fall. Invite your child to change the leaves with food coloring or Tempera paints. Wonder out loud: “If you could change the colors of the leaves, what color would you change them to?” “How does a leaf change its color?” Offer Blue/Red, Yellow/Red, Yellow/Blue primary paint combinations to discover what they turn into.

4. Sing Autumn Songs click below for some ideas

5. Read Books about Trees: list of ideas below: **add your titles in the comments below** *Bonus Make Your Own Book Using Colorful Leaves

The Lorax, The Giving Tree, Stuck, Because of an Acorn, The Kids’ Family Tree Book, Can You Hear the Trees Talking?, The Tree Book for Kids and their Grown-ups

6. Observe, Draw and Pick out Some Favorite Trees

Take a sketchpad outside and draw what you see. Plan to revisit and plant one of you and your child’s favorite trees in the spring!

5. Paint / Collage with Leaves

Use leaves to paint and collage with. Make a large Fall mural inspired by the Fall. **Bonus Make a fall wreath together for your door or a neighbor’s door.

6. Rake the Leaves

Don’t forget to JUMP in them! Make up a story using the leaves together.

7. Make Leaf Rubbings / Pressings

Grab a paper, crayons (and/or pastels), playdough/clay. Place the leaf/leaves on the paper. Place a paper on top and then use the crayon (writing utensil) to rub. (Another variation is to do pressings by pressing the leaf into playdough/clay to make impressions/imprints. See it by clicking below:

https://www.firstpalette.com/craft/leaf-rubbings.html

8. Visit a National Park and Chat with a Park Ranger

Visiting parks and nature is a wonderful way to get up and personal with nature, especially trees. Talking with a park ranger who is an expert could turn into a life changing memorable experience as you make meaning out of the trees and their importance. If you’re local to Fiolina the Arboretum is an iconic place to visit many types of trees from the smallest Bonsais’ to the tallest of Sycamores. A perfect place for that sketchpad we mentioned earlier.

Have Fall inspired ideas you want to share? Let us know by commenting below!

Photo by Tatiana Syrikova on Pexels.com

books, libraries, littlefreelibrary

A Little Bookshelf

Gallery | Posted on September 26, 2022 by Jill Telford

It was raining as I stood on our front porch screwing in our registered charter number onto our Little Free Library. A beautiful sign. When the rain went to a drizzle, I carried it outside towards a tree closer to the road where people could discover a book and share a treasured one of their own.

We decided to open one up in honor of children and families who are in a crisis.

Our message is simple, do something good no matter how big or small, for someone else.

Books connect us, inspire us, help us to process, imagine and open another door to see the world through another lens. A single book has the potential to heal us and to connect us. We are all have the potential to feel and become better because of a single book.

Anything is possible, hope you join our movement by leaving a treasured book for someone else and take one for yourself or pass it along to someone else. Or open one up in your neighborhood.

Happy reading, sharing and transforming.

culture, death, dreams, family, life, lifepurpose, moments, self-help, signs, soul, therapy, Uncategorized

Signs Everywhere, Everywhere Signs

Gallery | Posted on July 26, 2022 by Jill Telford

Hubble Serves Up a Holiday Snow Angel by NASA Goddard Photo and Video is licensed under CC-BY 2.0

A cardinal flies by. Bright ruby red. Butterflies and hummingbirds dance across the sky right before my eyes. Morning doves sing. A quarter on the ground dated 1986. Changed by so many hands. Possibly fell off of an angel’s wings in the path I was meant to stumble upon it. I stand and walk among giants as none of us is as small as we think we are. A paradox of our times. Looking out a plane window, you would think and see just how small and potentially insignificant we really aren’t. Nothing is as it seems. Littles things are big things. Just watch and study ants at work.

Looking out a plane window, you would think and see just how small and potentially insignificant we really aren’t. Nothing is as it seems. Littles things are big things. Just watch and study ants at work.

Life all around us and beyond us. Beautiful, daring and fleeting life. Life in a single blade of grass life. Life in a single fingerprint life. Life in a single sip of coffee life. Life lies even in a pesky and stubborn weed in the garden that keeps reemerging life. It hurts to tug it out of the ground. Everything wants to live. We want to live another day. Another minute.

We emerge no matter the challenge or obstacle in the words of Tupac Shakur even from concrete. We breakthrough like the stars emerging from stardust life that we innately are. Where do we go after life? That question follows me each and everywhere I turn. Where do we go? Will we see each other again?

Life is found in a single minute. One single minute matters more than you think. I stare at the sky throughout the day just to stare at it no need to have a reason. The stars. The constellations. Connecting the dots to what all of this really means. We’re all deeply connected like an infinite constellation more than anyone could possibly ever realize or conceptualize.

Lighting up Creativity by Keeping the Magic Alive: The Power of Creativity in Children and Grown ups

Posted on February 11, 2016 by Jill Telford

Posted by Jill Telford and Berna Artis

Creativity=Magic. It comes down to being present in the moment and wanting to be there even in the difficult times with children and families in order to create an awesome learning experience. It’s about doing the right thing for your students, families and yourself and having the courage, confidence and creativity to thrive. I think even if you have the most up to date technological school what is at the heart is caring and nurturing teachers, families and children. A person can have a school anywhere in the world even without the best of the best but it comes down to educators, families and children. When you walk into an awesome classroom you immediately want to be there: it feels warm, accepting, safe and fun. You don’t want to leave. You feel it. To be a part of something like that is incredible.

Inspiring Ways to Spark Creativity and Ingenuity at School, Work and at Home

Visit a museum to look and admire art and/or living/dead things. Admire some bugs together or face a fear of creepy crawly bugs. Marvel at the fragility of a butterfly. Bring a hands on activity for you and your child to recreate what you see together. There are awesome and free museums, our national zoo and the sculpture garden in DC to explore. Not to mention the reopening of the Renwick with the exhibit Wonder. http://renwick.americanart.si.edu
Give them real tools to copy you and put stuff at their level. Children may not always listen to and/or follow our advice or even have a hard time learning limits but I do know I am 99.9% sure children imitate what they see. Whether we call ourselves role models or not we are that for children. Be who you want your kid to be.
Invite children to your workspace. Bring them for a day in the life of your work. Ask working family members to volunteer some time so they can visit their work too. Make it fun and interesting. Play make believe with them. After the work experience ask them what they think about your work? Ask them their opinions and ideas. They are our future. Before you know it they will be grown ups. Help them think of ways to think outside of the box and change the status quo. This leads to changing the world.

Offer open-ended art materials. Don’t buy into commercialism all of the time. Many toys on the market inhibit creativity. They have certain limited functions. Cardboard, paper, (large paper), wood, paint (mixing primary colors to make colors), clay, chalk, crayons, pastel, collaging, mixed media arts, journaling, art journaling, photo journaling, dancing, singing, sports (recreational and organized). The list is endless. Harness whatever it is they love and let them run wild with it. Let them be in the moment making a mess. Be in the process with them.

Read good books. You know what we’re talking about. The ones you like. And, read many genres. When children grow, they will appreciate this exposure and become literate awesome global individuals of the world. Teach them not to just read to read but read to understand.

Make up stories together. Illustrate them too. If your children love this let them do it and appreciate it. Show them the process of publishing. And, as we are changing into the world of self-publishing show them that too. A great source of inspiration is Stephen King’s On Writing.

Go on adventures. A lot of them. Take a trip somewhere. Take planned and unplanned ones. This way you show a planning process and spontaneity. We need both of these in our lives. Without a balance we get dull. Keep that gleam in your eye. This carries into old age. Keep the magic alive.

Show how technology rules but does not rule you. Don’t always be on your phone. Be present in the moments. So many of them you can’t recreate or get back. Show how technology rocks. There is a thin line between our real lives happening now in the moment and technology.