I ran across this article and found it of interest, especially with our focus on connecting and playing as part of daily life. One thing that stood out to me was the importance of developing life skills as a child including language, communication, and problem-solving. Play fits in perfectly with these. Another standout was how to develop a plan to gently decrease screen time. I’ve included a link to the article but we have an expert on that, right here in the community with @Max Orlewicz I’m interested in your perspective, was the article on target, too hyped, or something else? https://www.ctvnews.ca/health/article/some-of-what-happens-during-youth-cant-be-reversed-its-another-reason-to-rethink-kids-screen-time/

There’s a moment you probably know well. Your kid walks into the room and says, “I’m boooored.” And almost instantly, you feel pressure to solve it. This week’s Playful Shift will be all about boredom, the science, some strategies, and more. Check the calendar for details. When I was growing up, I quickly learned saying, “I’m bored” usually meant “here come some chores!” So, growing up in an era where self-entertainment was key, I discovered how to keep boredom at bay. Today, the pendulum has shifted, maybe those of us who lived through the “bored = chores era” thought we were being helpful. Can you relate? We answer the cry by suggesting activities, or we offer screens. Maybe we throw out craft ideas. We mentally scroll through every possible option trying to “fix” the boredom before it turns into whining, fighting, or chaos. Raise your hand if you can relate. 🙋🏻‍♀️ But here’s the thing I’ve been re-learning. Boredom is often the space right before creativity wakes up. Researchers studying the brain’s “default mode network” have found that when the brain is not locked onto a task or flooded with stimulation, it starts connecting ideas, replaying experiences, imagining possibilities, and building internal narratives. In simpler terms, the brain starts wandering on purpose. That wandering matters. Let me say that again, the wandering matters! It’s where pretend games are born. It’s where inventions begin. It’s where kids suddenly decide to build a fort, write a comic, make up a dance, or turn a cardboard box into a dragon cave. The hard part is that boredom usually does not look magical at first. It looks uncomfortable. A lot of modern parenting culture has quietly convinced us that we should constantly enrich, entertain, optimize, and supervise childhood. But childhood was never designed to run on nonstop stimulation. Kids need some empty space. Not endless empty space. Not neglect. Not “figure it out completely alone while I disappear for six hours.” But enough room for their own ideas to start bubbling up instead of always receiving ideas from us.

As I spend more time with a toddler, I’ve been thinking a lot about how to interpret his cues. What I’m noticing is a lot of what looks like “bad behavior” is actually a movement need. The next time you’re near a toddler, just watch them, they are constant motion machines. As kids grow, go to school, have more structured lives, I think we forget that they are not designed to sit still for long stretches of time while their brains quietly absorb information all day. Their nervous systems are built for motion, sensory input, exploration, risk-testing, and physical interaction with the world around them and sometimes when kids seem loud, wiggly, emotional, distracted, or completely unable to focus, what they actually need is movement. Not punishment. Not another lecture. Not another educational activity. Movement. Research in child development and occupational therapy consistently shows connections between movement, attention, emotional regulation, and learning. Physical play activates systems in the brain connected to focus, memory, coordination, and self-regulation. Stuart Brown’s work on play even points to movement play as one of the foundations for social and emotional development. And honestly, most of us have felt this ourselves too. You know that feeling after sitting too long at a desk when your brain turns to soup? Kids hit that wall much faster than adults do. The tricky part is that movement needs often show up right before adults are least able to handle them. - Right before dinner. - During bad weather. - When you are tired. - When the house already feels chaotic. That’s usually the moment a child starts jumping off furniture, spinning in circles, wrestling the dog, or turning the hallway into a racetrack. Instead of seeing that moment as “everything is falling apart,” I encourage you to start asking: “What is the body asking for right now?” Sometimes five or ten minutes of purposeful movement changes the entire emotional temperature of the house. Not because kids suddenly become perfectly calm little robots.But because their nervous systems finally got what they were asking for.

Picture this, you have a new project, could be redecorating, could be a creative idea, it might be as simple as Friday night dinner. Your options are unlimited. You’re not constrained by time or budget. So what happens? If you’re anything like me you either resort back to something tried and true- can you say Friday night pizza? Or you freeze. Why? Too many choices. Now, let’s look at this through the eyes of the kids in our lives. If you really want to freeze a creative brain, give it "infinite possibilities." When we tell a kid they can make anything, they often end up making nothing. This is called "The Paradox of Choice." True creativity doesn't happen in a void; it happens inside a Box. Constraints, the "walls" of the box, actually fuel the brain. When you have fewer resources (choices), you are forced to use them in more clever ways. This is why some of the greatest inventions were born in tiny garages or during times of scarcity. I challenge you to work together as a team, and see what happens when you learn to love the "walls." Instead of asking for more tools, we are going to see how much we can do with almost nothing. We’re shifting from "I don't have enough" to "What else can this do?"

I’ve been remiss in officially welcoming our newest community members. Please help me say hello to @Jay Dee Archer @Ekue Kpodar @Amanda Heiser and @Jessie Maxwell To help them feel at home, can you share a tip from the community? Enjoy your time here and let us know what interests you most.