History of Children’s Play and Play Environments – Toward a Contemporary Child-Saving Movement

Forward by Stuart Brown MD. Children’s play throughout history has been free, spontaneous, and intertwined with work, set in the playgrounds of the fields, streams, and barnyards. Children in cities enjoyed similar forms of play but their playgrounds were the vacant lands and parks. Today, children have become increasingly inactive,...

Free to Learn: Why Unleashing the Instinct to Play Will Make Our Children Happier, More Self-Reliant, and Better Students for Life

A leading expert in childhood development makes the case for why self-directed learning -- "unschooling" -- is the best way to get kids to learn. In Free to Learn, developmental psychologist Peter Gray argues that in order to foster children who will thrive in today's constantly changing world, we must...

Play = Learning: How Play Motivates and Enhances Children’s Cognitive and Social-Emotional Growth

Why is it that the best and brightest of our children are arriving at college too burned out to profit from the smorgasbord of intellectual delights that they are offered? Why is it that some preschools and kindergartens have a majority of children struggling to master cognitive tasks that are...

Einstein Never Used Flash Cards: How Our Children Really Learn–and Why They Need to Play More and Memorize Less

In Einstein Never Used Flashcards highly credentialed child psychologists, Kathy Hirsh-Pasek, Ph.D., and Roberta Michnick Golinkoff, Ph.D., with Diane Eyer, Ph.D., offer a compelling indictment of the growing trend toward accelerated learning. It’s a message that stressed-out parents are craving to hear: Letting tots learn through play is not only...

The Wisdom of Play – How Children Learn to Make Sense of the World

A very short, free booklet that concisely covers the importance of play in childhood. Contains sections by leading experts on play and child development. Click the publisher link to download a PDF of the booklet.

The Recess Project Changemaker’s Guide – Blueprints for a new way to do recess

The Resources Project works with schools to support meaningful, inclusive opportunities for social connection, mindfulness, creativity, and all kinds of play. Their award-winning, evidence-based Recess Project Changemaker's Guide was designed to disrupt the outdated routines and replace them with healthy, inclusive and compassionate interactions. It is the product of a...

Children at Play: An American History

A chronological history of children's playtime over the last 200 years If you believe the experts, “child’s play”; is serious business. From sociologists to psychologists and from anthropologists to social critics, writers have produced mountains of books about the meaning and importance of play. But what do we know about...

Play and Creativity in Psychotherapy

Includes Chapter 2 - A Closer Look at Play - by Dr. Stuart Brown and Madelyn Eberle Distinguished clinicians demonstrate how play and creativity have everything to do with the deepest healing, growth, and personal transformation. Through play, as children, we learn the rules and relationships of culture and expand...

Purposeful Play – A Teacher’s Guide to Igniting Deep and Joyful Learning Across the Day

Play is serious business. Whether it’s reenacting a favorite book (comprehension and close reading), negotiating the rules for a game (speaking and listening), or collaborating over building blocks (college and career readiness and STEM), Kristi Mraz, Alison Porcelli, and Cheryl Tyler see every day how play helps students reach standards...

The Self Respecting Child – Development Through Spontaneous Play

This classic study of the spontaneous play of young children combines vivid and delightful observations with profoundly important insights. Alison Stallibrass, an expert on children's play and the mother of five children, makes clear the importance of uninhibited games and activities, without adult interference, in building a child's skill, judgment,...

Your Self-Confident Baby How to Encourage Your Child’s Natural Abilities — From the Very Start

Respect. Honor. Esteem. These words aren’t usually associated with young babies. Yet it is widely agreed that these concepts are vital later in life. A child’s personality is largely formed in the first three years. Her outlook on the world is being shaped. Why not engage in a respectful relationship...