Annie Friday is joined this week by Kristen Peterson (soon to be Kristen Day), play advocate, educator, trainer, speaker, author, and a true play queen! Kristen shares how discovering play changed her trajectory forever. Play was also the catalyst for her family's decision to re-prioritize how they were spending their time. By living in attunement with her kids' needs and her own passions, Kristen has developed a lifestyle of lifelong learning in her family. This has included homeschooling, unschooling, and conventional schooling. Kristen shares how this type of interest-based learning breaks the school mold and allows for critical thinking and deep engagement. Kristen aims to reach parents, educators, and caregivers with the message that school should not juts be something to survive. By creating access to true, authentic play, kids and adults can shine in their own individual strengths.Keep your eye out for Kristen's content-rich resources, workshops, classes, and new book coming out soon called I'm Not Getting Them Ready for Kindergarten: Breaking tradition in early childhood education 

Thanks for listening!

Links

Share a comment or ask a questionSupport the show (and save 10%) when you shop early learning trainings at Explorations Early LearningVisit the show archives to browse and search all episodesMore AnnieMore CandisVisit Blue Bridge School's website or Instagram

Author, educator, and activist Eloise Rickman joins Annie Friday this week to discuss her new book It's Not Fair!: Why it's time for a grown-up conversation about how adults treat children. Eloise's work and writings center on the rights of childhood and the discrimination and oppression that is created by adultism. While there are many who question whether children are truly oppressed and needing liberation, Eloise believes children arrive capable and ready... even to vote. Eloise challenges the notions of mainstream adult-child relations that are typically found in schools, homes, and modern day parenting. Not all doom and gloom, Eloise also shares her hope and optimism for a future end to childhood oppression. You can find more from Eloise and her newsletter on Substack under Small Places and on Instagram under MightyMother_

Thanks for listening!

Links

Share a comment or ask a questionSupport the show (and save 10%) when you shop early learning trainings at Explorations Early LearningVisit the show archives to browse and search all episodesMore AnnieMore CandisVisit Blue Bridge School's website or Instagram

Annie Friday is joined this week by Samuel Broaden of Honoring Childhood and Kisa Marx of The Play Lab Foundation to discuss their newly released book titled Rethinking Weapon Play in Early Childhood: How to Encourage Imagination, Kindness, and Consent in Your Classroom. Right away, Kisa and Samuel dive into the reality that many adults feel activated, challenged, or triggered by this type of power play. They offer strategies for reflection and growth for the adults in play spaces while also explaining the benefits of this category of play. In a world filled with violence and a country full gun violence, the fears are valid, and yet as adults it is our moral imperative to face those fears. In that process, we need to decide how we can share our concerns and shift those into boundaries that honor consent and safety. This episode does include references to violence and real life examples of when gun play has turned to tragedy. The Tamir Rice Foundation led by Samaria Rice and Rebuild Foundation led by Theaster Gates are two important organizations preserving the memory of Tamir Rice and uplifting the power and potential of community through ensuring the existence of  safe and culturally-rich spaces specifically for Black children and families. Here 4 The Kids is another organization focused on ending gun violence in the US and hosts weekly community chats every Thursday at 12:00 pm ET. Curious how we can hold space for both the fears around violence and the need for kids to engage in power play? Listen in as Kisa and Samuel share how our feelings toward gun violence are tied to and also separate from the benefits of weapon play. 

Thanks for listening!

Links

Share a comment or ask a questionSupport the show (and save 10%) when you shop early learning trainings at Explorations Early LearningVisit the show archives to browse and search all episodesMore AnnieMore CandisVisit Blue Bridge School's website or Instagram

Latoya Nelson is back with Annie Friday after her first year of stepping out of line and opening a learning center for self-directed young people looking for an alternative to school. Latoya shares some of the challenges that come with her personal work of detoxing the school system within her as an educator - the pay, the hours, the workplace norms. We also discuss the authenticity that comes for participants at any age in a self-directed community. We talk about public schools, how they work and don't work for some. We talk about social emotional learning and how it can be weaponized and steeped in whiteness assuming that the cultural norms for white America can be broadly applied to all students. Latoya shares that photos, community observations, and intentional reflection have helped her see how much they really did accomplish this year. Listen in as we celebrate Latoya and The Attuned Community learning community for finishing their first year out of the system and raising resilience!

Thanks for listening!

Links

Share a comment or ask a questionSupport the show (and save 10%) when you shop early learning trainings at Explorations Early LearningVisit the show archives to browse and search all episodesMore AnnieMore CandisVisit Blue Bridge School's website or Instagram

It's time to reprogram the way we're talking about screen time in our homes and education settings. Annie Friday is joined this week by Ash Brandin, also known as The Gamer Educator. Ash brings a practical approach to conversations about screens knowing this nuanced topic is more than just about screens are bad or good. This episode touches on the role that screens actually play in our lives. Screen time and digital supports are tools of the culture that aren't going away. It's important to guide our young people into responsible digital citizenship as we examine that same responsibility for ourselves as well. Ash share three guiding principles that drive their work which are: 1) screens fill systemic gaps; 2) screens can benefit the whole family; and 3) screens can be a functional part of our lives. Learn more directly from Ash at thegamereducator.com/

Karla Marie Williams joins Annie Friday on this episode to share about what graduation has looked like for her 5 graduated unschoolers. Similar to the process of an unschooling version of homeschooling, graduation has been crafted for each individual young person based on their choice, their interest, and their unique pathway. Karla shares how she has chosen to be responsive to her 1 still unschooling and 5 already-graduated unschooled young people. Each of her 6 has had a different indicator that they are ready to move on to the next step and launch themselves beyond their family-partnership based version of unschooling. Karla also covers what the transition from Karla the Unschooling Mama to Simply Karla Marie has meant for her. For those out there curious about what a self-directed path could look like for your family, check our Karla's starter book called Homeschool Gone Wild. Karla also has many other books, journals, and resources with more specific target audiences including moms, teens, travelers, and even control freaks. Find Karla on Instagram, YouTube, and Facebook as Simply Karla Marie. To learn more about Karla or book her for a speaking engagement, find everything at her website KarlaMarieWilliams.com. As always, thanks for listening!

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.