One a Penny, Two a Penny...
An update on my progress through the week
When did you learn to read and write?
Quite a frenzied week! Again! I’m now into final checking of word count and references, and… NO! How come I have two Chapter 3s, each with a different name and content?! Urgh – back to the original to cross check. I really would not be allowed to have Chapter 3a!
But the good news is that the publishers have agreed for extra diagrams (designed by the impeccable Iain Macleod-Jones) and extra pictures (created by Charlie Meyer in response to my vague notions!). To both of them, my special thanks, as it really helps the whole book notion continue to role. Charlie’s beautiful illustration below will be the cover for my forthcoming book, NDP and Infant Mental Health.
I have dedicated this book to Michael Rosen who survived very serious Covid 19. He creates wonderful resources including nonsense rhymes and stories for children. I am very much focussed on his ‘We are Going on a Bear Hunt’ and using it in so many ways in our work with children: rhythmic play, messy play ideas, chanting, movement, journeys, whole family / group work…
I mentioned last week about certain letters on my computer getting stuck. Well here is a warning to everyone, especially if you work with children or are teaching play or play therapy…BE VERY CAREFUL IF YOU ARE DEMONSTRATING SAND PLAY near your computer! The results can be disastrous. The first thing I do is to have my portable sand tray standing on a tray with taller than usual sides. The second thing is to keep more distance between the computer and the sand tray, and to turn my screen to show the sand tray if I am illustrating a point. Thirdly, I realised I must exercise restraint when playing directly with the sand: trickling, pouring, pattern making – it travels!
When I referred to lemon barley water last time, it took me back to that whole, and particular life that belonged to the era post Second World War. I have written about this in my Substack Newsletters with stories of Jimmy Swift, who attended Miss Penny-Weather’s Country School. One strong memory is that school children in the country were encouraged to pick rose-hips and hand them in at their school; they were paid for the rose-hips. It was a Government initiative to make rose-hip syrup, to try and combat scurvy and the acute shortage of Vitamin C. We were also issued with bottles of cod-liver oil and orange juice. One strong memory I have is that my mother mixed the two together, half and half, in order to make the cod-liver oil more palatable. I have always had a distaste of oily food and drink. This made the midwife quite cross when I refused to drink the castor oil when I was in labour; she even floated it in orange juice!
I want to say another BIG thank you to people who are subscribing to my Substack – it makes such a difference to enable me to write, instead of chasing other freelance work. It keeps the creative juices flowing, instead of a frequent stop/start rhythm which is very frustrating! So the more the merrier, as they say! I am grateful.
It was such a pleasure to meet up with Ali Chown this week. We were talking about how her ideas for outdoors play and play therapy have now become mainstream and there are various training programmes which focus on play therapy in the outdoors. When she first started this work, many people were very snotty and dismissed it as not being significant! One criticism was that you could not keep children safe in the outdoors. We only need to look at the work of Forest Schools to see how patently untrue this is.
Ali’s books:
Play Therapy in the Outdoors: Taking Play Therapy out of the Playroom and into Natural Environments (2014) Jessica Kingsley
A Practical Guide to Play Therapy in the Outdoors: working in nature (2018) Routledge
They are both highly recommended and provide ideas as well as addressing practical issues such as confidentiality and safety. By the way, for anyone embarking on the Advanced NDP Diploma, Ali’s courses are accredited by NDP and may count as one or two Modules, depending on length.
Ali is also writing a chapter in the new ‘Handbook of Neuro-Dramatic-Play’, a collection of 20 chapters from NDP practitioners, and edited by me and Clive Holmwood. Watch this space!
As I mentioned last week, Your Brain on Art: How the Arts Transform Us by Susan Magsamen and Ivy Ross, published by Canongate in 2023, is highly recommended. The quotation below is SO important for everyone involved in the arts, in any way, as well as play workers and therapists. We now have evidence to try and convince the authorities that play needs to be funded both clinically and in education.
‘Play is a key component of the arts and aesthetics in myriad ways. Art and play are like two sides of the same coin, with play being a part of artistic expression, imagination, creativity, and curiosity.’ (p.150)
Do remember that this coming Tuesday, 11 June, is the first International Day of Play – I am giving 2 free webinars titled ‘Play as the Root of Everything’ at 0930-1000 and 1730-1800.
I also have two Summer Workshops coming up – an NDP Short Course, Messy Play for All, and the other a weekend course, Childhood and Identity on the practice of gaslighting with children, which can be taken as a standalone course or as part of the NDP Advanced Diploma. See the details below.
Wednesday 26 June
1200-1330 or 1800-1930 (UK Time)
Only £25 (plus Eventbrite booking fee)
Saturday 7 July 1400-1700 & Sunday 8 July at 1400-1700 (UK time)
£80 (plus Eventbrite booking fee)
I am still reluctant to start mowing the grass. The mass of buttercups is shining through the grass and they look very beautiful. I still haven’t mown the lawn. The buttercups are winning!
Break over, head down, in search of Chapter 3a!
With Love
Dr Sue xxx