soft skulls, edutainment, slow play, and critical design

Children are born with soft skulls--literally and figuratively.  Politically incorrect, huh.  But face it, children are designed, biologically, to come into the world prepared to absorb all sorts of stimuli and begin to make sense of it as information.  They're not doing this through language.. it's much more like osmosis.  In the early stages, they

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precious imperfections

There are a lot of things I love about wood.  I read a great essay on wood some years ago by Buckminster Fuller.  The gist of it was something about how wood, biomass, is a translation of sunlight, pounding at the earth, year after year.  Instead of just bouncing off or getting absorbed and becoming heat, a portion of that light gets

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pulling back the curtains of the hidden curriculum

  

Students' schooling experiences are some of the strongest forces in their development.  These experiences result not only in the learning of explicit subject matter associated with formal curricula, but also in a great deal of informal or tacit learning (Goodlad, 2004; Snyder, 1970).  This tacit learning is more a function of cultivation or

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montessori and the genesis of environmental design

Montessori, Environmental Education, and the Educative Context

 

Maria Montessori should be considered among the first "environmental educators", but not in the conventional sense.  Her concern related far more to the development of children's individual autonomy than the natural

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aroundsquare's bogo shop

aroundsquare's online shop is now live.  ao2 prefers neighbourhood toy stores, and we encourage you to get our blocks through one of our retail friends.. and if your local shop doesn't have our toys, put them in touch with us, huh.  but we recognize that for some people, the easiest way to get our blocks might be online.. so, welcome. 

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gallery of craftworks

aroundsquare has been painting lately.  some photos are available in the new gallery of craftworks..

gallery of playthings

The gallery of playthings has photos of all seven designs in the goodwood deconstruction blocks range.  

Goodwood deconstruction blocks are a system of innovative wooden blocks, designed to invite real creative play. The beautiful, precisely crafted blocks are intentionally packaged without instructions or other prescriptive

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benefitting the beneficial

aroundsquare is committed to conducting business in a way which delivers benefits at each step.  to that end, we're constantly reflecting on questions like who we should be doing business with, from manufacturing partners all the way through to our retail partners.  the store that you might see our products in.. those are no accident.

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head, heart, and hands

the best creative play engages the child comprehensively.  i've been reading recently about waldorf education, and rudolf steiner's work more generally.  one of the themes which comes up regularly with waldorf is the development of the child through head, heart, and hands.. cognitive, emotional, physical.. or some variation on

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why goodwood?

why does it matter what we let our kids play with? at one level, the answer is obvious... isn't there a big difference between army guys and huggy dolls?  but there is more to it than that... at another level entirely, army guys and huggy dolls are basically just two versions of the same thing.  they both prescribe a certain kind of

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