Confessions of a Playground Bench Sitter
With all those heartstrings untangled and with clear eyes, I was able to celebrate my bench sitting, give plenty of space for any failed attempts to signal play -- isn't it better to try and fail than not try at all? -- and understand that these other families needed to approach play the best way they could.
The Play Arc of Fort Rad and the Nature Den
Along the way, the children--without adult intervention--teach each other how to shape Summertime adventures including building dens, fairy houses, and forts and the play that takes place in and around these structures.
Co-oping is not the same as volunteering
Parent education leads the mission of every cooperative model school. This begins with the engagement required to land on our feet running each year with new groups of parents and extends to training sessions to co-op in the classroom and on administrative committees.
"Pretend I am" and "I am", hiccups in social interactions
"You're fired." Well, no one likes to be fired from a job they really want and it is interesting that "firing" even makes it into the game of running a restaurant, an imaginary restaurant that isn't actually imaginary, not even one bit.