Raising Creative Kids through Play

What happens when you stop directing your child's play and simply let them lead?

In this episode, Esther sits down solo with multidisciplinary artist and mom Mills Brown to explore the deep, sometimes surprising, places where play, creativity, and parenthood overlap. You'll hear about Mills's sensory play sessions for children as young as six months at Modern Art Oxford, her upcoming solo exhibition, and the Montessori philosophy that shapes everything she does, including why the most powerful thing you can do in a play environment is step back and say nothing at all. Whether you've been wondering how to nurture your own creativity or simply how to make more space for truly free, open-ended play at home, this conversation is warm, curious, and full of gentle reminders that you're doing better than you think.

Mills Brown is a multidisciplinary artist whose work lives at the intersection of painting, illustration, animation, and sculpture, with play as the thread that ties it all together. She's the Producer of Early Years and Young People at Modern Art Oxford, where she creates sensory play experiences for children as young as six months old, and is the creator of the upcoming immersive solo exhibition Where We Overlap. She's also a mom to an 18-month-old, which means her studio, her gallery, and her living room all tend to blur into one big creative experiment.

What you’ll learn in this episode:

(00:01:57) How Mills Brown creates sensory play sessions for children as young as six months at Modern Art Oxford's Make Play program, using themes from current gallery exhibitions as a jumping-off point for open-ended exploration.
(00:05:03) Why the Montessori concept of the "prepared environment" is one of the most powerful tools any parent or educator can use, and why the adult's most important work often happens before the child even enters the room.
(00:07:12) Why Montessori-inspired parenting is genuinely accessible to every family, regardless of income, and why the $200 Montessori shelf is really just a low shelf a child can reach.
(00:08:23) Why children almost never need adults to tell them how to play, and how learning to step back, observe, and say less can be one of the most supportive things a parent can do.
(00:14:35) How the time constraints of early parenthood can actually push creative people to focus more deeply and get more done than ever before.
(00:20:28) Why prioritizing unstructured play time as seriously as focused work is a vital investment in your child's development.

Thank you to Mills Brown for being on our show!
Learn more about Mills at https://www.millsbrownart.com/ or by following her Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/mills_brown_

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We’re Doing Great is the parenting podcast that helps you navigate the hard stuff, savor the good stuff, and remember you’re not alone. Hosts and moms, Melissa Cash and Esther Huybreghts, team up with experts to share practical guidance on how to stay anchored when the waters get rough. Join us on the frontlines of modern parenting as we explore what it really means to be good at the hardest job on earth.

Pok Pok is on a mission to help raise the next generation of creative thinkers through non-addictive, digital tools that help them think outside the box and learn through play.

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This episode was produced by Story On Media: https://www.storyon.co/