Playvolution HQ Podcast

Auteur(s): Jeff Johnson
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  • Résumé

  • The Playvolution HQ Podcast dives deep into play and early learning, from loose parts and power play to school readiness and curriculum. This weekly, short-format show goes beyond the resources available at playvolutionhq.com, delivering original content like DIY ideas, terminology deep-dives, commentary, news, early learning history, and more.
    Explorations Early Learning
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Relations Éducation des enfants
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Épisodes
  • PHQP_0010 The Benefits Of Mixed-Age Groups

    PHQP_0010 The Benefits Of Mixed-Age Groups
    Mar 10 2025
    In PHQP 0010_The Benefits Of Mixed-Age Groups, Jeff champions the developmental perks of diverse age play. In this Playvolution HQ Podcast episode, we discuss classic kid games, explore how mixed-age groups boost learning and calm chaos, touch on Vygotsky’s ZPD and MKO, and dig into jungle gym history. Episode Video Watch Now: PHQP_0010 The Benefits Of Mixed-Age Groups Episode Notes Classic Kid Games Lilian G. Katz | The Benefits of Mixed-Age Grouping The Case for Mixed-Age Grouping in Early Education Babies And Beyond | Managing Mixed-Age Groups Benefits and Challenges Of Mixed-Age Preschool Mixed-Age Groups in Early Childhood Education The Benefits Of Mixed-Age Groups Transcript Welcome to the Playvolution HQ Podcast. I'm Jeff Johnson. Thanks for for pushing play. On with the show. So, first up, the face slap game. I saw this at a bus stop the other day while I was out walking my pup Gigi in the morning. A couple boys, 8, 10, 11, 12 years old, are standing around. There's three of them. They're playing the face slap game, which is, basically, here's how you play. You take turns slapping your buddy in the face. And the slapper is trying to, you know, make it hurt when they slap their buddy in the face. And the slapee, in receiving the slap, is trying to be stoic and suck it up. And the way this game goes is you just take turns slapping each other in the face, and it hurts. And, for some reason, it's fun when you're a boy of that age. I was happy to see this game being played in 2025 because I played it hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of miles away decades earlier in the 70s and 80s. So, this is kind of a pervasive thing. This is something little boys do when they get together. And it's a game. It's play because it's self-chosen. It's self-selected. If it was somebody just walking up and slapping somebody, it would be a violent act. But because these dudes chose to engage in this activity, hey, guys, let's slap each other. There's that consent there, which makes it a playful act. So that, again, there's that playful aggression that we've talked about in past episodes. And speaking of play and children's games, that kind of leads us into topic one for this episode, almost if it was planned that way. Topic one is classic kids' games. So on the Playvolution HQ website, years ago, I started a little corner of the site to collect these kinds of classic kids' games. And I got some of them up there, and then I got distracted by other things with the site. But now I'm getting back to adding these. And probably for that couple of years, I'm going to be adding a couple a week, probably, and then revamping the ones that have been there before. So I've added the face slap game to the list. The other day, I was out, and I saw a couple of kids playing what we used to call bat-back. A kid on each end of a field has got a baseball bat, and they're just taking turns batting the ball back to each other. Not a game that adults would probably organize, but it's something kids do. Also, recently, we saw kids playing a game called, we used to call it freeze. And one kid, usually a younger kid, was in charge. And every time they yelled, freeze, the older kids had to stop whatever they were doing. They had to just freeze there until they were unfrozen. And so there's like this 6-year-old, and she's commanding probably an 11-year-old boy and a 10-year-old girl. And the boy's bouncing his basketball. And as soon as she yells, freeze, he has to freeze in mid-dribble. And then the ball kind of stops and rolls away. And she giggles gloriously. And he's trying to keep from smirking because he made this little kid laugh playing this silly game. So anyway, we're collecting these classic playground games. You know, kickball, dodgeball, all those kind of things. Cat's Cradle, the yardy things. And right now I've got a list of,
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    17 min
  • PHQP_0009 Caregiver Self-Care Is Important

    PHQP_0009 Caregiver Self-Care Is Important
    Mar 3 2025
    In PHQP_0009 Caregiver Self-Care Is Important, Jeff stresses the vital role of recharging for caregivers. On this Playvolution HQ Podcast episode, learn why self-care isn’t selfish but an investment in emotional energy for kids, colleagues, and loved ones. Plus, a DIY explosion activity with film canisters, seven adult responses to child-led play, and innovative loose parts use. Plus, a gravity-defying Dad Joke of the Week! Episode Video Watch Now: PHQP_0009 Caregiver Self-Care Is Important Episode Notes Lots Of Self-Care Related Links 7 Common Adult Responses to Child-Led Play Fun With Explosions The Caregiver Self-Care Is Important Transcript Welcome to the Playvolution HQ podcast. I'm Jeff Johnson. Thanks for pushing play...on with the show. So, I was really looking forward to starting the show off with a little bit of conversation about how I really love watching concrete buckle and decay and crack over time. But that got pushed out of the way because a hunk of concrete I was watching buckle and crack and break down over time made a big change and a couple of hunks of it broke loose. And I was all excited to talk about that. But then I noticed on a recent walk that they were gone. And then I saw them and I was delighted because as we talked about one, play grows from inside the player and two, loose parts are awesome. A couple of neighborhood kids picked them up and they were using these hunks of concrete as bases at the local playground for a kid version of baseball. Now, it wasn't baseball because they didn't have nine people to make, enough people to make out nine people on each team and it was just five or six of them playing. But they were making it work because again, play comes from within child. And they found these, they found the bits and pieces they needed to make a field and play commenced and that's awesome. So play is sparked by the minds of the children playing and loose parts are awesome. Just a little bit of follow up on those two things here. We'll talk about my joy of observing concrete fall apart later. Topic one, core values. Part nine, like I mentioned last time, we're talking about caregiver self-care and its importance. Because the work of a caregiver is to be emotionally available, to be present in the moment with the children. That means being right here, right now. And that's really difficult. We talked about that in one of the earlier episodes about being right here, right now as being the core. But what that does is it takes a lot of emotional labor. There's plenty of physical labor in early learning but a big part of it is that emotional labor because we're giving our emotional resources away all the time and it's a limited resource. And so we're doling it out little bit by little bit by little bit all day long to the kids in our care, to our coworkers, to the parents we work with in our program, maybe to the administrators we work with. We're trying to bring some home to our sweetie pie and maybe our children and dog, your house plant. You wanna be present for them too. And it's really easy to get drained. And it turns out that professional caregivers are often very, very good at the doing of the emotional labor but they fall short when it comes to the flip side of that, the taking care of themselves side. And that can really be a problem because if you don't fill your cup up again, you run out of resources to give. And one reason I hear for caregivers not taking care of themselves, I've written two books of this topic and I've been talking about it for over 20 years in trainings is sometimes people feel selfish but self-care isn't selfish. Self-care is an investment in yourself and in the investment in the quality of work that you do with other people and the quality of the relationships you have with the people important to you. So we need to really make time for that self-care. You can't pour from an empty cup.
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    18 min
  • PHQP_0008 Play Is Sparked By The Child Not The Toy

    PHQP_0008 Play Is Sparked By The Child Not The Toy
    Feb 24 2025
    In PHQP 0008, Play Is Sparked By The Child Not The Toy, Jeff explains that children's minds, not toys, ignite play; experiences and knowledge drive creativity and self-directed learning. Jeff also unpacks actor-observer bias in the classroom, outlines five key developmental domains, and delivers a classic Dad Joke of the Week. Bonus: bagpipe tunes and STEM-friendly spring scales get a shoutout! Episode Video Watch Now: PHQP_0008 Play Is Sparked By The Child Not The Toy Episode Notes Play Is In The Child Not The Toy 3 Reasons ‘Educational’ Toys Are an Epic Fail in Playful Environments The nursery that took all the children’s toys away Too many toys are bad for children, study suggests Actor-Observer Bias 5 Key Developmental Domains Developmental Domains Goddesses Of Bagpipes, Don't Stop Believing Bagpipes The Play Is Sparked By The Child Not The Toy Transcript Welcome to the Playvolution HQ podcast. I'm Jeff Johnson. Thanks for pushing play on with the show. So, I'm going to start with a little bit of a bagpipe update. I mentioned in an earlier episode that I was going through a bagpipe music spree, rabbit hole, and somebody reached out to find out if one that was true. Yes, yes it was. I'm past that now. I've moved on to other things. And what my favorite bagpipe music was. And I think if you go to Spotify, I mean, or where else on the web, you can go to find the goddesses of bagpipes. It's these three young ladies that play bagpipe. And I think if you're looking for a song, try Don't Stop Believing. The bagpipe version of Don't Stop Believing is pretty darn enjoyable. So, check that out. Also, if you've got a favorite bagpipe tune, let me know about it. Let's get into this topic one, part eight of our core value series. We're going to be getting out of this. I think there's 10 or 12 total that I've got put together. Part eight, we're going to be talking about the idea that play is sparked by the child, not the toy. Just because you've got a piece of plastic broccoli does not mean you're going to be interested in playing with plastic broccoli. The interest in what we want to play, what kids want to engage in their play, begins in their minds. It's based on what they've experienced, what they've seen, what they've thought about, what they've imagined, what they enjoy, what they're scared of. But all play begins up here between our ears. And this is why the first condition of play is that play is selected by the players. Because if you are forced into an activity that isn't on your mind, that you're not interested in, that doesn't have value to you, that doesn't start here, you're not going to be really engaged fully in it. And therefore, it's not going to meet the full definition of play. So play starts in our minds. Toys are tools for advancing that play. So back to play begins in the mind. If you have a child who is interested in, oh, say, superheroes, because they watch a lot of superhero movies and they play superhero video games and they have superhero books and superheroes are always on their mind, they're going to show up at your program and want to be superheroes. If you have a child that is really into puppies, puppies are probably going to show up in their play. And we need to figure out a way to support that as adults, as caregivers and parents. Toys are the tools for telling those stories. We've talked earlier in an earlier episode, we got into the definition of loose parts. This is why loose parts are so valuable because they are flexible and can take on lots of different roles based on what the kids are interested in. This is why, I mean, the empty cardboard box is an ideal toy that should be available in multiple sizes and shapes in early learning programs because they offer so much. One day that cardboard box might be a time machine, the next day it might be an x-ray machine, the next day it might be a cave where a bear lives...
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    20 min

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