About MeHi! My name is Miranda and I am so bad at these "about me" things. I'm a wife and mother of 3 and those lines blur all the time. I love my extended family and guard my immediate family time with great care. I am a proud and compassionate empath who is embracing boundaries and learning how to give to others and recharge for myself all at once.
I have been a teacher and mother-hen, I believe since birth. [old soul] I have studied traditional education and have various degrees and certifications in Elementary and Early Childhood Education to Reading Specialties. I taught outside of the home for 7 years before having kids of my own and deciding to stay home. Learning along side my children the last 8 years has been the most valuable education I have received. To be given the gift of fresh eyes and childlike time to explore all of our interests without the restrictions of semesters and degree requirements. It has opened my mind in so many ways. For years I dreamed to open my own brick and mortar school but the business and political aspects of that just seemed so heavy and counter productive to what was calling me. Thus our home education journey and Where The Children Play were born. It has been scary and full of wonder to begin to think outside of the traditional educational box. I decompress through nature, creating, and learning new things. The fastest way to my heart is through office supplies and a yummy glass of wine, preferably in the mountains. I love women supporting one another and I crave strong, spunky girlfriends who lift one another up. If you need me, I will be watching Netflix way too late at night when the house is quiet, creating a To Do list for the next day, and adding things to the day's done list just so I can cross them off. |
What is Where The Children Play? |
The idea of Where The Children Play was born well before I even had children of my own. It is a combination of schools and philosophies I studied in, where children are allowed to be children. The idea was fostered while teaching in high stakes districts where paperwork and meetings could rival those of the White House. Watching the needs of the child fall to the wayside more as bureaucracy and red tape filled the classrooms even in some of the neediest schools, I left the public school system to stay at home as we build our family. Once a teacher, always a teacher. It wasn't long (4 months to be exact) before I began caring for other children as well. Crafts, excursions around town, and experiments gave way to a mommy blog, which I am just not cut out for, which then gave way to a small business with a dream of starting a place where children really can play and explore their own imaginations.
This entire dream and philosophy was given a soundtrack with the Cat Stevens song entitled "Where do the children play?" I believe his words resonate now perhaps even more than when they were written. The current state of our climate and planet cause me great concern for our children everyday. I wonder where they will play, explore, and create brand new things once we pave over their play spaces and create concrete parks to climb on rather than an old fallen limb. In a world so busy with progress and one-upping, racing to be first and the most and the highest, we forget to leave time and spaces for children to be children. Children without On and Off switches or batteries. Where The Children Play is a resource for ideas on exploring and engaging childhood. For allowing children to control their own play and bodies while learning how to become responsible caring adults who will one day, not far from now, lead our world. I have so much hope in this future generation. I believe that childhood is not separate from adulthood. That would be like saying that education doesn't lead to success or college isn't meant to prepare you for the workforce. I strive to live my life in the eyes of my children just as I am. When I cook, craft, create, explore, read and rest, I do it with them and in front of them. We believe in being honest with children and allowing them to be accountable for their successes and failures. This is not a life meant to separate us from our kids or one another or to create an image of something we aren't really living. What you see is all of it, good and bad. So you may find that many of the explorations or interests overlap or then some seem unconnected, but where the children play is where we are and we passionately want our children to be world changers and creative thinkers who are limited only by their own imaginations. We hope we are creating a life and space for our kids that they are actively a part of, just as much as we are, while still chasing dreams and exploring our own interests. |