KINDER VILLA, HENDERSONVILLE: Located on private property off Sanders Ferry Road, about 7 minutes from East Main Street. The exact address will be sent automatically by email after registration.
What would you put in a city if you got to design one from scratch?
We’ll start with one big paper landscape spread across the table; with land, water, a few natural obstacles, and give the rest to the kids.
Using cardstock paper, markers and movable pieces, they’ll begin mapping out their city together. Where should people live? Where do the roads go? do we need a grocery store? A hospital? Parks? Schools? What belongs near what? And what needs more space?
At first, they can build the city they want. Then we’ll start giving them people and problems.
A resident breaks a leg. Can they get to a hospital? A family moves in without a car. Can they get to the grocery store? Traffic starts backing up. There’s a flood. More people move in and suddenly there aren’t enough homes.
And sometimes the solution creates an entirely new problem. Maybe the best place for a hospital is currently a neighborhood. Do the houses have to move? Where do those families go? Maybe a new road solves the traffic problem but cuts through something the kids wanted to protect. Maybe there simply isn’t enough room for everything.
Because the city is made from drawings and movable paper pieces, it can keep changing as the workshop unfolds. The kids can move neighborhoods, redraw roads, add something new, take something away and completely rethink an earlier decision.
They’ll have to propose solutions, explain their ideas, listen to each other and make decisions as a group. When they disagree, we’ll vote. There’s no mayor and no “correct” city we’re waiting for them to discover.
The goal isn’t to make a beautiful model city. It’s to put the kids in charge of one and see what happens.
Through building, changing, debating and problem-solving, they’ll get a very hands-on look at how communities work, what people need and why decisions that sound simple can get complicated once they affect everyone.
KINDER VILLA, HENDERSONVILLE: Located on private property off Sanders Ferry Road, about 7 minutes from East Main Street. The exact address will be sent automatically by email after registration.
What would you put in a city if you got to design one from scratch?
We’ll start with one big paper landscape spread across the table; with land, water, a few natural obstacles, and give the rest to the kids.
Using cardstock paper, markers and movable pieces, they’ll begin mapping out their city together. Where should people live? Where do the roads go? do we need a grocery store? A hospital? Parks? Schools? What belongs near what? And what needs more space?
At first, they can build the city they want. Then we’ll start giving them people and problems.
A resident breaks a leg. Can they get to a hospital? A family moves in without a car. Can they get to the grocery store? Traffic starts backing up. There’s a flood. More people move in and suddenly there aren’t enough homes.
And sometimes the solution creates an entirely new problem. Maybe the best place for a hospital is currently a neighborhood. Do the houses have to move? Where do those families go? Maybe a new road solves the traffic problem but cuts through something the kids wanted to protect. Maybe there simply isn’t enough room for everything.
Because the city is made from drawings and movable paper pieces, it can keep changing as the workshop unfolds. The kids can move neighborhoods, redraw roads, add something new, take something away and completely rethink an earlier decision.
They’ll have to propose solutions, explain their ideas, listen to each other and make decisions as a group. When they disagree, we’ll vote. There’s no mayor and no “correct” city we’re waiting for them to discover.
The goal isn’t to make a beautiful model city. It’s to put the kids in charge of one and see what happens.
Through building, changing, debating and problem-solving, they’ll get a very hands-on look at how communities work, what people need and why decisions that sound simple can get complicated once they affect everyone.