PlayShops provide invaluable opportunities for you and your children to gain insight and self-knowledge, connect with nature, recognize your dreams and strengths and tap into your creative wellspring through the combination of writing and art.

PlayShops are structured using four age-appropriate steps:

1. Exploration of self through quiet reflection and visualization.

2. Connection with the natural world through sensory experiences and walking meditations.

3. Discovery of inner wisdom through writing and journaling exercises.

4. Creation of exquisite handmade books, journals, and collages that reflect the one-of-a-kind beauty of their makers.

No experience or supplies are necessary! We provide a wealth of creative supplies as well as the artistic guidance to insure that each person, no matter what their age or ability, takes home an inspired work that they will treasure.

Humming-Words

PlayShops for All Ages

Humming-Words PlayShops for All Ages are portable – we can conduct them as stand-alone classes or as modules within existing programs. Our PlayShops are highly customized to suit the needs, interests, abilities, and ages of any group, including special needs children and gifted children.

Here’s a sampling of classes that can be adapted to fit your needs:

Ages 5 – 7: Magical Words: Discovering Your Strengths Through Nature. A “Mommy and Me” class using nature-based fantasy themes to help children identify their personal strengths, the qualities that make them unique, and the things they love.

Take home treasure: A key-ring book of each child’s magical words.

Ages 8 – 11: Personal Fairytales: Finding Your Magical Self. A class using the structure of fairytales to help children explore the roles they assume and create the narrative they desire in their own personal life stories.

Take home treasure: A ribbon-bound book with a secret pocket holding a treasure inside.

Ages 12 – 14: Stepping Stones: Exploring Your Inner Nature. A class using the metaphor of stepping stones in a garden to help early teens explore interests, values, and dreams to pave their path through life.

Take home treasure: An accordion book with a handmade collage cover.

Ages 15 – 18: Unfolding Life: Integrating Past/Present/Future Selves.

A class using the theme of reflecting on the past, exploring the present, and projecting into the future to help older teens discover more about who they are and who they hope to become.

Take home treasure: An unfolding book illustrated with art and collages.

Adult Women: Master Gardeners: Nurturing Seeds of Self.

A class using the metaphor of cultivating dreams and intentions from seed to bud to blossom through creative written and artistic expression.

Take home treasure: A seed-package book enfolding die-cut pages illustrated with art and collages, with the option of magnetizing pages for individual display.

Humming-Words

Philosophical Foundation

Everyone has their own unique truths to express and the innate ability to create and appreciate things of beauty. Our goal is to liberate verbal and artistic expressiveness by creating an atmosphere of light-heartedness and child-like curiosity.

We call our classes “PlayShops” rather than workshops because fun is the foundation of everything we do. We believe that playfulness, laughter, and enjoyment allow self-discovery and self-expression to blossom without effort, anxiety, or fear of failure.

We firmly believe that there is no “right way” in exploring creativity. We create a safe, supportive atmosphere that quiets the left brain’s critical judgment so that the right brain’s holistic inspirations can come out to play. This allows students to access parts of themselves that may otherwise stay hidden. In this way, we empower women and children of all ages to discover their own wisdom and express it through writing and art.

Our approach is based on the tenets of positive psychology in which identifying strengths, reinforcing optimism, and fostering personal responsibility are seen as the keys to unlocking an individual’s full potential.

Our PlayShops are created to stimulate the senses, the imagination, and the creative mind to balance the emphasis our society and educational systems place on linear thought and rational, deductive reasoning. They are nature-oriented because we believe that connecting with nature opens new ways of seeing ourselves and fuels a reverence for the beauty and complexity of the natural world of which we are a part.

All of our PlayShops are designed to stimulate the development of Daniel Goleman’s emotional and social intelligences and engage four of Howard Gardners’ Eight Types of Intelligence (linguistic/verbal, interpersonal, intrapersonal, and naturalistic).

Humming-Words

Facilitator Biographies

Cynthia Leslie-Bole

Communication. Creativity. Connection. Writer, Teacher and Life Coach Cynthia Leslie-Bole, M.A., has been instrumental in creating many personal growth workshops that use writing as a method of inquiry, meditation and exploration.

Cynthia has taught communication courses for UC Berkeley Extension and the University of Delaware. She has extensive experience training corporate clients in all aspects of media and community relations. Cynthia is a seasoned writer/editor and will become a Certified Amherst Method Writing Workshop Facilitator this summer.

Through workshops and coaching, Cynthia ignites sparks of possibility and optimism in others with her intuitive, compassionate guidance. As co-founder of HummingWords, it is Cynthia’s desire to enable others to reclaim their innate wisdom and joy.

Karen Mireau

Curiosity. Creativity. Collaboration. Visual Artist, Writer and Entrepreneur Karen Mireau has enjoyed multiple careers in animation, children’s publishing, marketing and . . . organic farming.

For ten years, Karen owned Satori Organics, an organic, energy-self-sufficient farmstead and healing center. There, she propagated over 300 varieties of antique fruits, flowers, vegetables and wild-crafted herbs and taught others how to enrich their lives by being deeply connected to the natural world.

Karen has always found people drawn naturally to her fresh, intuitive nurturance. Her current company, Bio.Graphia, offers people a way of discovering the transformative and therapeutic value of telling their own story. She designs custom, hand-bound books to accompany their personal narratives.

As co-founder of HummingWords, it is her greatest wish to provide practical and spiritual support to anyone engaged in the creative process.