Heads up: This post is 13 years old. My thinking may have evolved since then — read it with that in mind.
The below was written back on the 2nd of June, 2012, when I had just started doing the Reggio inspired, child-initiated learning playgroups.
Sir Ken Robinson’s TED talk, Schools Kill Creativity, inspired me. The future is tough, our society’s system is unsustainable, we need future leaders who are not bounded by the system, who are observant, and who can construct a new, better world.
Parents of my generation has changed, we can see the world is no longer like our fathers’. Dads can’t go to work alone and support the whole family, and at the same time we want to spend more time with our children, helping them make sense of this new world around them.
I had an image of what I want to do that would help, something along the line of a “AirBnB for playgroups” kind of deal. But I didn’t build anything, because I wasn’t sure if that was what’s truly needed. Instead, I started doing the playgroups myself to test my theories. After doing a few playgroups with Sarah, my idea has changed already.
Perhaps what we need are online resources, allowing parents to search for activities according to age groups. Listing typical problems we face, explaining the reasons why children act the way they do and what are some good responses from us. May be searching for parents with similar ideology, starting or joining a playgroup with them.
Since that time, I’ve gotten my good friend Soren to join me again on this journey as co-founders of 100 Village. Been accepted into the AcceleratorHK incubation program, tested out more hypothesis about free and paid playgroups, mobile documentation apps, photo sharing apps, and right now, we’re testing the idea of activities.