Coming at you from my hospital bed and I’ve enlisted some help from AI as having coherent thoughts is a bit challenging right now. The next few days our focus is on books, both for the adults here and also those to share with the kids in our lives. Day 1: Have Books, Will Travel Well, this wasn’t exactly on my October bingo card. Apparently, breaking both ankles is one way to get out of doing the laundry. A bit extreme, perhaps, but here we are. Since my grand adventures are temporarily limited to wherever someone is willing to wheel me, I’ve decided it’s time for a different kind of adventure. The kind that doesn’t require shoes, a suitcase, or even leaving the couch. Books! For the next five days, we’re going to explore books for grown-ups. Because Connected Through Play isn’t just about what we do with the kids. Curiosity, imagination, and a little adventure belong to us, too. Today’s theme: Take Me Somewhere Else Some books transport us to another century. Others drop us into someone else’s life. And a few make us forget that we’ve been sitting in the same chair for three hours. Three fiction picks: 📖 The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah Two sisters, occupied France, and extraordinary courage during World War II. Bring tissues. 📖 The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman Four retirees, a cold case, and the delightful discovery that growing older doesn’t mean behaving yourself. 📖 The House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune A wonderfully unusual orphanage, magical children, and a story about finding where you belong. Three nonfiction picks: 📖 The Wager by David Grann Shipwreck, mutiny, survival, and a true story so outrageous it could pass for fiction. 📖 The Boys in the Boat by Daniel James Brown Nine young men, one rowing team, and an extraordinary journey to the 1936 Berlin Olympics. 📖 The Art of Gathering by Priya Parker A fascinating look at why bringing people together matters and how we can make those moments more meaningful. A Little Book-Picking Wisdom

Here’s one to get your creativity flowing as we head into the weekend. The conference has been eye opening and I’m ready for home but not quite yet. See what you can create this weekend. We all know that rooms have rules.Floors go on the bottom. Doors belong in walls. Beds don’t usually hang from ceilings. What other rules do rooms have? Today, one of those rules has to go. Your goal is to ask yourself what kind of room could I build if something about it were completely impossible? Gather Your Gear: Pick Your Building World Use a building system you already enjoy. This could be blocks, LEGO, or other building bricks. Maybe it’s magnetic tiles or dollhouse pieces. Think about toys, cardboard, paper, clay, or other craft supplies. Of course you can mix completely different things together. Your room can fill a tabletop, fit on a tray or exist on a single piece of paper with a few objects added on top. There is no special supply list. Build with your world, your way. Steps 1. Break one rule. Decide what’s impossible about your room. Maybe gravity goes sideways. Furniture belongs on the ceiling. The door is underneath the bed. Everything is tiny except one enormous chair. Or invent a rule nobody else would think of. 2. Start building. Don’t worry about making a perfect miniature room. Build enough of your impossible world to start seeing the idea come alive. 3. Make the impossible obvious. Add, move, flip or rearrange things until your broken rule becomes part of the room. Change your mind whenever you want. 4. Somebody has to live here. Add a toy, figure, imaginary creature, finger character or simply pretend someone has arrived. Now play. Move through the room, use the strange furniture, climb the walls or discover what it’s like to live where your rule is normal. 5. Mess with the world. Turn the whole room around. Move the furniture. Add another character. Change something while someone else is playing. Or leave your impossible world exactly as it is and come back to it later.

Your challenge today: Sneak a freeze dance into your family’s day! Music on? DANCE! Music stops? FREEZE! 🧊 Yes, parents, you too! 🎒 Home from school? Have a snack, put on a favorite song, and freeze dance! 🌪️ A tantrum brewing? If your child is safe, try putting on some music and dancing nearby. No need to call them over or insist they join. They see the fun and join right in. 🌙 Evening wiggles? Freeze dance! Then slow things down and head into your calming bedtime routine. ☀️ Ready for school with a few minutes to spare? Freeze dance before you head out the door! Everyone will start their day with a giggle and a smile. I just did this with my granddaughter before she left and we were laughing…. And she is in middle school and still did it. You don’t need perfect moves. You just need a little music and a willingness to be silly together. ❤️ Where did YOU sneak in the freeze dance challenge? Tell us below! 👇

One of the first communities I joined after coming to the Skool platform was @Patrick Taylor’s Consistent Characters. In my role as learning designer, more and more of my clients were asking for custom characters that could be reused in training courses and that could be edited easily by internal teams. As a result, our community mascot, The Kid was born. I’m currently learning how to self-publish books, my partner Ken has had a series of books in his head for years building on our Curious Kitchen concept and so, our challenge this week is coloring book pages. I know, long story, can you get to the point Mary?! Bottom line do you and/or the kids in your life like to color? My gift to you today is my coloring page challenge entry.

Are the kids going crazy in the house? Are they tearing up things? Are they allowed? Are they driving you crazy? Open the door. Send them outside. And tell them to run! If you live in a single house, have them take three laps around the house. If you live in an apartment, have them run around the apartment. If need some space for them to run, take them to a open area and let them go. If there’s nowhere outside for them to go and run and there’s no room in your home for them to run, then they can jump, or run in place, and you can do a freeze jump with them. Put on some music, start them, jumping, stop the music and jump some more The point is kids need to burn energy, and if they don’t do it in a positive they will do it in a negative way. So if you’re home, and they’re home, and you’re wishing for a break., Send them outside to run. Three laps around your home., If it doesn’t, send them off for another lap. Fun and energy burned! They will love it and so will you.