A former teacher and Basking Ridge mom, Kerry Stockdale, opened Play Learn Connect to foster community and creativity through messy play.
BASKING RIDGE, NJ — While oftentimes, children are told to keep clean, this Basking Ridge mom and former teacher is encouraging kids to get messy.
Kerry Stockdale, a former kindergarten teacher in Springfield and English as a Second Language teacher in Madison, opened Play Learn Connect in her hometown of Basking Ridge in 2023 to foster community and creativity through messy play.
“I have a five-year-old son and a two-year-old daughter, and we are always looking for new fun activities to do in the neighborhood, so I created messy play as a way of bringing families together through creativity and organic learning,” said Stockdale.
In the one-hour classes, Stockdale sets up five messy play stations around the room, including potion making; sensory bins with painted pasta, rice, beans, and chickpeas; and a painting station.
“For the painting stations, we try to go really different, really unusual, and have stations available for children that they wouldn’t have access to anywhere else. A few weeks ago, we had children paint old box TVs,” said Stockdale.
Stockdale says sometimes children come into class and don’t know what to do. They will see paint on the floor, there are paint brushes, and then there is a TV.
“You can absolutely paint the TV, you can paint the floor, you can paint the wall. It’s all inviting for them,” said Stockdale.
As a teacher for 12 years in the public school system, Stockdale said she knows how crucial it is for these tiny ones to be building up their fine and gross motor skills.
“Before they even pick up a pencil, they’re squishing colorful pasta. They’re pouring dyed rice. We’re going to be hammering golf tees into pumpkins,” said Stockdale.
Stockdale said the pumpkin hammering is one of her favorite activities in the fall.
“It’s so beneficial on many ways. They’re using these tiny hammers, you know, who gives a one-year-old a hammer? And they’re hammering these golf tees, and it’s a different texture. The outside of the pumpkin is so hard, then they get to the soft middle part. So even though the activities are fun and super cute, they’re actually extremely beneficial for early childhood development,” said Stockdale.
The classes are offered for children ages 18 months to 5 years old and are held weekly on Thursdays, Fridays, and some Saturdays inside the Convenant Chapel Reformed Episcopal Church at 127 W. Oak Street, Basking Ridge.
Parents or guardians can sign up ahead of time or drop in. There are also birthday party packages available.
Stockdale said the best part about the classes is that parents do not have to clean up. She will take care of it all.
“Grown-ups do not have to clean up. Whatever mess the children make, their job is to get messy. The grown-ups job is to enjoy the moment. My job is to sweep everything up at the end,” said Stockdale. “And grown-ups, when they come, there’s no obligation to join in the play. They can sit on a couch, they can sip their coffee, or if they want to get down and play with their child, they can dump rainbow rice all over the floor too.”
Overall, Stockdale said her classes are designed to be a very relaxed and welcoming environment.
Additionally, for the children, the classes are designed to be open-ended play, so there’s no sitting, no listening, or direction following for the children.
“It’s just simply the moment they enter the room, they can start playing wherever and however they choose,” said Stockdale. “And at the end of class, we end with bubbles to help ease the transition out of the room. And it’s a beautiful hour, and everyone is welcome.”
For more information on Play Learn Connect, Messy Play classes, or birthday parties, visit playlearnconnect.com/ or facebook.com/profile or instagram.com/playlearnconnectnj.