About

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Welcome to Classic Play!, a site celebrating creative families. Here, we share ideas and inspiration for playful family living. We have a blog portion of the site which is updated daily, and an Issues page where you can explore a topic through the eyes of some pretty fabulous artists, writers and crafters. Here’s a look at some topics we’ve explored in the past: science, music, food, movies and television, sports, love, travel and more. It’s a look at all things family and childhood.

Who’s behind this site? My name is Jennifer Cooper. What’s my story? Buckle up, because you’re about to learn more about me than you probably ever wanted to know.

 

 

As a kid, I would dress up like a hobo for no apparent reason, paint my face like KISS, and once I taped index cards into about 100 books my parents had on the shelves just so I could play librarian. Guess you could say, I’ve always been serious about play. That and my parents gave me a crazy amount of freedom.

I started off my career as a behaviorally-trained early interventionist (it’s a mouthful, I know) teaching kids how to talk, read, ride bikes, and play. When I became pregnant with my second child, I left the field and in 2005 formed a small toy company with my mom and sister called Ellie Bellie Kids. I created Classic Play! in 2007. It started as a downloadable pdf for EBK customers. In 2010, we moved Classic Play! online.

 

 

I’m occasionally asked by others to contribute playful ideas for families and kids, so you can find some of my work online and in print. In addition to my craft/activities for kids work, I’ve collaborated with my husband, filmmaker and photographer Dave K Cooper, to produce a variety of video shorts and commercials that are fun for the whole family. You can watch them here.

I love hearing from you, so feel free to drop me a line. You can find me on facebook here and here and on twitter here.
 

 

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