ABSTRACT
The Thinking Playground is a Philosophy for Children (P4C) summer camp. In its preparation and execution, it is a magical educative experience. As such, we believe that a reflective analysis on what makes this Camp (and its preparation) so special will lead to fruitful suggestions for other educators. These suggestions include integrating the curriculum under themed topics, creating genuine communal bonds within the learning environment (not just at recess), ensuring that topics are relevant, and making room for a lot of creativity. It is our hope that our text can contribute to expanding the discussion on adding pedagogical elements related to Philosophy for Children for teacher education and teacher training programs and thus enriching them. Since we believe that how we educate is as important as what we educate, we also encourage the use of the fun factor as a measure of the degree to which students are getting the message that learning is an exhilarating experience. By so doing, educators (including teacher-educators) will feel a passion that will be transmitted to their students, who, in turn, like our campers, will then come to perceive education as a privilege, and so enthusiastically embrace the educative experience, not because they are required to do so, but because they can’t imagine anything they would rather do more.
