As the father of five kids, four daughters and one son, I feel I'm rich beyond the singing of it. Their quietly adventurous lives are an inspiration and one of the things I most enjoy seeing them do is playing independently.

Quite by accident, I've joined the international play brigade - a wide array of caregivers and professionals who advocate for kids and help create spaces and play opportunities for them. Among the ranks of the players in this growing movement are health care professionals, playworkers, landscape architects, psychologists, policy makers, architects, engineers, artists from a variety of disciplines, recreation leaders, designers, nature lovers and conservationists, early childhood and public school educators, academics, parents and so many more....

Eight years ago, I started out writing about local playspaces In Halifax, Nova Scotia. It wasn't long before I came to appreciate the depth and richness of the broader world of play. I was saddened to learn that in many countries the incidence of independent play has diminished significantly generation over generation and that kids do not always have access to opportunities for play.

My exploration of the wonderful world of play has resulted in over 350 original posts on the PlayGroundology blog and play curation on Twitter, Facebook, flickr and a variety of other platforms.

Over the years, I have been, in no particular order, an accidental farm labourer, box maker, a canada world youther, bilingual dishwasher, historic log church site refurbisher, demolition labourer, steward for the captain of an icebreaker, peace movement youth exchange coordinator, daycare and elementary school teacher, film festival publicist, unilingual dishwasher, proofreader, freelance broadcaster and writer, tree planter, insulation installer, arts and culture administrator, weather data for broadcast seeker, technical translator, built heritage researcher, conference centre cleaning and cooking staffer, national association communications director, federal and provincial public servant, night watchman in a small town park/playground.

The best job hands down is being dad.

Thanks for reading. Please contact me if you're interested in contributing to PlayGroundology