An Introduction

Welcome to The Playful Life blog! This blog, among other things, will explore the social, cultural, and communal importance of games: board games, computer games, outdoor games, and more. What do games mean to us? How do they serve as bridges between friends, families, and communities? What lessons can we learn from them? Why are they so important? These are the questions that The Playful Life will hope to delve into.

The following is a summary of our mission, our values, our background, and what you should expect when you visit this blog:

Our Mission:

• To build and celebrate education, community, and fun through games.

Our Values:

• From the simple to the complex, games contain important and sometimes surprising learning opportunities.
• Games are culturally important to individuals and communities.
• Everyone deserves to have access to education and fun and games can do both!

Our Background:

Anya has her Masters Degree in Education from Western Michigan University with a specialty in Socio-Cultural Studies and Educational Thought. She has over ten years of experience in traditional and non-traditional education including working at camps, development and implementation of out-of- school-time programing, classroom teaching, and in social service administrative leadership. Anya has presented her work at multiple conferences including American Educational Studies Association National Conference, 21 Century Community Learning Center Illinois State Conference, and traveled on a Fulbright Hays grant to Senegal West Africa to research curriculum development. Most of all Anya is passionate about integration of learning, community, and fun!

Eric has his Bachelors degree in Genetics from Purdue University and is currently working to obtain his Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing from the University of Illinois. More importantly, Eric is a lifelong gamer: board games, computer games, etc.

What to expect when you visit:

• Exploration of games and their educational opportunities: math, science, literacy, social studies, and social and emotional learning.
• Review and analysis of games: game quality, mechanics, cultural importance, and fun-factor.
• Exploration of opportunities for using games to develop and reinforce community.