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June 17, 2010 Bernie DeKoven, FUNcoach

FUNcoaching helps people make things fun again.  Start here. Or maybe here. Then contact me. We’ll talk. We’ll play. It’ll be fun. In the meantime, let us blog….↓

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kids, math, community and playfulness

September 5, 2010 Bernie DeKoven, FUNcoach

Here’s a little thought-provoking insight into how unprepared our schools are to nurture kids who genuinely love, and excel at math (and, for that matter, probably any academic discipline) – about the nurturing power of playfulness and community from www.wired.com

By the time Alison was 8, her folks decided it didn’t make sense to tell her to put away her calculus book to prepare for her multiplication test and pulled her out of school.

Homeschooling Alison (and later her younger sister Catherine, now a freshman at Bryn Mawr) neatly sidestepped one roadblock the Times story highlighted to keeping American students interested in math: social disapproval. As the Times reported, Chinese-American Dr. Zuming Feng, leader of the US Olympiad team, says that:

in China math is regarded as an essential skill that everyone should try to develop at some level. Parents in China, he said, view math as parents in the United States do baseball, hockey and soccer.

Dr. Feng says “Here everybody plays baseball,” Dr. Feng said. “Everybody throws a few balls, regardless of whether you’re good at it, or not. If you don’t play well, it’s O.K. Everybody gives you a few claps. But people don’t treat math that way.”

Can the U.S. school culture that values sports over math be changed?

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happiness and playfulness in marriage

September 5, 2010

It’s pretty obvious if you think about it. But it becomes even more obvious when you read someone else thinking about it – and citing research, even. from A Prescription for Playfulness Psychologist and relationship researcher, Dr. John Gottman, found that playful couples have significantly higher odds of staying together than those who do not [...]

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Play, fun, and boredom

September 3, 2010

In his article, Emotional Development, The Importance of Pleasure in Play , Dr. Bruce D. Perry makes some fairly profound, fun-provoking observations. I have taken the liberty to italicize points that I invite you to contemplayte with me. Some people think of play as the opposite of work. They think of it with goofing off, [...]

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Time to wander leads to wonder

September 2, 2010

From www.latimes.com Just as sleep appears to play an important role in learning, memory consolidation and maintaining the body’s metabolic function, some scientists wonder whether unstructured mental time — time to zone out and daydream — might also play a key role in our mental well-being. If so, that’s a cautionary tale for a society [...]

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Mudita – appreciative joy

September 2, 2010

Following up on the idea of Freundenfreude, here’s something I “Amplify’d” from www.accesstoinsight.org Mudita means appreciative joy at the success and good fortune of others. Evaluation of achievement is a precursor to mudita, and appreciation a component of mudita. Seeing the good in others and learning to recognize and admire what good there is, is [...]

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Freudenfreude

September 2, 2010

You know the unfortunate concept of schadenfreude – as defined by the Wiktionary as: Malicious enjoyment derived from observing someone else’s misfortune; schadenfreude. Satisfaction derived when an individual has misfortune for disregarding rules or conventions. Pretty awful concept, even if it is the underlying principle of what is misleadingly referred to as practical jokes. OK. [...]

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playgrounds 2024

September 1, 2010

Here’s something fun to play with – imagining a future playground. A lot of the ideas in this “plan” are just plain silly. Which is exactly what makes looking at them so worthwhile. It’s a great thought-experiment, and, I hope, will encourage you to add the best of your silliness to this discussion. What would [...]

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The junk bag approach to Junkyard Sports

September 1, 2010

In her post, Put play in a bag (and see what comes out), Michele describes yet another Junkyard Sports-like approach to blending creativity, problem-solving and repurposing with games. The idea: take a bunch of junk, a set of simple rules, and put them in a bag. The rules: All items must be used. (2 cones, [...]

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Gong Golf – the first hole

August 31, 2010

Lauched to us via Neatorama, ricocheted over to The Presurfer, skipping all the way across the pond from the Guardian, we have the first hole in a game of Gong Golf. OK, so it’s the only hole, but it’s worthy of our collective awe and clearly establishes the precedent for an 18-gong course. Observe the [...]

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We Feel Fine

August 30, 2010

The description for We Feel Fine reads “An Exploration of Human Emotions in Six Movements”. Searching for more clarity, you click on the “mission” link. You read: “We Feel Fine is an exploration of human emotion on a global scale. Since August 2005, We Feel Fine has been harvesting human feelings from a large number [...]

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