Kim Adams (@playbarronpark)

When young children struggle to meet classroom expectations, we often look at their behavior. When teachers struggle, we look at their classroom management or instructional strategies. But how often do we question the expectations themselves? I’ve been hearing from educators who genuinely want to…

What if the answer to children’s restlessness isn’t more structure, more control, or more demands? Gordon Neufeld’s work on attachment and psychological rest has me reflecting on the pace of early childhood classrooms and the importance of relationships where children don’t have to earn…

How do we protect children’s right to play within school systems increasingly focused on curriculum, assessment, and academic outcomes? At the IPA World Conference in Christchurch, New Zealand, Dr. Sarah Aiono challenged us to consider whether we’re truly making room for child-led play within…

What do play advocates wish more adults understood about play? While attending the IPA World Conference in Christchurch, New Zealand, I had the opportunity to connect with passionate play advocates from around the world and ask them this one question. Their perspectives offer important reminders…

Day 3 at the IPA World Conference in Christchurch brought together some powerful ideas about play across the lifespan, children’s transitions to school, and the importance of protecting play for its own sake. We know play supports development. But must everything children do be justified by what…

A morning of meaningful learning at the IPA World Conference in Christchurch, New Zealand! Exploring the science of infant brain development, the importance of responsive relationships, and the growing concerns around screen use and digital distractions. One powerful reminder: Play and human…

Day one of the IPA World conference was amazing! So so good to see old friends and make some new. The opening keynote and welcome was amazing! Sessions and hospitality hit all the marks. So glad to be here. #96hourchallenge #ipaworld #ipausa

After devastating earthquakes, Christchurch, New Zealand, made children’s play part of rebuilding its city. And one of my favorite details? Children contributed ideas to the design of this incredible playground! What a beautiful reminder that children’s voices, ideas, and contributions matter…

Replying to a comment, but really speaking to a much bigger conversation. Yes, preschoolers can learn letters, names, songs, and academic skills. That is not the issue. The issue is what gets prioritized, and what gets pushed aside, when we organize early childhood around adult-directed academics…

From California to Christchurch, New Zealand! I’m here for the International Play Association’s World Conference, connecting with play advocates from around the world. I’ll be sharing some of what I learn, what makes me curious, and what we might bring back to our own early learning communities…

#onthisday still true… all 5! #playbarronpark #PlayForward #earlychildhoodeducation #preschoolteacher

Connection is more than attention. Contribution is more than classroom jobs. At our Playschool, we’re intentional about creating a community where every child feels known, valued, capable, and able to make a difference. What might change if we prioritized these experiences as much as we prioritize…

Connection before correction doesn’t mean rewarding challenging behavior or avoiding boundaries. It means understanding that children are better able to learn when they feel safe, connected, and supported. And perhaps most importantly, it means creating opportunities for belonging, connection, and…

What if we spent less time asking how to stop challenging behavior and more time understanding what’s driving it? At our Playschool, we look beyond the behavior to consider regulation, unmet needs, belonging, and developing skills. Understanding behavior doesn’t mean excusing it. It helps us…

No sticker charts. No behavior rewards. No punishments. But plenty of boundaries, guidance, accountability, connection, and skill-building. At our Playschool, we believe understanding the need beneath a behavior and helping children develop the skills they need is more meaningful than simply…

Our intentions may be good, but when adults do too much of the planning, directing, and problem-solving, what opportunities are children losing? Supporting children doesn’t always mean doing more. Sometimes it means making room for them to do more for themselves. What’s one thing you’ve learned to…

A packed schedule doesn’t necessarily mean a day filled with meaningful learning. Sometimes, in our effort to provide rich experiences, we crowd out the time children need to create their own. Being busy isn’t the same as being deeply engaged. What could you take OUT of your schedule to make more…

Are we so focused on what children need to accomplish that we're overlooking what they need to experience? Joy, curiosity, wonder, connection, and self-directed play aren't extras in early childhood. They're central to a healthy, meaningful childhood. Teachers, what is one thing you've done to…

Play is about so much more than preparing children for academic success. It's about joy, connection, autonomy, emotional well-being, and the experience of being a child. At a time when we're deeply concerned about young people's mental health, protecting children's opportunities for real…

Sometimes the first step toward solving a problem is changing the question. Here's a simple creative problem-solving strategy you can use in your classroom, your workplace, or your everyday life. What challenge could you reframe into a "How might we..." question? Share yours in the comments…

What's getting in the way of protecting more self-directed play in preschool, TK, and kindergarten? I want to try something together: identify the challenges, reframe them as possibilities, and use playful, creative problem-solving to explore what we can change. Teachers, add one barrier to play…

If kindergarten expectations aren't developmentally appropriate, pushing them down into preschool doesn't make them appropriate. We don't prepare children for a lack of play, movement, choice, and joy by taking those things away earlier. We don't starve people to prepare them for a famine. We…

If you work in early childhood education, you're going to clean up messes. Lots of them. But those messes often come from children exploring, experimenting, creating, and making sense of their world. A little more mess for us can mean a whole lot more possibility for children. #playbarronpark…

Policies made far from the classroom shape what childhood actually looks like inside it. Development doesn't follow a legislative timeline. Earlier isn't automatically better. And every additional requirement comes with an opportunity cost, often at the expense of children's play. We need policies…

Kindergarten teachers, we see you. We know many of you are navigating standards, assessments, schedules, and expectations that leave far less room for play than you would like. We also want you to know that children arrive with incredible capacities developed through play, and those capacities…

Parents, play-forward early learning can look very different from the school many of us remember. A day full of play, movement, relationships, mess, conversation, problem solving, and joy is not a day with less learning. It is a day where development is happening in ways that are often harder to…

Play-centered classrooms may not always look like traditional teaching. That does not mean the teacher is doing less. It often means the work is happening in a different place: observation, environment, relationships, timing, regulation, and protecting children’s deep engagement. Administrators…

Professional sports may be one of our most socially acceptable forms of adult play. We suspend reality, join a group, embrace ridiculous rituals, experience belonging and significance, and sometimes get swept up in collective effervescence, that shared emotional energy that comes from being part…

In early childhood, “rigor” should not mean more pressure, more worksheets, or making preschool look more like elementary school. Young children experience real cognitive challenge when they build, negotiate, experiment, revise, persist, and solve problems in meaningful play. Harder is not…

Children’s hands develop by using them. Higher screen use may be part of the fine-motor concern, but the bigger issue may be displacement: what are children doing less of when more of their time is spent swiping and watching? Play naturally gives children hundreds of meaningful reasons to squeeze…