Day 5: 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.
I had planned a meeting with a snail in the garden, but ended up staying inside because my daughter got sick. But then a fly came in and started circling the room excitedly — it really seemed to want my daughter to drink her tea. In the end, she did, and I reassured the fly not to worry — she would definitely feel better by tomorrow. Then I gently guided it out of the room.
This task didn’t really push me out of my comfort zone. It’s just that I don’t usually initiate these kinds of interactions — the little creatures are usually the ones who come too close. Maybe I could be a little more open and proactive with them, because this game also offers a good opportunity to shift perspective and imagine myself in their place. That’s actually a strength of mine, which might be why this task felt relatively neutral.
Still, I think this kind of play could help in moments when someone feels lonely. Because really, we are rarely truly alone — there’s almost always someone to connect with, even if they’re tiny. Even the company of my houseplants gives me so much! 🙂
I've been doing these mostly solo and I found this one pretty easy and fun and enjoyable. Partly bc I do kinda already do this. But also I think bc there was an audience . And as an adult I can be playful to an audience (even a bug or a bird). Its hard to be playful by yourself. Seems like it should be easier.