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Before you shop this holiday season, think about how your friends and family play. Researcher and founder of the National Institute for Play, Dr. Stuart Brown identified 8 different play personalities. As you look at the descriptions, you’ll probably be able to recognize yourself and people you know. Don’t worry - you can have more than 1! We think this can be enlightening and help with finding the right gift. To help illustrate, we’ve included the Floppable we think matches each play personality best. Collector: Enjoys interesting collections of objects or experiences.  Floppable: Boxed Velvet - it comes in its...

Purchasers of the Haylo chatter ring are invited to an exclusive virtual AMA with master player and ring designer Kurt Alford. He will be on-hand to offer tips, answer questions, and talk ring play.  Like our regular Flop Jams, we're keeping this one small and intimate.       

The U.S. Surgeon General issued an advisory titled Protecting Youth Mental Health in December 2021. He wants each of us to take responsibility and action because, “supporting the mental health of children and youth will require a whole-of-society effort to address long standing challenges, strengthen the resilience of young people, support their families and communities, and mitigate the pandemic’s mental health impacts.”  Flop Balls can help you and your family start implementing steps the Surgeon General recommends.‍ #1: Take Breaks.‍ The first action step in the Surgeon General’s Advisory for family members and caregivers states “Be the best role model you can be...

Exactly 65 years ago today, January 13th, 1957, Wham-O novelty toy company began production of the Pluto Platter (later rebranded as the Frisbee), a plastic disc that is spun and flung between friends. Forever reminding the world that it's fun playing with things that spin. Spinning things is a popular form of kinetic play - physically moving objects around our body in order to master tricks for the fun of it. It has a long rich history. For the first 10,000 years the spinning top was all the rage. Then the diabolo, or devil between two sticks, popped up from...

Play can look like a lot of different things. Some people prefer games like tennis or golf. Some would rather engage in creative play like painting or writing or improv. And some like sitting down with a book and getting lost in a story (yes, that’s play too).  We want to talk about kinetic play and how it can help stem the rising tide of perfectionism. Kinetic play is physically moving objects with and around your body by tossing, flipping, spinning, swinging, or otherwise manipulating them in order to master tricks for the fun of it. You choose a simple...