Suzanne Axelsson

The Junkologist understanding junkology

A lovely read about junkology from my friend and collegue @theplayactivist.bsky.social

suzanneaxelsson.substack.com/p/the-junkol...

When is the line crossed?
Because world leaders seem to be ignoring everything that is blatantly obvious about what is really going on here from the start...

Play is Play Weighing in on the words we use... (again)

But I do think there is a risk when we the word play to the pedagogical phrases we use... because it tricks us into believing children are accessing more play than they really are.
suzanneaxelsson.substack.com/p/play-is-play

Play is play has become a blogpost... because there was more room to be able to articulate the complexity... of course even one blogpost cannot capture everything...

‘Horrific scenes’ in Gaza as Israel kills dozens of aid seekers At least 73 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since dawn, including 33 aid seekers, according to medical sources.

At least 73 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since dawn, including 33 aid seekers, according to medical sources.

Observation suggests that the opposite of “woke” is selfish, cruel and stupid.

Why school grounds must be part of the climate change solution - Learning through Landscapes Find out how school grounds can bolster climate resilience, encourage biodiversity, and promote climate action through learning and play in nature rich environments.

School grounds are already feeling the effects of our rapidly changing climate 🌡️

Find out how nature rich outdoor spaces bolster climate resilience, encourage biodiversity, and promote climate action — and why school grounds must be part of the climate change solution 👇 ltl.org.uk/news/why-sch...

According to my sleep researcher husband - this is the benefit of sleep for all ages

Another national advisor here feeling honoured to be part of such an important movement to empower educators to ensure children's rights

Just some creepy armed Mad Max guys trying to gain entry to Dodgers Stadium.

ICE says it wasn’t them. DHS says they were Border Patrol. But honestly who the hell knows? They’ve given permission for any psycho to put on a ski mask, point a gun, grab people & throw them into an unmarked vehicle.

💥Freedom Flotilla Coalition Update💥

The #FreedomFlotillaCoalition confirms that 4 of the 12 abducted from international waters have been deported, while 8 remain unjustly detained. Israel is handling the custody of all 12 as though they had entered illegally—

...2/

Residents of street where cars banned for kids to play say 'make it permanent' The road, near a city primary school, was temporarily closed down to all forms of traffic

I always saying opening a street for play is magical, often not spectacular, but the ordinary magic that Stuart Lester talks about. No wonder those who try it want more.

www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/midland...

This is another good article on this topic. Let’s hope we can move on from strait jacket of faux ‘cog sci’ and factory-school TLAC very soon.

Chimpanzees and children are curious about social interactions | Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences Curiosity is adaptive, enhances learning, and reduces uncertainty. Social curiosity is defined as the motivation to gain information about the actions, relationships, and psychology of others. Little is known about the developmental and evolutionary roots ...

New paper from Laura Lewis and Jan Engelmann et al. (including me) with a clever new method. Chimps and kids will forgo reward to get a chance to look at social interactions
royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/full/10....

The last instalment of the livestream as we saw the Madleen off earlier today. To follow the vessel on the journey you can follow them with this tracker:

live.garmin.com/session/75cf...

freedomflotilla.org/2025/06/01/a...
(updated with the names of the 12 people on board Madleen).

Day 2- a beautiful sunrise as the Madleen sails to Gaza.

#BreakTheSiege #sunrise #FromTheRiverToTheSea

Play as a form of thinking
Play as a language
Play as being and becoming
Play....

2.
We meet others with kindness because kindness is beneficial for both giver and receiver. It contributes towards community and belonging and collectiveness. Which then contributes to children (and adults feel safe and brave. Which results in curiosity, exploration, and learning and play flow.

When it comes to the crunch its autonomy and flow that I think, as play-responsive educators we need to focus our attention on...
Creating space for a collective autonomy where we can be our authentic self together with others.
1.

June 2025 - The Trevarthen Series: Studying babies through film - connected baby June 2025 - Our latest course within The Trevarthen Series will traces the increasing capacities of movie cameras over the past decades have helped scientists to carry out sophisticated analyses of th...

We've got lots of videos of Colwyn talking in this month's sessions for #TheTrevarthenSeries. And we're going to get learn about some of the other researchers working with film, on whose work he built. connectedbaby.net/product/june...

I think this text is a fabulous example of understanding aesthetic as full of feeling (rather than beautiful) - after all anaesthetic is the lack of feeling/sensation.
Art in all its forms awakens feelings - so context is of course is going to be important as to what feelings are stirred...

106415 Play England - Strategy Document FINAL

Play England's new strategy recognises all the ways children play & that it's not them that need fixing but the systems round them. bit.ly/43AoFlFC
Congrats @eugeneminogue.bsky.social @profhelendodd.bsky.social @naomilott.bsky.social Paul Brindley @mic-martin.bsky.social @geekdadgamer.bsky.social

The Language of Play Just before the pandemic I started to walk the land as a way to decolonise the way I think and see the world.

This post explores how children communicate with the world differently from adults... and that play has its own evolving language
suzanneaxelsson.substack.com/p/the-langua...

How do you notice children's dialogue with the world?

A thousand yeses to this from Cole Arthur Riley.

A child's right to bruises and grazes the ouchy side of democracy

A child's right to scrapes and bruises while playing
suzanneaxelsson.substack.com/p/a-childs-r...

If someone asked you to draw a cat in school, would you feel free to make the decision to draw one or not? All the children drew one today when asked! Freedom was the topic of conversation at this week’s P4C Club funded by donations from #WonderWander24.

How depressing that we still have teachers with so little understanding of child protection. If children are trained to be obedient to adults in authority over them, it makes them more vulnerable to abuse.
Supporting children’s autonomy and right to make their own choices protects them from abuse.

But is it really ever really "wild" if it's a non native species - or has it just escaped and now dwelling in the "wild"
Whatever wild means (?)

A country rooted in trust can have toilet signs like this...
A country rooted in fear, ignorance and hate cannot.

Left- Konstfack, Stockholm
Right - Ethnographic Museum, Stockholm
Toilets used safely this week.

"It took us few weeks of tactical implementation to reclaim it as a public space... The children needed just a couple of hours to transform it into a playground.”

📍 Milan 🇮🇹