swing sets were made for climbing, towering, twirling, standing
maybe on occasion swinging
jumping off.
—
‘play is the highest form of research.’
— Albert Einstein, theoretical physicist
—
ann arbor, michigan, usa, summer
Sep26
Category Archives: play
Aug2
a hall of fame toy that costs $0.
anyone who knows me well, knows that i absolutely love sticks, rocks, shells, leaves…..
and why I was thrilled to read this recently:
Curators at the Strong National Museum of Play branched out when they added the stick to their collection of all-time beloved toys. Among the most versatile amusements, sticks have inspired central equipment in several sports, including baseball, hockey, lacrosse, fencing, cricket, fishing, and pool. Humble twigs are also ready-made for fetch, slingshots, toasting marshmallows, and boundless make-believe.
Located in Rochester, New York – about 70 miles northeast of Fisher-Price’s headquarters – the Strong acquired the fledgling National Toy Hall of Fame in 2002. To date, more than 70 toys have been inducted, including Crayola Crayons, Duncan Yo-Yos, and bicycles. The stick was added in 2008, three years after another quintessential source of cheap childhood delight: the cardboard box. Hail to the mighty stick!
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‘some of you did not spend your childhood making potions
out of random leaves, berries, flowers, and twigs
tossed into a tub of water and stirred with a stick that you found….
and it shows.’
-author unknown
—
source credits: google image, nice news, strong national museum of play
Sep23
boundless.
enter this charming store
like walking into a dream
towers, and dragons, and costumes, and animals, and castles, and art, and toys, and books, and puppets
surrounded by enchanting hand-painted murals
a circle where story tellings and puppet shows and theater play are shared
imaginations are encouraged and play flows freely.
‘the world of reality has its limits; the world of imagination is boundless.’
-jean-jacques roussseau
Aug25
totally kid.
totally kid carousel
A Carousel Of Visions;Artist Brings the Fantasies Of Children to Magical Life
Artistic acclaim came early to Milo Mottola. When he was 8, his drawing of menacing tooth film with the slogan “Plaque is mean, so keep teeth clean” was such a hit it won him a $50 savings bond from a dental group and was made into a poster. Nearly 25 years later, Mr. Mottola, an artist who lives in Long Island City, Queens, NY, decided to try to find a way to give other children that same dizzy excitement and spark of confidence, without all those dentists.
What could be better, he thought, than asking children to draw the animals they would like to ride on a carousel — and then to make that carousel, carving the animals exactly as the children drew them? I wanted it to be as magical as the children who ride it,” said Mr. Mottola, who, in an echo of his own past, gave each child whose animal was chosen a $50 savings bond, and a lifetime of free rides on the carousel.
Above each animal, Mr. Mottola displayed the child’s original drawing, and on the floor beneath each animal, he carved the child’s signature. “I wanted the winners to have something that will last forever, where they can someday take their husbands and wives and say ‘I did this.’ “
The carousel is on permanent display in Riverbank State Park, the 28-acre park built three years ago atop a sewage treatment plant between West 137th and West 145th Streets in Harlem.
“improvisation, writing, painting, invention—all creative acts—are forms of play,
the starting place of creativity in the human growth cycle, one of the great primal life functions.”
— stephen nachmanovitch, Free Play
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Source Credits: Pam Belluck, Milo Mottola, New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, Percent for Art Program
Material: steel (alloy), wood, fiberglass
Address:679 Riverside Dr, New York, 10031, USA
Apr18
small cheer.
a pop-up restaurant appeared in the cozy corner of our classroom
everyone was welcome and helped in the restaurant after their meal
so many delicious foods
made with care
no one left hungry
people came and went and shared plates and talked and laughed
it was a feast for the senses.
—
“small cheer and great welcome makes a merry feast.”
-william shakespeare
Feb20
monkey business.
apes playfully tease each other just like humans
Joking around is a key element of human interaction — one that starts emerging in babies as young as 8 months old, before they can even speak. Now, a new study is suggesting that the human instinct to play goes further back than previously thought.
An international team of cognitive biologists and primatologists documented playful teasing in the four species of great apes: orangutans, chimpanzees, bonobos, and gorillas. They identified 18 distinct teasing behaviors, indicating that “the prerequisites for humor evolved in the human lineage at least 13 million years ago,” per a press release.
“Similar to teasing in children, ape playful teasing involves one-sided provocation, response waiting in which the teaser looks toward the target’s face directly after a teasing action, repetition, and elements of surprise,” explained lead author Isabelle Laumer.
The concept of playful primates isn’t new — Jane Goodall previously documented such behavior — but this is the first study to systematically analyze it. “We hope that our study will inspire other researchers to study playful teasing in more species in order to better understand the evolution of this multifaceted behavior,” Laumer said.
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“the very essence of playfulness is an openness to anything that may happen,
the feeling that whatever happens, it’s okay…
you’re either free to play, or you’re not.”
-john cleese
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source credits: Proceedings of the Royal Society, Laumer, Winkler, Rossano, Cartmill
photo credit: anup shah, getty
Dec26
fun and games.
intense competitors at play in the action-packed shenanigans of
the get the diaper that is around your ankles moved to your bathing suit area without using your hands game
it just wouldn’t be our traditional christmas
without the crazy fun and games.
—
“life is more fun if you play games.”
- roald dahl
Dec9
move-in ready!
this looks like my kind of place!
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i have such fond memories of childhood forts-
blanket forts
pillow forts
under the table forts
box forts
tree forts
garage forts
lower bunkbed forts
underground cave forts
behind the couch forts
secret forts
forts with passwords
anything/anywhere/anytime
we could find to makeover into a fort,
we did.
—
are you ‘pro-fort?’
is yes, what kind of forts did you enjoy?
—
“forte is french for fort.”
*buddy wakefield,
*american poet, three-time world champion spoken word artist, and the most toured performance poet in history
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image credit: facebook, ty to b. miller
Oct1
be water.
when all are watering the plants at the same time,
while facing each other,
what could possibly happen?
let’s do the probability math.
—
“be water, my friend.”
-bruce lee
Jun13
youth.
a sure sign –
a bike hurriedly tossed on its side
no doubt someone excited to play
if i had to guess
i’d say there is a child on summer vacation
somewhere nearby.
—
“youth comes but once in a lifetime.”
-henry wadsworth longfellow
