My first LIVE online gig for nearly two years. Grab it, quick!
670 words on the history of one particular form of skipping game, a radio show, and the contibution of a littleold lady.
"Interview done, I sat back sipping my cup of BBC coffee and listened to the calls coming in. One of them took me and the programme staff aback a little."
A 1,000 words on why we might not see 'collectables' based play like marbles and jacks being played as often as in the past. "When I was at school I distinctly remember playing seasonal games with ‘collectables’. Mainly this involved games of marbles, played strictly during ‘marble season’ only you understand, although at home we played jacks often as my mother was an absolute expert at the game."
A biographical short on one of my most prized possessions and why I've hold of it for so long.
"The vast majority of our most precious childhood items tend not to survive into adulthood, though, because the most important things to us at the time tended to be rather simple and ephemeral."
1,000 words about where loose parts should best be left to get the most from them. It's largely about the word serendipity and a dead German biologist. The second of a two-part blog.
a \‘shȯrt-rēd’\ piece
"Whether we acknowledge it or not, when we adults gather specific materials together and place them in a context that we have pre-decided, like the tabletop, then we have both reduced the variety and the possible combinations available."
900 words about the confusion some find over using loose parts and how that relates to 'open-endedness'. The first of a two-part blog.
"By definition an object, whether a loose part or not, cannot be ‘open-ended’."
850 words about a memorable, exciting moment in a darkend room with a loose parts element.
"This may sound silly, but my hands were shaking a little as I opened the envelope and a waft of a familiar smell leapt out ..."
900 words about Simon Nicholson's 'Theory of Loose Parts' that asks if we are missing something in our interpretation of his ideas.
"Pretty collections of beads and shells, plastic shapes and buttons, stored neatly in nice wicker baskets or storage tubs, etc. do indeed constitute loose parts, there is a slight problem here. Becoming fixated with seeing ‘loose parts’ as just these small aesthetically pleasing things at the expense of others that might be less attractive to the adult eye really misses the major idea behind Nicholson’s original theory."
"Anyone who works with children, particularly younger children, knows that some of the objects that find there way into pockets no matter how small or seemingly incidental are clearly more than meaningless."
This piece links one particular element of children's play with mysticism and the importance of objects in children's lives. A psychologist gets a mention ... but not in a good way.
QUESTION - What things have you been brought by children? What objects have you seen them collect and keep? How have they used these things?
