Day 3: The 7 Day Play Challenge
Anyone Can Participate
This is the 7 DAY PLAY CHALLENGE. Anyone can participate. Here’s what it looks like:
Each morning I will post a short video (above) inviting you (adult you) into 5 minutes of playful activity that can be done solo at home or with kids/friends.
After finishing the activity, report back by commenting on this post and sharing a few words about how the experience affected you.
We learn from each other and how it felt.
I’m increasingly drawn to playful activities with adults, because it helps
break stuck mental patterns
open new ideas
create laughter, fun, and intimacy
This kind of thing takes guts! So I will cultivate a safe place for us to explore the activities and discussion. I’m sure playful things will come up, but I also expect uncomfortable feelings to arise in some of us. All of that is welcome. The purpose isn’t success. The purpose is learning and growth. It will likely be a provocative and rich exploration for people who haven’t played in a long time.
I am the author of How to Tell Stories to Children, now in 21 languages, and an independent forest school teacher. I spend almost everyday outside with kids, adults, and elders learning, laughing, getting serious, and being silly. I am, in a sense, an expert at play.
But I don’t just mean silliness, because skillful play requires tuning to how others are feeling and being affected (and ourselves). We don’t just want to laugh our way into ruining someone else’s safe space (or our own). My expertise lies in cultivating that safety so that kids and adults can bridge play with serious inquiry and life experience. As a complete loop, this is extremely powerful learning.
Ways to Comment and Share Your Experience
Leave a comment at the end of this post
Reply to this email and ask me to post your message in the comments
Send a rabbit to me on an incredible journey
Read and comment on my Facebook Page
Tell people about what you’re doing
You’re welcome to send me a private message if you’d like that, but don’t want to share with everyone
There is no cost, but if you feel inspired by this exercise, please consider supporting my work by becoming a paid subscriber for $5/mo.
You’ll likely find yourself reflecting on the experience throughout the day, both positively and negatively. The discussion and comments can help you gain perspective, but you have all the freedom in the world to hold your play to yourself in a safe and curious way in order to explore your own heart and mind.
A Few Words About Me and Where I’m Going
I’ve been teaching and playing with children and families for over 10 years, and writing about those experiences online, in print, and elsewhere. This summer, I’m converting this free newsletter into an income resource in order to expand and support my work with kids and parents.
My Values
Every child is intelligent
Connection, not curriculum, is the foundation of learning and growth
All educational models have strengths
Having fun is important
Life is personal
Respect for women’s leadership
Subscription Details
By the end of summer, I will be sharing posts and creating events with paid subscribers only. Cost is $5/month. Free subscribers will get occasional newsletters and previews.
Why am I doing this? I work with kids and families in thoughtful and loving ways that transcend conventional ideas of education, childcare, or mentorship. I want to build an inexpensive business model that allows me to work with children and families in person and online without asking for payment at every transaction. Your support helps and gives you access to:
Practices to support play, learning, growth, and community
Tools to build connection with kids, families, and elders
Alternative education news and resources
Online calls on parenting, education, and community topics
Storytelling events
The Essence is Connection
Children thrive when they feel seen for who they are. Learning and growth become more self-directed and relatively easy. Friendships and family relationships blossom.
Alternatively, the soup of judgement and competition many of us grew up within often leads us to hate what we’re doing, even if we learn to do it well! Many of us are learning to do that today - to hate education, hate work, our neighbors, our leaders, and even ourselves and our role on the planet.
I’m not working against any of this. I’m only willing to work FOR what I want - which is kids and families, and all people, to feel more love and connection in their lives (so that all the other stuff is easier).
By becoming a paid subscriber, you help me make this work available to the kids and families who need it. Please consider it.
Joseph Sarosy
I am the author of How to Tell Stories to Children, Off Grid Kids, numerous resources on parenting, and the creator of the Juniper School, a homeschool cooperative in Taos, New Mexico. I have two degrees, one in civil engineering because I’m a math nerd, and one in philosophy because my friends were weird. I respect community members and elders, POC, and indigenous voices. I listen to children when they talk to me.
For over 10 years I have been teaching, writing, learning, and exploring the earth with my students and a collaborative group of elders, farmers, and craftswomen - almost exclusively in outdoor settings. In 2022, I co-facilitated a Forest Kindergarten Teacher Training, and in 2023 I received a grant from VELA Education Fund to promote alternative education in Taos. But I like public education. I’m not against anything. I’m just for what I am.
What I am is a father who loves his daughter and sees the benefit of honest, loving attention. I want this for everyone. Everywhere.
It was lovely to be alone in the bushes and observe the life happening there up close.
As I watched the tiny creatures, I also felt small — and somehow, my big thoughts and problems didn’t seem quite so big anymore. So now, if I’m in a bad mood, maybe this memory will come back to me — and instead of withdrawing into myself (and my dark thoughts), I might rather retreat into a bush and look outward for a while.
This time, I was actually in a good mood, and I felt grateful for allowing myself this little me time in the bushes. Luckily, no one else was around. But I also tried the second part of the challenge — giving out positive comments. I observed every living thing with great admiration, but at first, it didn’t feel natural to express that admiration out loud. That made me think: maybe I’m not actually that generous with compliments? So the next time I visited the bushes, I made sure to say those compliments out loud. Since then, I’ve been more mindful — when I see something worth praising, I try not just to think it, but to say it. It probably doesn’t matter to ants, but it definitely matters to people!
Later, my daughter and I played hide-and-seek in a public place, and several people smiled when they saw us.
At the end of the day, my daughter was tired and wanted to buy everything in the store, but I managed to lure her toward the exit by hiding between the aisles — and in the end, we left with only what we had planned to buy.
So thank you! Such a simple play helped me reconnect — with myself, with nature, and with my daughter.
I like your back story to this exercise, redirecting play fighting which always involves one side attacking another, but I didn't like doing this one. I was not sure how to explain myself if I had to and afraid I might need bail money!