Family Play-school Dream!

Playschool Dream ~ coming to reality soon!

Hi!
I’m Meagan, Parent-Child Communication Consultant! (-A fancy way of saying I help parents discover the easy, proven-effective ways to get their kids to listen!)

I love serving families! 
Helping parents and children learn and use effective communication to  elevate their cooperation and connection together is what I was put on earth to study and to do.

And, although serving in the online space allows me to guide in the transformation of even more families, I desperately miss crawling around on the ground and playing with kiddos and modeling behavior and communication techniques.  I miss seeing children’s faces light up as they got to experience success and triumph when they accomplished something- social, emotional, and/or academic.

As you likely already know, I used to own and operate my cooking and nature play-based childcare/preschool. I absolutely loved it!  

I got to do a lot of crawling around on the ground! 
I did more squats per day during that time, than I had in the rest of my life combined!  

I appreciate knowing how to meet a child where they are – by getting on their level- both vertically and developmentally is key. And that is an important element that is missing in the average everyday family.
Why?

Because not every family knows all this child developmental stuff.
These intentional, response-based, and effective communication-based parenting approaches are not intuitive. Unless you grew up in a family where effective communication and mutual respect and cooperation were practiced, then you likely don’t quite know the approaches to practice with your family.

So many families are extremely overwhelmed. They know something doesn’t feel right, but they don’t quite know what to do about it. 

This breakdown in communication and connection is the devastating problem I am trying to address.
Come to my place to play and communicate and connect and learn- right along with your kiddo.

I’m so excited to provide an authentic space where children and families are free to roam and naturally get into conflicts. This provides natural opportunities where I can help model and facilitate effective communication strategies so they can get themselves back out of those conflicts – all while maintaining cooperation and connection. 

Knowing how to capitalize upon learning opportunities, with calm and confidence, so that appropriate conflict resolution skills are being modeled and learned, where everyone feels heard and respected, is how we address the dire need of social/emotional skill competence that seems to be missing today.

Elements of the Playschool

The playschool will be an outdoor program on two acres, complete with free range bunnies and chickens and other small creatures. We’ll have a pygmy goat barn and  orphaned lambs the children can bottle feed. Maybe we’ll have orphaned kittens and puppies for the children to nurture as well. Providing opportunities to care for others, develops the emotional skills of empathy and perspective.

We will have a huge sustaining garden where the children can grow and pick their own veggies for lunch! A 50’x50’ flower field for the children to thoroughly enjoy, get lost in imagination, and Yep- they’d even get to pick the flowers. GASP! 

We will have a zipline and slackline for ultimate sensory input!

I’m most excited for the large mud kitchen- to support imagination, exploration, creativity, imitation, communication, and cooperation! 

Additionally, we’ll have a pond with Koi fish that the children with their parents can feed and observe from the bank or a floating raft.

On the grass, there will be a yoga area and lots of nooks and crannies around for reading and pretending.

A really fun element that I am extra excited about is the outdoor hearth where the children, with their families, may make their bread for our communal, family-style lunch.

There will be an engineering and creating area for older children to really get to use their hands and create magnificent things such as trebuchets and robots with their parents.

I imagine that we will have classes regarding knot tying and wilderness survival for the older children.

For the little Littles, a parent-child baby-sign gathering area will be available so that parents can facilitate communication and connection with their preverbal infants and toddlers very early on!

The playschool will have a preschool-ish rhythm, but will be very much play-centric and child-led. I will help parents understand how each play element supports “academic standards” and I will also help parents understand that academics should never be the ultimate focus here. The social/emotional development is the most important and that is where the competence in communication and cooperation is found. (***Academic focus will have a time and place.)

I am very excited to bring a playschool to life for my community- a place for parents and children to play and bond. We will get messy, and we can clean up right in the outdoor shower.

Giving kids access to healthy risks and helping parents take a breath and learn to become comfortable enough to allow these healthy risks is one of the most meaningful elements that we will get to engage in.

Parents that enroll their families and join our playschool will be deeply interested in the parent education element as well. These parents will have an intimate understanding that in order to address or change our children’s behaviors we need to change our approaches first. 

I envision parent nights where we get together and grow, while our children enjoy a movie outside and a campfire.

I have so many more ideas!

This playschool is such a vivid dream for me! I want it so desperately for my community, for my own children, and for myself. I recently became Forest School certified to help me offer more depth and value to my playschool!

All of my experiences have led me to understand that parents long to be close with their children. They want to play with their children. And most of all, they want a wonderful relationship with their children full of effective communication, respect, and cooperation.

But, as we have all experienced, life gets so busy and doesn’t always provide time and space and know-how to maintain quality connections with the treasures we love most- our children. 

This chasm is part of the ambition behind developing my parenting course and my playschool.
I am thrilled to be able to offer such beneficial programs that will bring families together into the kitchen, into nature, into peace, into cooperation, into connection, and beyond to help them make some positive, ever-lasting memories as they grow and learn together.

Thank you for taking a moment and dreaming with me!

With mindful communication and connection,
~Meagan

***Remember, “When we learn how to do better, we are able to do better.”~ MD
    ~ This applies to our children of course. And it also applies to us.~

P.S.-

• If you are interested in learning more about me and why I have chosen to do this important work, read HERE.
  
  
• If you are curious about my signature on-line program and the unique way I serve families, click HERE.
  
  
• If you are not already a part of our Fb parenting community full of parents dedicated to intentional communication and connection, join us HERE.
  
  
• If you would like to have a chat with me about your current parenting journey and where you want to be, book a free call HERE.
  
  
• If you are curious about the 25+ways cooking with kiddos is so beneficial, check it out HERE!
  
  
  Thank you again!

~Meagan Duncan
    with Connected Kids Thrive

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