Tales of Creativity and Play: A Ted Talk for All of Us

Tales of Creativity and Play

Raise your hand if you believe playfulness helps drive you towards more creative solutions and ultimately more happiness in your everyday life? Our hands are raised high! We love play, and it has a place in as much of our lives as we allow for it. Here are three takeaways that excited us from this Ted Talk:

1.  Having a sense of trust and friendship is what allows us to feel secure in taking creative risks - something we should all be doing and what we strive for at Camp. 
2. Learning is a by-product of play (learning by doing), you don't need a formal workshop to be creative - use what you have around you to think with your hands!
3. Act out flaws in whatever you may be working on. Role-playing can be a great tool for understanding rules of social interaction. Think about "playing house" or "playing store." You are trying out this identity and living through experience to learn what works and what doesn't when it happens in life.

Playful exploration, playful building and role-play are great ways to learn and gain new insight!

In the Ted Talk below, Tim Brown discusses and expounds on creativity and play in schools, in the workplace, at home, etc. Prepare to be inspired to become more playful!  

Ted Talk: Tim Brown Tales of Creativity and Play

In The Woods...

“In the woods, a man casts off his years, as a snake its skin, and is always a child. In the woods is perpetual youth. In the woods we return to reason and faith. There I feel like nothing can befall me in life, no disgrace, no calamity (leaving me my eyes) which nature cannot repair. I am part or particle of God. In the wilderness I find something more dear than in streets or villages.” -Henry David Thoreau

Spring has showed her face at Foley this week and if you are like me, that means digging out some boxes with lighter clothes in it, finding your rain jacket, and casting away your snow boots until next winter. After a few days of warm weather, it is easy to forget that it is only March, but the sun keeps coming and the temps keep rising. Obviously everyone here at Foley has started to shift their work from a desk to some days spent getting activity areas prepped and windows clean.

Geocaching during Spring 2010.

Since I am a new Assistant Director, I have a lot of learning to do, and one of my tasks was to head up to Upper Mosquito and locate all the Geocaches (there are 26) and walk all the routes and trails that are tucked away back up there in the hills behind Foley (approximately 8 miles worth). If ya’ll don’t know what Geocaching is, think of it as a real-life treasure hunt! You use a GPS device to locate different items, called caches, in the outdoors. You never know where the cache might be or what it might look like, but the GPS gives you the area to search in!. So, if you can imagine that, you can see that this day of learning for me would require a lot of hiking, a lot of leg muscle and plenty of tick checks!

One of many Foley Geocaching trails.

As I got started on my trail hiking and started up the steep hill towards upper mosquito the sweat beads broke out on my forehead. My mind was filling with thoughts of how my body had gotten out of shape this winter, that my feet were already hurting and that I wasn’t a spring chicken anymore....I am turning 29 next month (eek)! But as I relaxed a little bit and let the bird noises and the sound of the wind suck me in, I felt an overwhelming sense of satisfaction and contentment. I was able to work on my Geocaching with energy and optimism (some are very hard to find) and had some undisturbed “me time” to be alone with my thoughts and process everything that had been rolling around in my head the last few months. And that’s when I realized, I have the woods to thank for this. There is no other place on Earth- no coffee shop, no cubicle, no library, that I can feel this clear-minded and youthful and just learn and grow more naturally.

So, my advice to you is, next time you’re feeling not quite like yourself, and your thoughts are running a bit on the self-loathing side, just get outside! Take that walk, sit in the sun for 10 minutes or pack up your tent for the weekend and get out there. Your mind and body will thank you, as mine did.

If you are looking to have some fun with Geocaching then why not join over 5 million active geocachers worldwide! www.geocaching.com offers the choice of over 1.6 million geocaching locations, including all the coordinates you need to find their treasure. This website allows you to connect with other geocachers and share stories. Who knows... you may even make new friends along the way. Give it a shot!

- Carrie Stageman, Assistant Director.

A Serious Need For Free Play

“When I was a kid, we played outside with no adult supervision, we didn’t need electronic gadgets to amuse us or coaches to tell us how to have fun”.
I personally remember on many occasions my own mother making statements like this when I was a child. I grew up in the 90’s, and as much as it embarrasses me to admit this now, I was more interested in my Sega Genesis than I ever was in going outdoors and playing with other children. I can now see why my mom would try so hard to convince me that there is a bigger world out there than the world of Sonic the Hedgehog.

Sadly, I think it’s getting worse in today's youth. With so many new technologies and social media websites, many children no longer see a need for interaction and play with others. A recent article printed in The Boston Globe by Carlo Rotella brought light to a serious need for free play. It made me realize two things – firstly, that I wasted a lot of my childhood, and more sadly, secondly, that many other children are doing the same today.

Rotella points out that over the past half century there’s been a steep decline in free play in children due to the increasing dominance of the car, TV and computers, and a retreat from public space and public life. Free play isn’t an "extra" to be squeezed in between lessons, practices, and screen time. Free play - meaning an activity chosen and directed by the participants and undertaken for its own sake (and not, say because an adult will give them some kind of credential for doing it), is what kids are designed to do.

Camp Foley can be a great help to combat this rising issue. It’s just like the ‘block’ that most parents will remember from their childhood – the more kids out there on the block, available to play, the more appealing it becomes to go out and play. There is plenty of time for unstructured interaction and play for your child at Foley, too. Morning Fun and Free Time being two great examples of this – the campers are supervised, but they are not actively engaged in a structured activity at these points. Campers are free to roam around camp and engage in any activity they choose, with whoever they choose, playing whatever games they decide to. This is where a child really learns lessons that no text book or TV program can teach them – it teaches children how to make decisions, solve problems, exercise self control, follow rules, regulate their emotions, get along with others, make friends and develop interests.

- Ricky Searson, Assistant Director

The importance of playing with your children

I am totally happy as a parent when I am outside “playing” with my children. A highlight over Christmas vacation was the adventures on frozen Whitefish Lake! We walked, we skated, and we played with the dogs. We laughed and visited with family and friends as we marveled at the beauty of nature. It is in those silly moments that the bonds of family are strengthened.




Kylie sprawled out on the ice with
Nike as if above the water.

The ice was so clear that you could see the Crayfish

moving on the lake bottom.

Skating all over
Whitefish Lake!

The same is true for our campers as they become part of their “camp family” – it is in those moments of gazing at the stars, watching the sunset, or dangling their feet in the water, that they come to value their deep friendships with each other and the beauty of nature! Let’s partner together and “play” with our children!

- Marie Schmid, Executive Director, Camp Foley