Big and Little Podcast

How do we design for play? For two decades Cas Holman has been designing playthings and playspaces that encourage exploration, imagination, and collaboration. Through her company Heroes Will Rise, Cas creates intuitive toys that inspire creative, open-ended play, including the award-winning Rigamajig, a line of playful building kits used in schools and public spaces worldwide - and our very own Boston Children's Museum. An educator of 13 years and former Associate Professor of Industrial Design at the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD), Cas travels the globe to collaborate with thought and industry leaders in early education, curriculum design, public space, and childhood advocacy. Her philosophy and approach to designing for play was recently featured in the award-winning documentary series “Abstract: The Art of Design” on Netflix. In today’s episode our host, Neil Tembulkar, the Museum’s Director of Strategic Initiatives, and Cas discuss how we design for play and empower kids to be creative problem solvers.

Learn more about Cas on her website: https://casholman.com/

Reaching children in their earliest years not only helps them develop the cognitive, social, emotional, and physical skills they need to succeed, but can also inspire lifelong enthusiasm for learning. On today’s podcast, Boston Children’s Museum President and CEO Carole Charnow sits down with Dr. Jeanette Betancourt from Sesame Workshop and Sally McCrady from PNC Bank to learn more about their partnership - Grow Up Great, an initiative to help prepare children from birth to age 5 for success in school and life.

To access educational resources and learn more about Grow Up Great check out:

https://sesamestreetincommunities.org/

https://www.pnc.com/en/about-pnc/corporate-responsibility/grow-up-great.html

Ahead of the CreatedBy Festival on October 15th, 2022, Digital Content Manager and Podcast Producer, Kathryn York, interviews Boston Children's Museum's Director of Strategic Initiatives, Neil Tembulkar about CreatedBy, the prevalence of STEAM in the museum space, and how to get kids inspired by STEAM. To learn more about the CreatedBy Festival and free Virtual Workshops, Demos, and STEAM Fun, check out https://createdbyfestival.org/

When was the last time you let your imagination take the wheel? As kids, our imagination created endless possibilities. An old blanket was a superhero cape. Pots and pans? A full on drum set! Imagination has the power to make the “ordinary” novel and exciting. In the wake of an increasingly digital age, however, many wonder, does imaginative play still hold the same space in children’s lives? Hear from Dr. Laura Rubin, founder of Portsmouth Neuropsychology Center, about how imaginative play helps children process emotional experiences, build executive function skills, foster creativity, and more. She also shares how parents, caregivers, and educators can support their child's imaginative instincts.

For more on imaginative play and children’s mental health, check out the following resources:

• Portsmouth Neuropsychology Center: https://www.portsmouthneuro.com/
• The Child Mind Institute: https://childmind.org/
• How Re-Framing Our Experiences Can Contribute to Our Well-Being by Dr. Laura Rubin, TEDxPortsmouth: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GqpQ0iHBRSQ&ab_channel=TEDxTalks
• Make-Believe: Games & Activities for Imaginative Play By Dorothy G. Singer and Jerome L. Singer: https://www.apa.org/pubs/magination/4417173