Sparking Back a Love of Learning through Play with Katherine Mengardon (EP117)

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Katherine Mengardon is an education innovator and writer with 20 years of experience in developing online innovative education programs and resources. She is the author of the three Little Inventors non-fiction children’s books published by HarperCollins.

Your background

I have developed educational programs for over 20 years, working on innovative online resources that bring a real-life element to the classroom. For the past 4 years, I was also Chief Educator at Little Inventors.

Video on Don’t Stop Until You Play Enough

Being an artist/illustrator 

www.karuski.co.uk

My work centers on capturing the essence of people and translating that into drawings – I create bespoke portraits, such as family portraits and family trees, or celebrities. I work from ordinary photos and create a composite image of my subjects.

I also do cat illustration, and my cat album covers (catified versions of the Beatles, Nick Cave, Blondie, Blur, Gainsbourg, Miles David, and more) were featured as part of the Meow Exhibition IV in Leuven for the MidZommer festival 2013 at the M Museum (major contemporary museum in Belgium). I designed images on Instagram for my photography, baking, illustration, and also a fun page of translating famous album covers in French – U2 is toi aussi, Patti Smith is Patricia Lefevre, and the Rolling Stones les pierres qui roulent… 

What are some of the products you worked on and organizations you have worked with?

I have been involved with groundbreaking, innovative classroom resources for the BBC, Google, Cartoon Network, GSK, NatWest, Little Inventors, Pearson, and Nesta, to name a few. I aim to open children’s eyes and minds to a new, fun way of learning and give them the tools to prepare for a bright future.

Chief Educator and Head of Operations of Little Inventors 

https://www.littleinventors.org/ 

Little Inventors is a creative education company – it aims to inspire children to use their imagination to think up ingenious invention ideas, then work with artists, makers, and designers to bring the most ingenious children’s ideas to life – and develop essential creativity life skills in the process!

The family scooter by Wendy, age 9

We launch challenges across the world with incredible partners (museums, brands, cultural powerhouses, and celebrities) and beyond – the Canadian government and the Canadian Space Agency even sent our little inventors’ ideas into space!

As part of the Little Inventors team, I discovered the content, including very popular educational programs. I have written numerous STEAM school educational resources for our high-profile partners: the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Natural Science and Engineering Council of Canada (NSERC), the Canadian Space Agency, the Canadian Commission for UNESCO, Mr Men and Little Miss, Disney, Ocado, and several high-profile Arts Council-funded projects. My focus was on Science, Literacy, Citizenship, and Art, anchored in social consciousness, especially about the environment.

The ambition is to inspire children to build confidence in their natural creativity and equip them with the problem-solving skills that will help them to tackle whatever tomorrow brings. Next stop – inventing in the curriculum!

The Little Inventor books

Little Inventors in Space,   Little Inventors Go Green,       Little Inventors Handbook

What are some of your imaginations?

I wrote another Children’s activity book for Alexandra Palace in the UK, about enjoying parks, play, and caring for nature and the environment.  It’s called Wild in the Park and should be out later this year. 

Little Inventors was brilliant at showcasing the imagination of children and giving them the validation that their ideas matter. This has confirmed for me the importance of taking children’s ideas seriously, validating them, and inspiring them. I am now working on my next project, which brings my experience together with more creative thinking to the classroom – the idea is to explore people who use creative thinking in their jobs, of course, in the arts, but also in science, and more. I want to allow children and young people a chance to explore creative projects and maybe even collaborate with the artists! It’s very early days still, but I’m getting incredible support for the idea, so watch this space. What I dream of is convincing Netflix to start an EDU channel. I don’t know why there is this idea that learning has to be serious and boring. Imagine if we treated education with the same care and desire to entertain?

We all know children learn better when they have fun, after all. 

I am putting my concept to the test, too, by collaborating with 12-year-old Anaya Hamid in New Jersey, who is an amazing illustrator with a strong style and talent. We created a book for early readers called “The Cat of Nine Names†about a stray cat that visits 9 homes and has a different identity with each place. I found Anaya when she entered the JK Rowling Ickabog competition on Twitter. I was so sure she would win, and I was gutted when she didn’t (still don’t know why!), so I offered to do a project with her.

Check out Anaya’s amazing Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/mightyhammys_art/.

I’m working on a novel for Young Adults called Perfect Imperfect, about two girls who meet across worlds and have to find their own perfect version of their imperfect lives. It’s all about showing that we don’t need to change who we are, that perfection is a myth, and that we have value as individuals. Something that young people need to hear these days. 

Updates for Katherine

Katherine hosts YourPlay.space https://yourplay.space/home, where Play is a universal human right. She provides consulting, coaching, and support on how to explore the world.

It’s how we learn. It’s the key to creativity.

Yet, past early years, play slowly but surely disappears from most education or personal development agendas. We believe that playfulness is key to re-igniting a love of learning and developing, not only for children, but for grown-ups too.

Contact Katherine to learn more about how you can infuse play and fun in your world

Katherine’s Contact Information

Email: katherine@yourplay.space
Instagram: karuskicolours
Twitter (X): @KMengardon
LinkedIn:  linkedin.com/in/karuski
Facebook: kmengardon
Little Inventors: https://www.littleinventors.org/ 
Amazon Author page with videos!

Instagram Pages

• https://www.instagram.com/frenchifymysong/
• https://www.instagram.com/karuskicolours
• https://www.instagram.com/karuskivision/
• https://www.instagram.com/karuskibakes/

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