Welcome to the Play Based Learning Podcast. I'm your host, Kristen Arby Peterson, and maybe your new teacher, Bestie, that is here to hype you up, maybe give you a motivating kick in the pants, and teach you all I know about play and childhood. I am here to help you challenge old and outdated practices and inspire you to create a truly developmentally appropriate early childhood environment that fosters creativity, passion, Curiosity and joy in the children that you care for.
Let's set the stage for a lifelong love of learning. Let's get going. My friend Mariana Corraso is joining me today. Her, she's got a garage full of kids. That did not sound good. They're, they're not held there against their will. I just like pictured that like a girl, like they're all shoved in your garage and like you are hiding them in there. That is not what you do. I'm going to let you explain what you do and what brings you here. And then we'll kind of just roll from there.
That's so funny. Thank you, Kristen. Thank you for having me, and well, what Kristen said is completely true. I run the Learning Garage, but that's not all I do. My name is Mariana Carrazo. I am Costa Rican and American. And so, hence my accent here, um, I'm an educator, and I have more than 20 years of experience, um, in the educational field.
First in early childhood, then I moved into gifted and talented, then I became a mom, and things changed because I could not picture my daughter In the system and not only in the system, but I couldn't picture my daughter as one of my students. I've always been very, um, um, how can we say very different because I've taught in a very different way. I took my master's degree.
at Columbia University. And when I graduated, I went back to Costa Rica and I opened an afternoon center for gifted students as an afternoon enrichment program. And it grew up into a therapy business. So we had remediation and therapies and, um, I loved it. I didn't want to teach in the classroom because I was like, I never liked it. Yeah. And I was not happy whatsoever in the classroom.
So I got married and then life brought me to the States and I became a mom and I just couldn't send my daughter to school. So I started thinking about what to do with her and what I really wanted. I started rethinking my. My way of teaching and what I really wanted for her, because it's not the same to teach than to think about teaching your own children. So that made me rethink all, all of my ideas. And I, I sent her to a very small school here in Orlando. I live in Orlando, Florida.
Which I loved. It was a perfect school for playing and for the social aspect. It was not very strong in any of the academics, but I see academics very differently. Because I want those academics to happen through play. Uh huh. And, um, so I started teaching her once a week in my house. And then, uh, A couple of our friends started joining us and then all my friends started peer pressuring me to started, um, to start homeschooling me. And I'm like, absolutely not. I hate the classroom.
You don't understand. I have not been in the classroom for 14 years. I was like in my comfort zone doing curriculum, writing curriculum for schools, for companies. Like, no, I need to send my daughter somewhere to school. Yeah. I am not going back to the classroom. So I started touring some of the schools and I kind of started having anxiety attacks because I could not see my almost five year old going into school for such a long day and I just wanted to to rescue her childhood.
I wanted her to play, to get dirty, to To build, to paint, to be a child. So, um, after a couple of months of touring schools, I decided that that was the way to go, that I needed to homeschool and I could not believe my words. I'm like, okay, so let's start homeschooling. I'm going to just have six kids in my playroom because I love homeschool. Don't get me wrong, but I also believe that the social, um, emotional. Party's crucial.
Absolutely. So I was only willing to homeschool if I had more kids with her. So I, I, we started doing everything and getting ready and then COVID hit. Oh. And, um, Elena was sent home from her preschool. That was March. I was eight months pregnant. Oh my gosh.
And, um, I went from being the crazy mom that had to lie to her friends because like I was being the only one homeschooling and like hippie happy mom, what are you thinking, to being the most popular person in the area because I was going to open the only in person program while in COVID. Yeah. So I had this guy come and because I started like having anxiety also about COVID and yeah, my baby getting sick and all of this. So I had a guy come and visit them, my play space.
And I wanted some pavers for out for outside so that I could extend my stay. my teaching area and he's like you have a great garage and i'm like that's real i've never thought about that before so i told my husband i am renovating the garage and i installed like lighting and a really cool flooring yeah insulated in it and it was like Picture perfect. And I opened the learning garage for eight children and they were kindergartners and first graders at the time.
The first year I only took eight because I was super nervous about the COVID logistics, how it was going to work. And we had the masks and the shield and all of that. And little by little, it started evolving and year number two, I had. I believe 12th. Okay. And after that I opened it up to 15 children. Those children have grown and I continue to teach them. They are, it's a multi age group.
So I teach children ages, right now they're ages 6 through 10, but we started being like 4, 3 or 4 through 6. Yeah. Um, and they grow. As a group, it's, it's been a great experience to open that garage. I had to really like. The garage is white, everything around it is white because I wanted the toys to be, the toys and the children to be the main element in the space.
So when I started designing the program, as I mentioned, I had been into curriculum writing, so I had all the academics, all the standards, everything figured out because I love that and I love writing that. And I saw it as an opportunity. To start something as a white canvas. What do I really want? What do I really believe should be taught? And I started choosing what felt right. And I started getting rid of things that I did not agree with.
To my surprise, Kristen, after a year of, um, teaching, I, My life changed because I absolutely loved it. I, I have, I think that at this precise moment of my life, I have never felt happier. I am fulfilled. I am doing what I love. And what I discovered was that I, it was not that I didn't like teaching in the classroom. It's that I did not enjoy. Teaching in the system. Absolutely. Yes. And so it has been a very cool ride. Um, lots of learning for me and for the children.
So we learned through play even in elementary school. Oh my goodness. Okay. So, um, I'm going to ask our children, do they have to like register as homeschool students? Yes. Okay. So they're all like registered as homeschool students, but then the teacher, the parents kind of like hire you to teach their children. Correct. Cause I mean, if you ask us and the parents, are you homeschooling? It's technically not homeschooling because it's like a tiny school. It's a micro school.
Um, that's happening and we have a curriculum and I, I've created the, like I put together the standards and I know where we're headed and I choose and pick and I create the learning environment. So yes, that's how it rolls. Oh my gosh, that's amazing. And there's something so magical about mixed age groups as well, because the children learn so much from one another. I just adore mixed age groups. Yeah, that was one of the things that I really, really wanted.
That was one of the things that, when I was designing my, my program, that I really wanted. I wanted mixed age group because to witness these children Empowering each other to feel as a family, as a community, to, to witness them respecting the areas of difficulty and talents. It is absolutely magical to watch. Oh my gosh, yes. And I want to circle back to how you were saying that you've never been happier. I feel like that is.
It's kind of the trajectory that many people who find play go on because they are in this system of like very top down controlling. It's a very controlling environment and that is exhausting and it's stressful for the adults in the room and it's stressful for the kids. But when you can allow children to play because that is what's developmentally appropriate and that is how children learn best, that is how anybody learns best. There's like. It's so much less stressful, right?
And it's so much less stressful for you as the educator, because children are happy, like when children are able to make their own choices about how they spend their time and what they're choosing to learn and what they're choosing to engage with and who they're engaging with. They're just generally like the wellbeing in the classroom is so. So much greater than that top down controlling atmosphere that we find in many traditional spaces.
So, yeah, if you want to be happy, you got to let children play. And I have to be honest with you, it's, it is a process, especially because when, when I started in the kindergarten year, like that's, that's more aligned towards. play, right? Yeah, absolutely. Children at that age are okay to play.
Absolutely. So my challenge I knew was going to be starting first grade and up because I had to create Everything because I have not heard about anyone doing what I'm doing and I had to really know the curriculum, know what I wanted to teach and how I wanted to teach it. So I've had to come across choosing. Why do I teach what I teach and how do I teach it? And I've come to one of the best conclusions that has helped me the most is I want to teach everything with a purpose.
So if we, if I want to teach something in, let's, and this, It started happening in second grade with the second grade content because my children are not taught per school grade. They're taught by ability. So I group them per ability and I fluctuate within the curriculum.
And so my main purpose is If I teach them money, I want to teach them money applied to the real world because I want them to be able to understand what it is for and to use it because if you cannot make those natural connections of this is what we teach and how we really put it into practice in real life, why are you teaching it? Yeah, yeah. So that has been a challenge because sometimes I'm trapped in content that I'm like, this does not make any sense.
Like, I don't want to spend a long time teaching, let's say long division, I'm there right now, because they will all use a calculator. They will. But I don't want to, um, avoid the content because I think that there's a value in always knowing how to do the content. But I'm not just going to spend my effort.
So let's say for money, I took children to the supermarket and they had to do a budget, they had a budget to buy things and they had to, um, it was like a challenge to go grab their things and do their mental calculations and round to the decimals and like find a purpose with time. Within what they're actually learning. And that's one of the biggest, um, things that I am and, and challenges that I am encountering, because sometimes I face content that doesn't, um, make sense. Absolutely.
Okay, so do you have any ideas for anybody who's listening who maybe teaches in a public school and are interested in bringing more play into their classrooms? Like, what are some baby steps, some simple things that they can do to allow children to have more playtime for the upper grades in elementary school? Yeah, I, I love this question. So the first thing that I, I would do a couple of things, but the first thing that I would do is I would open an open ended play area.
And you don't need to have money because sometimes people argue that they don't have money for all these beautiful materials that they see in my classroom. And again, that's my job. That's what I do. That's what I enjoy. So I have a collection. Yes, I have a collection, but I also have a collection of trash and things that are, um, trash for others that are jewels and treasures for us. So setting up an open ended play space where children can build freely is my number one go to. Why?
Because there's no reason why all children need to be sitting down at the same time, to learn something. Actually, they won't learn that something. No, they won't. They, they need to move, they need to have flexible sitting, which would be my second one. So I would have this open ended play area, which is not an area that you go when you finish. It is as important as math, as writing, as science. It is something that you actually, it's part of your curriculum and your day. It's not optional.
So that open ended area, I would encourage. Classrooms to have, um, flexible seating. And once again, you can just buy pillows. It doesn't have to be all these fancy flexible seating. It has, it could be pillows on the floor. I have lap tables. They absolutely. Love them.
Yeah, there's no control on where they choose to sit, but they do have like a goal time in which they have to meet their goals so they can choose where they want to go and work if they want to go outside if they and of course that would not happen at a public or private school, but they can opt to sit. I mean you can ask your neighbors if they're donating old couches or fun chairs or um, there's this woman, Gonzalez, what was her name? I completely forgot her name.
Jennifer, Jennifer Gonzalez and Jennifer Gonzalez, she's an amazing educator and she has I don't know if it's a video about flexible seating, how this teacher, like, transformed her classroom into the most gorgeous flexible seating space using old furniture, so just ask, and I'm gonna give you that, um, link so you can put it under the, the episode links. Yeah. And she's fabulous.
She was talking about the importance of flexible seating for learning and the brain overall, because children need to move actually in order to, to learn things. So how to reach that movement. So the open play space. The flexible seating and something that I've done that I attribute my success to is that I choose, I choose to create more engaging and meaningful learning experiences. I don't call them activities. I call them learning experiences versus tons of worksheets or books. Do I work?
Do I use worksheets? Of course. Do I use books? Of course, I use books. Children also need books at some point, but instead of just Filling my day with these experiences, I create, I grab the content in that same unit and I transform it into a hands on approach. Children learn with all their senses, they touch, they feel, they actually build that knowledge. And I use one or two practice opportunities of flat learning if needed. If not, I don't even bring them in.
So I would also Invite teachers to choose wisely, to really understand what they're teaching, to engage. More into hands on experiences and then have them practice. Because I think that the reason why we have so many worksheets and books in the system is because we need control. We need to control what they know, what they can give us. And we even send the, those, uh, worksheets home in order to control homework and actually practice.
Homework is, um, killing the relationship between parents and children. And moms and dads are suffering trying to figure out the content. Yes. And that's not their job. So I've cried. I've cried doing homework before with my kids. So rethink. Rethink. The big question is Do I need to do this? Why do I need to do this? What is it going to teach? Can I teach it in a different way? And if you find an answer, do it.
If you don't find an answer, keep doing what you're doing, because that's the right way to go. I always say, trust yourself, but question yourself.
And I've been in that situation, Kristen, in which, like, I stop and I say to myself, You know what, there's no reason to be doing this and out of the blue, they just tell the kids, you know what, stop doing that because that does not add up and we're going to rethink this activity and we're going to do it in a different way because the problem would be not finding those spaces of rethinking your practices.
If we think that we're going to be right all the time, that's not going to happen, we will get it wrong, we'll mess up, but it's a matter of finding the right answers and reasons why behind your practices. Okay, so now talk to me a little bit about why, why is play still important for older children? Well, play is important for everyone, even for us. And I always say that play, play doesn't change, play evolves with age.
And I feel that us as a generation, we, we, once we got to our teenage years, it was like end of playing because that's, that's how it was. I mean, you are 13, you cannot play anymore, hide the dolls. I remember myself. like playing secretly so that my friends didn't know that I was playing. But we were taught that that is how people play. And when you're a teenager, there's a different way of playing and play evolves with age.
So embracing play is crucial because I feel that play is something that you teach, especially nowadays with all the screen usage that we have, play is not as natural in the new generation. So why is play important? Number one, because play is what fuels your brain, plays mental health overall. So, most importantly, I think the children need to know the value of play since they are born. And how do we teach that value of play?
Limiting screen time, Telling them the importance about play in the brain. Um, I always tell parents, I mean, there's no point to feed your children organic broccoli, if you're not going to protect play, cause it's the same thing. We eat healthy food to nurture our brain. We sleep to nurture our brain. We exercise to nurture our brain. We play to nurture our brain. It's an innate need that the body and of any mammal. Yeah. So, play is crucial.
We, we need play and I've witnessed this big time in order for a brain to, to function properly. So, um, executive functioning. It is impressive to witness a child who's constantly playing, especially in open ended play settings where they use their imagination, there are loose parts, um, they're always creating. Um, And a child who's a rule follower and has not, not exposure to, um, this kind of play.
So executive functioning, making decisions, um, flexible thinking, organization, planification, um, memory, attention, it all happens naturally through play. So play is building all these prefrontal lobes and this activity happening there that is crucial for academic success because children without executive functioning cannot perform wisely in their academics and needless to say in their jobs further in life. Yeah, yeah.
It is ongoing and, and executive functions are not something that you just teach once. It's something, it's muscle. You need to continue to teach them over time. So executive function is crucial and it happens naturally through play. But I want to say something here. It doesn't happen if you play 15 minutes a day. Yeah, absolutely. Yes. How much to play do you suggest that children need in a day? Well, this is very hard because I don't know if people will like me if I answer this question.
You just answer it however you want. My students play between two and two hours and a half per day. Yeah. And it is kind of different because it's not that they play and then they work. It's kind of different. They go back and forth because play is always open. So we have enough play. Actually, I just increased the school time because I felt like as we, as they grow, we have more content and they were not having this enough time to play.
So I increased the time to give them more time to play, which is. Crucial to witness these kids learn through play has been one of my biggest gifts because something else that they develop are 21st century skills.
We are always looking into having the student who performs best and looking into our children going into the best school and how are we going to achieve this if our children do not know to problem solve or to create, to, to creatively answer questions or to think about the, uh, outside the box or to have grit and persistence and all these skills that are crucial in the 21st century, which are all developed through play.
So if you ask me, play has the same weight or even more than math or reading because I think that is outdated to think like that. I think that we have to see math as important as playing as writing because they all grow together. The problem is to think about them separate. Yes. Mmm. So good. Children exist like they have whole entire bodies. They don't just exist from the head up.
Yeah. No, and I think that we have as parents and educators to start changing what we think and say, because we are. We have to unlearn our childhood because I think that we, we were taught in a certain way and there's no one to, to, um, to blame because that's what our parents did and knew at the time. Right now we have more information, but we all went to school the same way. We all follow the line the same way. We all follow the same path, the same way. And we had not, not an opportunity.
To say no, or to disagree. Yeah. And I feel like if we unlearn our childhood, and we think about things that were right and wrong, you can start rethinking your own education, your own way of teaching, and your own way of seeing education for your own children. Oh my gosh, that's gold. Um, this has been, like, super eye opening. Where can people find you and where can they connect with you? Um, they can find me mainly in Instagram.
That's kind of my, one of my biggest challenge, um, channels right now. Developing. minds. I will send you also the link. I have a website, which, um, I use mainly when I sell courses. I, I create, I've created a couple of courses when I started doing the garage. Yeah. After a year of doing the, the, of having the garage, I was like, this is too good to be true. I need to document this. So I started, I created a play based learning masterclass based on my experience.
So I sell that once a year, I've been. Documenting all my activities. So I created a membership with activity, activities per, um, age, because I have thousands of activities now after four years, every time that I, that I embrace or see something lacking within the program, I create something short. I've created a program, a tiny presentation for math through play and writing.
and how to actually rethink all these practices within a slower paced Teachings, which means more, um, enjoying more and living more rather than just rushing through content and having children memorize. We, I aim for understanding. Yeah. I aim for memorization because memory is very important. Mm hmm. Their senses through play, through their actions.
I also teach, and this is very important because sometimes when you see play and when you think about play in the early years, of course, there's a lot of curiosity and there's a lot of wonder and there's a lot of space. Sparkling eyes and you have all these, um, magic happen in these first six years after that children start to grow. And for me, one of the biggest challenges is to keep that curiosity and that wonder alive. And that's a challenge, but it's doable.
And I, I use more of playful learning experiences because children need to learn content. I mean, school is for learning, but you can also use play as the vehicle of, uh, instruction. So you'll have two different types of play. This open ended play in which they are the owners of the environment. You will find spaces in which.
are open ended and just, um, curiosity driven, but you will also find spaces and learning, learning experiences that are facilitated by the educator, who's a facilitator, and um, will invite children to learn through playful experiences. Okay, I see. Yes, I get the distinction. Play and playful, for sure. Yes, correct, because I mean, they won't be able to guess multiplication tables. Yeah. But there are ways of teaching multiplication through playful experiences.
Yes. That it will be meaningful rather than just using flashcards to memorize. Exactly. Yes. Okay. What's the, where's your web? What's your website? Developingmindsus. com. Amazing. Thank you so much, Mariana, for being here and for sharing your wisdom and the learning garage with us. Um, you have to go check out our Instagram, developing. minds.
And thank you for doing the work that you're doing and the inspiration that you're giving to other educators out there to just think a little bit differently. I appreciate that. Thank you. Thank you, Kristen. And, you know, uh, We've been in the Instagram, Instagram world for pretty much the same time. I know. I appreciate you. I value you and I see you like my peer. Oh, I do too. I feel like we've had like the same. We've grown up together. Yes. Well, thank you, Mariana.
I'm very proud of you as well and what you've accomplished. It is completely valuable for educators around the world, overall. Thanks for those words. All right. Bye bye, everybody. Bye. If you liked what you heard today, share this podcast with your coworkers, admin, or maybe even your partner. And I love getting five star reviews so more people can embrace play. Hit follow or subscribe so you never miss an episode. Or connect with me on Instagram or my website, KristenRBPeterson. com.
Until next time.