Play Skillfully

Play Skillfully is Kathy Eggers's show about young children, play and learning at home. Each episode opens by inviting listeners to grab a cup of coffee or a glass of wine, and that tells a new listener most of what to expect. This is kitchen-table talk. It is friendly and encouraging, and it takes detours. One conversation openly admits to its side notes, and in the same one Kathy had already hit record before saying welcome because she liked where her guest was going. The show works in two modes. In one, Kathy sits down with guests, often homeschooling mothers, and lets them describe life with children at home, the good stuff and the bad. In the other, she talks a subject through herself, which is closer to a practical briefing than an interview. The guest conversations keep coming back to what home education is actually for. In 'Choosing to Homeschool with Chelsea Riley', reading comes up as the anxious question. The worry is described as fear-based, and it gets sharper when a family's circle mixes homeschoolers and public schoolers. The counterweight is simple: there is plenty of time to learn to read. The same conversation steps back from day-to-day pressure to ask what children are being raised to be. 'The Importance of Connection with Melanie Ross' is the most pointed. It describes homeschooled adults who have no relationship with their families and traces that back to homes where getting the work done came first. The alternative it offers is easy to say and hard to live: be a parent a child can still bring a mistake to, even a grown son who is still working out his life in his mid-twenties. 'A Beautiful Mess: How Adaptability can be Your Superpower' turns to change, from a new child joining the family to shifting hormones. It also makes the case for one-on-one time, so each child in a larger family feels valued as an individual. 'The Unschooling Summit with Esther Jones and Melissa Crockett-Joyoue' reaches furthest. Its guests, in New Zealand and the UK, describe how an online gathering grew from a sense that people wanted community and wanted to learn from each other. Kathy's solo episodes are the most concrete. She explains big body movement as the way children build connections in the brain, lift their mood through dopamine and learn to calculate risk, and she ties that risk-taking to critical thinking and executive function. In 'Back to School with Preschoolers' she recalls setting goals with her own children using dream posters and magazines, including an Olympics year when they all wanted to become runners. Where to start depends on the question. A parent weighing homeschooling has the Chelsea Riley conversation. A parent whose child never stops moving has 'The First 1000 Days and Why They Matter'. Episodes close with a plug for Kathy's products and a parting line that could stand as the show's thesis: find a way to say yes today.