Jan 24, 2023 | adults
By Morgan Leichter-Saxby Is it too late already to wish you all a happy New Year? I’m a sucker for the optimism of fresh starts. It always seemed right to me to count the year as beginning in January, when things are still cold and dark. That’s the spark in seeds...
Sep 18, 2017 | adults, Canada, Children, dens, forts, loose parts, parents, Play, play frames, Pop-up Adventure Playgrounds, Tour
For our 17th stop we were invited to the small towns of Foremost and Bow Island in the Forty Mile Region. This stop was brought together by Terri-Lynn and Corinna from FCSS who had been following our Canadian tour and asked us to bring our Pop-Up Adventure Playground...
Sep 9, 2017 | adults, box, Canada, Children, dens, loose parts, Photos, Play, Pop-up Adventure Playgrounds, Tour
Midway through our tour we received an email from Jade from a local Chinese Immigrant family group. They were based in Richmond, on the outskirts of Vancouver. This confirmed our fourth stop in Vancouver. It would be sandwiched between a first-time community Pop-Up at...
Aug 21, 2017 | adults, Andy, Canada, Children, families, Photos, Play, playworker, Pop-up Adventure Playgrounds, Tour
Since we started our Canadian tour just over a month ago, we have started each day full of curiosity. We were wondering what the next location will bring. Our only disappointments have been in not yet seeing a moose. We were hearing that our chances get slimmer the...
Aug 20, 2017 | adults, Canada, Children, loose parts, Morgan, Play, Pop-up Adventure Playgrounds, risk, teenagers, Tour
We were told to park at the Rec Center opposite Safeway supermarket and wait for the boat to come. The Lake in the Woods – aka Kenora, Ontario – is a vast aquatic wilderness of densely wooded islands. It is navigated by small boats with outboard motors,...
Aug 18, 2017 | adults, Andy, Canada, Children, Photos, Play, Pop-up Adventure Playgrounds, swings, Tour, workshop
By Andy After a long drive from Vaughan, we made it to Englehart, with just minutes to spare. We quickly shuffled into our ‘fancy’ clothes, wiped the sweat from our foreheads and jumped on stage before a packed-out room of friendly parents and professionals, many...
May 23, 2016 | adults, adventure playground, campference, Morgan, Play, Playwork, practice, Santa Clarita Valley Adventure Play, theory
Years ago, I visited an adventure playground. It was a place that once was rich and thriving, but in recent years something had shifted. The children were bored, the site seniors were raising funds to have builders come in and create some new equipment. It had lost...
Apr 5, 2016 | adults, Cardboard, Children, loose parts, Playwork, Playworker Development Course, Pop-up Adventure Playgrounds
We are excited to be welcoming Jess to write on our blog about her first-ever pop-up adventure playground, hosted at her place of work. She is one of our Playworker Development Course students, using the skills from our course to complement the work she is doing at...
Nov 2, 2015 | adults, Australia, blog, Photos, Play, playworkers, Tour, workshop, world, Zan
At every workshop, we ask participants a question that almost always stumps them: how do you play? There’s always an awkward pause. No one makes eye contact and the whole room seems to think. Is it really that difficult to answer that question? To us, it seems...
Oct 28, 2015 | adults, Australia, Children, Marc Armitage, Morgan, Play, Playwork, Reflection, Tour, vocabulary, workshop, world
I am writing on another place, from seat 26F gazing out on the rust-red earth far below. We are somewhere in the air between Brisbane and Perth – Justine, Suzanna and myself all in a row. Our last workshop and pop-up were in a town called Robina. Whispering Gully...
Sep 23, 2015 | adults, Blackpool, box, Child-Directed, Children, dens, fire, Photos, Play, play advocates, Pop-up Adventure Playgrounds, robot
By Zan After a glorious fire and den building session in Blackpool, we were invited back again to host a Play Advocacy Day. It was a particularly blue-sky day as we approached the LeftCoast office to talk to about 15 adults from different Blackpool services who all...
May 29, 2015 | adults, Children, Community, free, independent organisers, Morgan, Photos, Play, Pop-up Adventure Playgrounds, register, support, training
We started hosting pop-up adventure playgrounds in 2010. Since then, they’ve been held in Australia, Bogota, Cairo, New York and in more than 14 countries all around the world, by Pop-Ups staff and by independent organisers. The response to these events and...
