We live in a world where rushing children through childhood is increasingly common, where “curriculum plans” are written for infants, where children’s days are hyper-scheduled, where more focus is placed on teaching than learning, where activities common to childhood a generation ago are now “dangerous”, and where the free and spontaneous play that begins with the words “go play” has been replaced by worksheets and memorization activities.

At best, these trends are developmentally inappropriate, at worst they are immoral.

Jeff A Johnson and Denita Dinger are pushing back against these trends and, invite you to join them for a hands-on 6 hours of training based on their new Redleaf Press book Let Them Play: An Early Learning (Un)Curriculum where they will explore topics like slowing the rush of childhood, trusting kids as learners, nurturing emotional environments, valuing “plopping” and “unplanning”, and building an (UN)curriculum that values play and promotes learning.

The day will have plenty of facts and research, but it will mostly be an interactive celebration of play; full of fun, humor, and new idea for sharing play with the kids in your life. You’ll learn a lot, including that time with your vacuum cleaner can be fun, Barbie heads can fly, sand is not so messy if you add maple syrup, water balloons are more fun if you freeze them, small explosions can be big fun, and that more is almost always better.

PS—Wear your play clothes.
 

Here is a link to the main registration page for the Chicago event: http://explorationsearlylearning.com/shop5/let-them-play-chicago.html

Here is a link to a slide show we put together about the book and trainings: http://prezi.com/afjpqsptlbfj/let-them-play-events/

Here is a link to the Facebook page we put together for the book: http://www.facebook.com/LetThemPlayBook?sk=wall

If your clients use the coupon code LTP-4CIN they will get a 25% discount on registration for the trainings.

I also set up two other coupon codes if you want them: 4CIN-10 is good for 10% off any order in my webshop and the code 4CIN-15 is good for 15% off any order over $50. They don’t expire and you can share them with your clients or anyone else that may want them. The shop link is www.explorationsealylearning.com/shop5