Tessa Rose Natural Playspaces

BBC News - Forest play aids nursery children's mediation skills

noreply@blogger.com (Tess Michaels) — Thu, 01 Mar 2012 08:13:00 +0000

BBC News - Forest play aids nursery children's mediation skills

Not a bit of soft fall...unless you count the original...nor piece of set equipment in sight.

Excerpts below -the full article can be read from the link above.

A trial of outdoor learning in the woods designed to promote independent play in nursery children led to them learning to solve disputes themselves. The Pontycymer Nursery youngsters were part of a test project in Bridgend.

The children were encouraged to play together and with materials such as buckets and trowels and were discreetly observed by staff. ........At their first Play Project session, the children were taught how to carry out a simple risk assessment of the woodland and given basic resources such as buckets, ropes, trowels, mud and water to encourage them to start playing.

The resources were reduced each week until the children just used what they could find in the woods to interact with and use in their games. Part of the philosophy behind the project is modelled on outdoor learning in Sweden, which aims to encourage independent learning.

......She said of the mediation skills the children started showing: "The conflict resolution came along during the project. Withdrawing adult-led interaction, it was a byproduct of the process.

....The children learned "how to negotiate with each other to get an agreed outcome" and were "finding out about becoming more resilient when things don't go their way. ....."These are important lifelong skills that we hope will remain with these youngsters long after."

Lynne Walsh from Pontycymer Nursery said they hoped the project would foster a lifelong interest for the children in the natural world, and respect for the environment......She said of the project: "The children have grown in confidence over the weeks and are able to implement conflict resolution strategies independently." Ms Prior said it was also helping their social development and they were becoming "increasingly creative with the natural resources available to them."

The Need for "Wild" Play: Let Children Be the Animals They Need to Be | Psychology Today

noreply@blogger.com (Tess Michaels) — Thu, 01 Mar 2012 08:04:00 +0000

The Need for "Wild" Play: Let Children Be the Animals They Need to Be | Psychology Today

Excerpts below -the full article can be read from the link above.

...This second edition of Bob Hughes's Evolutionary Playwork is an outstanding book that should be read carefully by anyone who's interested in play, and then read again and again.

........After all, we're big-brained altricial mammals, born helpless and requiring extensive adult care, who learn a wide variety of skills through different sorts of play.

.....what is "evolutionary playwork"....Hughes coined the term to re-emphasise that the growing body of scientific evidence confirming a direct relationship between play, evolution and brain growth, demonstrated that play work should never have been viewed either as a social engineering, a socialising or citizenship tool, but rather as comprehensive support for deep biological processes—expressed through mechanisms like adaptation, flexibility, calibration and the different play types—that enabled the human organism to withstand the pressures of extinction." Thus, "playwork was about helping the species to survive extinction and adapt to change, by ensuring that wild adult-free play in diverse environments was still a choice for its children."

Hughes also wants to know what we need to do in the future to make real play a reality, play that is not bounded by adult rules..... if the activity is bounded by adult rules, if it is stiff, formalised and dominated by the need to score points and flatter one's ego, that is not play, it is something else..... Play, like life, is not safe, and if it is, it is not play.

... From time to time teachers and child psychologists ask me questions such as, "What can we learn from the way in which animals play that will help us gain a better understanding of human play?" This is happening more and more as kids are increasingly pulled from the playground to their computers and other devices .......Social networks also get in the way of spontaneous social play and many people are rightfully concerned about what these means for the current and future well-being of today's youngsters.

Basically, we can learn about the various reasons why animals play including its vital role in social development and socialization, physical exercise, cognitive development, and also for learning social skills concerning fairness, cooperation, and moral behavior ...

.....Simply put, and I don't know anyone who would disagree (including perhaps even those who force kids to sit in front of their computers and don't support the U. N. Convention of the rights of the child) young children need to play just as young animals need to play. We need free-ranging kids and we need to allow kids to be the animals who they are. They must be allowed to "get down and dirty" and learn to take risks and negotiate social relationships that might be complicated, unexpected, or unpredictable. .......... "It is vital that we understand that our children are our future, that without them we do not have one, and without 'wild' play neither do they. They need freedom and space, and both should be awarded freely and ungrudgingly, as a demonstration of our civilization."

I love the slogan of Play Wales, Better a broken bone than a broken spirit, attributed to Lady Allen of Hurtwood. We should embrace it with all our heart.

'Active' Video Games May Not Boost Kids' Fitness: Study

noreply@blogger.com (Tess Michaels) — Thu, 01 Mar 2012 07:45:00 +0000

'Active' Video Games May Not Boost Kids' Fitness: Study

It may seem unkind but when I read this article all I could think was "Well DUH!"

I have a friend whose young son returned home from the pub one night to play Wii bowling with his friends. His son became a tad overenthusiastic and managed to throw the controller into the screen of their new TV. Currently the son is getting lots of real exercise working a 2nd job to pay for the replacement TV. I can't help but think that this whole episode would have been avoided if they had really gone bowling.

Excerpts below -the full article can be read from the link above.

... Apparently there's no guarantee that your kids will mend their couch-potato ways if you give them a fitness video game.

A new study found no differences in physical activity over a three-month period between a group of children given "active" video games that simulated boxing and dancing, for example, and a group given "non-active" video games.

.....The scientists followed 78 children between the ages of 9 and 12, and gave each a new Wii video game console. None had owned one before. Half were invited to choose from a selection of five active fitness-focused games such as Wii Fit Plus, while the other half chose from inactive games, including Mario Kart Wii. The youngsters received needed accessories including balance boards, remote controllers and resistance bands.

Baranowski said letting the children chose their own games was important, and they were given an opportunity to select one at the start and then another new one after six weeks. "We wanted to be sure they were getting something they wanted and we weren't foisting one on them," he said.

To measure physical activity, each participant wore an accelerometer, an electronic device attached to a belt at the waist that tracks movement. The belt could be taken off only when swimming or bathing, and the children kept a journal of when they removed it. The authors said compliance was high because the youngsters wanted to keep their Wii consoles.

Baranowski said they expected that starting at week one there would be a substantial increase in physical activity in the group that played the active games, but not in the inactive game group. They expected another surge after the children chose their second new game midway through the study. No increase in physical activity occurred, though.

...."You'd think that the kids who are playing these games would be burning more calories, but I think the nature of the games is not the same as going out and interacting. It doesn't directly encourage kids to go out and exercise," said Dr. Gary Small, a professor of psychiatry and biobehavioral sciences at the David Geffen School of Medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles. He has studied and written about the impact of technology on children and adults.

"Wii Fit is not made to get kids to exercise, it's to sell games. Maybe they need to design the games differently, to really get kids to move more," Small said.

Children's Hospital Colorado pediatrician Dr. Christina Suh, who has conducted research on physical activity in overweight and obese children, said it's not encouraging news in terms of using the fitness video games as a tool for tackling the increasing problem of childhood obesity......She said it's somewhat counterintuitive to recommend children get their daily physical activity from video games.

"It muddles the message pediatricians give to get outside. My feeling is if you're going to be physically active, it makes more sense to play tennis with a family member outdoors than on a video game inside. A tennis racquet and some balls would much cheaper than a video game console, too," Suh said.'

Jan White Natural Play

noreply@blogger.com (Tess Michaels) — Thu, 01 Mar 2012 03:15:00 +0000

Jan White Natural Play

I was really happy to come across this UK playspace designers site and see the abundance of detail that she has provided about her experience and practice.

I especially like her piece on outdoor play for two year olds (a group that is frequently neglected).

I would highly recommend her site to anyone who is interested in the natural play and is seeking to obtain insight and knowledge about the provision of this type of activity in their own educational environments.

Nature Whispering - Simple Ways to have Magical, Mystical Experiences in Nature

noreply@blogger.com (Tess Michaels) — Thu, 01 Mar 2012 02:56:00 +0000

Nature Whispering - Simple Ways to have Magical, Mystical Experiences in Nature

Loving the natural art ideas featured here. The whole site is worth a good look!

Tweeting a grown-up game for preschool students

noreply@blogger.com (Tess Michaels) — Sat, 25 Feb 2012 22:53:00 +0000

Tweeting a grown-up game for preschool students

Egalitarian Oui!, Novel Oui!, Functional Non!

Excerpts below -the full article can be read from the link above.

FRENCH preschoolers near Bordeaux are posting daily updates to the micro-blogging website Twitter under their class' handle, camusmat04, despite not yet knowing how to read or write.

Since the start of the school year, the 29 children have posted short messages of 140 characters or less about a daily activity to a joint Twitter feed, which has 88 followers, most of them parents.

......The children's teacher came up with the idea to teach them to recognise the alphabet in different formats - cursive, keyboard, screen - and to learn to move from oral to written word.

Each day the process is the same: the children propose topics and vote on a winner. All pupils then try their hand at writing a tweet, before the teacher combines them into a final post that two children type into the computer.

''We love writing on the computer like grown-ups,'' said five-year-old Emma.

Teacher Philippe Guillem said the goal was not just to teach the children but parents as well. About 80 per cent of the parents have agreed to follow the class Twitter account, where at the start of the year only one had subscribed to the service and only a handful had Facebook profiles
.

Wilderness Therapy Uses Nature to Help People Heal : Wildlife Promise

noreply@blogger.com (Tess Michaels) — Sat, 18 Feb 2012 00:40:00 +0000

Wilderness Therapy Uses Nature to Help People Heal : Wildlife Promise

Excerpts below -the full article can be read from the link above.

'Many of us have stories about taking solace in nature’s simple beauty, but few realize just how crucial a lifeline it can be.....

...More and more research and anecdotal evidence indicates that nature experiences buoy our mental and emotional well-being...—just last week Melinda Koslow wrote about Beyond Tucson, a day-long nature experience intended to help the Arizonans come to terms with the 2011 shooting of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords.

As it turns out, the young woman in the story above traveled to DC in late September with Sierra Club volunteers to advocate for the Healthy Kids Outdoors Act, which would give states funds to develop plans to get more children into the outdoors.

Fortunately, you don’t need to climb a mountain or go into an intensive counseling program to reap nature’s emotional benefits. “Even going on nature hikes can be really calming — simple hikes, time spent reflecting in nature, journaling in nature, ...There’s a lot of different ways you can use nature for therapy. Miller wants her outdoor activism focused on children, whom she says can benefit from connecting with the outdoors even if they don’t need therapy.'

Criminal Child Neglect and the "Free Range Kid": Is Overprotective Parenting the New Standard of Care?

noreply@blogger.com (Tess Michaels) — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 21:52:00 +0000

Criminal Child Neglect and the "Free Range Kid": Is Overprotective Parenting the New Standard of
Care?

Picture: Hugh Kretschmer for TIME

Thanks to Lenore from Free Range Kids for directing us to this pertinent article, You can support the perspective by downloading the article here.

'In the last generation, American parenting norms have shifted strongly in favor of Intensive Parenting, placing particular emphasis on protecting children from risks of harm.

Recently, a backlash to this trend has emerged. “Free Range” parenting is based on the concern that coddling children through overprotection inhibits the development of their independence and responsibility. Indeed, a growing body of literature suggests that parental overreaction to remote and even illusory risks of physical harm is exposing children to far more serious risks to their well-being and development. But the powerful influence of media has sensationalized the risks to children, skewing popular perceptions of the genuine risks children face and of what constitutes a reasonable or appropriate response to such risks.

Consequently, individuals who do not buy into Intensive Parenting norms, including those from different cultural and socio-economic backgrounds, may be subjecting themselves to criminal prosecution for child neglect and endangerment. The criminal statutes are, for the most part, very vague, leaving these prosecutions—which amount to little more than one person’s second-guessing the parenting choices of another—in the discretion of prosecutors, who bring the charges, and of juries, who render verdicts. If prosecutors and jurors share the media-fed misperceptions of risk, overprotective parenting becomesthe de facto legal standard of care.'

How To Help Your Baby Become A Math Genius (Or Not) | Janet Lansbury

noreply@blogger.com (Tess Michaels) — Sun, 12 Feb 2012 05:51:00 +0000

How To Help Your Baby Become A Math Genius (Or Not) | Janet Lansbury

Thanks to Tallie Allen for directing me to this fantastic piece on divergent thinking and innate creativity.

Excerpts below -the full article can be read from the link above.

'Raise your hand if you don’t want a brilliant child.

Honestly. Ensuring our child’s good health, happiness, kindness and compassion may well be our highest priorities, but wouldn’t we do all in our power to have the brightest, most talented, top-of-the-class kid? Or, at least, one who doesn’t have to struggle too hard to make the grade?

And here is where it gets really unfair. If we didn’t have enough issues to puzzle out.....we are then presented with a torrent of persuasive, conflicting advice about how to help our babies become the quick thinkers and successful, highly motivated learners we hope they will be.

A mom commented (on my post Baby, Interrupted - 7 Ways To Build Your Child’s Focus And Attention Span) that the information I share on my site has made her question the early learning programs she bought for her son. She asked what I thought she should do to utilize them. I suggested that she wait until her boy was 4 or 5, and then allow him to peruse the videos, flashcards, etc., if he was interested in doing so.

She replied: “Hmm. Wait until he’s 4 or 5 years? For the math thing the whole idea of doing it now is because baby’s until 2.5 years are able to perceive true quantity and that makes it much easier for them to learn math. And when I look at how terrible I am at math, I don’t want him to miss this opportunity…

I like the idea of taking the middle path — to teach him what will benefit him to learn at an early age, and to leave the rest alone on the floor for him to examine if he’s interested.

....It is true that infants and toddlers begin to perceive quantity. They also learn fractions, addition and subtraction, even multiplication, division and geometry. In recent studies reported in Berkeley psychology professor Alison Gopnik’sNew York Times article “Your Baby Is Smarter Than You Think”, babies as young as eight months old demonstrated astonishing capacities for “statistical reasoning, experimental discovery and probabilistic logic” that allow them to “rapidly learn all about the particular objects and people surrounding them.”

But Gopnik warns, “Sadly, some parents are likely to take the wrong lessons from these experiments and conclude that they need programs and products that will make their babies even smarter. Many think that babies, like adults, should learn in a focused, planned way. So parents put their young children in academic-enrichment classes or use flashcards… “ Instead, “Infants and toddlers need plenty of open-ended play time to be able to build the brain synapses necessary for higher learning abilities.”

Babies relish the time to learn this way, naturally and organically, with joy, wonder, and all five of their senses. When infants and toddlers examine the patterns on a blanket or cotton scarf, mouth the shape of a teething ring, experiment with blocks, balls or plastic beads, stack cups, pour water, shovel sand, make mud pies, watch and interact with us or even just stare at corners of the ceiling they are stimulating neural connections that build a strong foundation for math and language skills.

But interrupting a baby’s inborn desire to explore and discover to give a lesson in letters, numbers or reading is like painting a house before the foundation is built. It discourages him from working on what is really important, and wastes both our child’s time and ours.

Do we want our toddlers to learn how to use simple math and language symbols, or do we want them to truly understand mathematical concepts, develop their higher learning skills, be deep thinkers and creative problem solvers — discover who they are and what they are passionate about?

So, .... Any time we interrupt what an infant or toddler might be working on to “teach” him, we discourage focus and attention span. Attempting to plant seeds of knowledge in our babies inadvertently plants seeds of doubt. How can our child believe that the activities he chooses are valuable, when we signal that we want him to do something more…or different?

The truth is we don’t know where our children’s talents lie, but if we trust our baby, allow him to explore and experiment, and choose activities he is naturally drawn to, he will utilize the gifts he has to the fullest, and with great confidence. He may become that math whiz we hoped for…or something even cooler.'

Is iPad an educational tool or a lifestyle addiction?

noreply@blogger.com (Tess Michaels) — Sun, 12 Feb 2012 05:27:00 +0000

Is iPad an educational tool or a lifestyle addiction?

Disturbed by this piece -yes, Worried - ABSO-BLOODY-LUTELY !

They've snuck this tech. into homes and classrooms, marketed by the same people who brought you cigarettes and mobile phones, played on parental insecurities by touting it as the "Must Have" educational tool.

A large number of studies have been done on the long term effects (by long term I mean in the last twenty years) of children's exposure to unrestricted TV watching/content and console/PC game playing.

All maintain that it can have a detrimental effect on developing minds and that these minds can easily be led if the right (wrong) content is presented in a context socially accepted by the individual peer group (very similar to why it's dangerous to have the media owned by a small number of people). Not to mention social isolation (ironically in the midst of belief that they're socially connected), lack of development of "true" social skills and abilities, stunting of emotional vocabularies, then we could go on to the physical effects...but I don't have enough space....

There have been NO long term studies done on this tech. (which is essentially a combination of the other two mentioned above) but we've thoughtlessly embraced it, as if this form of "sensory deprivation" is a gift from the divine.

If we allow our children to believe that they are defined by their tech. presence, who do they become when the power goes out or they need to run or write with a pen or read a real book or talk to a real person......

Excerpts below -the full article can be read from the link above.

'Today, many school districts in Clayton County are instituting the use of iPads as an educational tool. These machines are being used from kindergarten classes through high school.

According to the U.S. Center for Media Literacy, fewer than 5 percent of schools teach media education. Why not have a class dedicated to teaching the risks of media consumption rather than insisting all children need to have an iPad in their hands and know where it is at all times?

In a 2011 New York Times article, Larry Cuban, professor emeritus of education at Stanford University, suggested that millions of dollars in financial resources currently being invested in iPads would be better spent to recruit, train and retain teachers.

Cuban wrote, “There is very little evidence that kids learn more, faster or better by using these machines. … iPads are marvelous tools to engage kids, but then the novelty wears off and you get into hard-core issues of teaching and learning.”

In the 2005 documentary, “Remote Control: Children, Media Consumption and the Changing American Family,” Hillary Clinton implied her concern with media consumption by saying, “With some additional research, the case will be conclusive that we are causing long-term public health damage to many, many children and therefore to society.”

Part of my job as a naturalist is to give classroom programs on the environment.

In December, I walked into a classroom of second-graders all scattered in different parts of the room. Headphones were covering their ears, and eyes focused on the screen in front of them. The students were so unaware of their surroundings that the teacher had to remove the headphones from their ears.

I thought possibly these students were using their iPads as a brief educational tool. Then I saw the daily iPad schedule included using the machines for math, science, history and reading.

Before holiday break, I observed 22 papers posted outside of a second-grade classroom. The students’ task was to color in a picture of a bear and answer the question “When little bear sleeps, I will be …” Nine of the 22 responses said they would be “playing video games.”

Walking into another elementary school, I saw a poster asking parents to donate money for the purchase of more iPad applications. The poster stated how critical it was for the students to become exposed to technology as it becomes more integrated into their daily life.

Another indication of the over-consumption of media in schools occurred when a veteran middle school teacher in Clayton County spoke to me of her frustrations over iPads in her classroom.

“As teachers, we are made to feel we are doing a disservice to the kids if we don’t teach them how to use this technology right now,” the teacher said. “… I have to work so much harder to implement one hands-on activity in an hour of class, yet more and more, I go home sad because of this difficult transition.”

Interestingly, this was the same class where students asked me if I had some animals they could touch.

A great forewarning is already occurring in Idaho, where virtual academies are being offered to students in grades kindergarten through 12th grade, subsequently replacing the need for school-based learning.

The Outdoor Environment Information Series

noreply@blogger.com (Tess Michaels) — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 11:11:00 +0000

Finally available in ebook at Amazon for $1.99. More titles to follow.
Don't have a kindle? DON'T WORRY!
Kindle Reader for PC - Here
Kindle Reader for iPhone - Here
Kindle Reader for iPad - Here
Kindle Reader for Blackberry - Here
Kindle Reader for Android - Here
Kindle Reader for Windows phone 7 - Here
Simply purchase the title from Amazon, install the reader on your device, register it using your Amazon credentials and Viola!, the title is automatically downloaded for your reading pleasure.

Early Years Learning Framework (EYLF) and Outdoor Environment Information Series
Each book in the Early Years Learning Framework (EYLF) and Outdoor Environment Information Series is specifically written for educators who wish to help develop high quality early childhood environments that address how naturalistic play and playspaces can be used to meet each of the five EYLF learning outcomes. The primary aim of the books is to enable educators to 'foster children’s capacity to understand and respect the natural environment and the interdependence between people, plants, animals and the land.'

Garden Maintenance for Playspaces

Finally, after numerous requests and much appreciated feedback and field testing we have created a comprehensive manual for use by educators, parents (and in supervised circumstances, children) who want to be involved in the maintenance of their playspaces. The manual covers the Who, What and Where questions and the appendices provide checklists and all-inclusive proformas for reports, letters and links to research and organisations.

The manual specifically addresses the AS/NZS 4486.1:1997 requirements for developing and maintaining a program of inspection and maintenance for all items of playspace equipment (including the frequency of inspection and the elements to be inspected) and includes recording procedures to be followed in the event of injuries, near misses and equipment damage.

A 4-Page Playdate Waiver? Is This the New Normal?

noreply@blogger.com (Tess Michaels) — Sun, 05 Feb 2012 21:33:00 +0000

A 4-Page Playdate Waiver? Is This the New Normal? « FreeRangeKids

Wow those US kids must play hard! A stunning letter to Free Range Kids, If you ever wanted proof that fear of legal liability was killing our kids chances of a normal childhood then this is up there. NOTE: Do not let you're child play at this house

Excerpt below -the full article can be read from the link above.

'....Yesterday my daughter came home from playing at the “new” neighbor’s house with a 4-page liability waiver that they want us to sign! Wow!.....'

World News - 'King of the farm': Sheep-herding rabbit gains fame

noreply@blogger.com (Tess Michaels) — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 23:20:00 +0000

'King of the farm': Sheep-herding rabbit gains fame

Not to belabour a point or seem heavy handed or ham fisted etc., etc., (but sometimes it saves time).... isn't it amazing what happens when you allow nature a little leeway... Introducing "Champis - the herding rabbit".

Now imagine Champis was a child, never given the opportunity to think for him/herself from cradle to grave.

New research shows that teaching kids more and more, at ever-younger ages, may backfire.

noreply@blogger.com (Tess Michaels) — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 05:37:00 +0000

New research shows that teaching kids more and more, at ever younger ages, may backfire. - Slate Magazine

Further to the previous posts on divergent and convergent thinking and how unstructured imaginative/creative indoor/outdoor play is being covertly traded for 'the “cult of rigour” demanded by standardised testing (aka we have to statistically justify our funding). This is an old article but the conclusions are fairly detailed and self explanatory i.e without the innate desire to explore and think creatively children would not be able to interact to accept structured teacher direction. This demand to think in a singularly structured manner in turn quashes free unstructured creative thought. Thus it is patently obvious what Henry David Thoreau mean't when he said, 'Most men lead lives of quiet desperation and go to the grave with the song still in them.' How about we give this next generation a chance to sing their own unique songs?

Excerpts below -the full article can be read from the link above.

'Ours is an age of pedagogy. Anxious parents instruct their children more and more, at younger and younger ages, until they're reading books to babies in the womb. They pressure teachers to make kindergartens and nurseries more like schools.

There are skeptics, of course, including some parents, many preschool teachers, and even a few policy-makers. Shouldn't very young children be allowed to explore, inquire, play, and discover, they ask? Perhaps direct instruction can help children learn specific facts and skills, but what about curiosity and creativity—abilities that are even more important for learning in the long run? Two forthcoming studies in the journal Cognition—one from a lab at MIT and one from my lab at UC-Berkeley—suggest that the doubters are on to something. While learning from a teacher may help children get to a specific answer more quickly, it also makes them less likely to discover new information about a problem and to create a new and unexpected solution....

...Almost by definition, directed teaching will make children do better on standardized tests, which the government uses to evaluate school performance. Curiosity and creativity are harder to measure.....

....As so often happens in science, two studies from different labs, using different techniques, have simultaneously produced strikingly similar results. They provide scientific support for the intuitions many teachers have had all along: Direct instruction really can limit young children's learning. Teaching is a very effective way to get children to learn something specific—this tube squeaks, say, or a squish then a press then a pull causes the music to play. But it also makes children less likely to discover unexpected information and to draw unexpected conclusions....

......Adults often assume that most learning is the result of teaching and that exploratory, spontaneous learning is unusual. But actually, spontaneous learning is more fundamental. It's this kind of learning, in fact, that allows kids to learn from teachers in the first place......... Knowing this, it's more important than ever to give children's remarkable, spontaneous learning abilities free rein. That means a rich, stable, and safe world, with affectionate and supportive grown-ups, and lots of opportunities for exploration and play. Not school for babies.

Preschoolers need to get a move on

noreply@blogger.com (Tess Michaels) — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 06:34:00 +0000

Study: Preschoolers need to get a move on - USATODAY.com

I read this and hear the Pink Floyd theme playing in the background - poor little buggers, who can't skip?

Studies are great! Usually they just quantify the obvious, the things that most people who work in Early Childhood Education already know. They're a bit like statistics, great to have in case you ever need to back up points in a paper your writing but unless something eventuates from them they're just cheap wrapping paper or doomed to the bargain book bin.

Excerpts below -the full article can be read from the link above

Most children at child care centers, preschools and nursery schools spend hours doing sedentary activities and aren't spending much time playing outside, research has shown.

A new analysis suggests possible reasons include concerns about injuries and parents' pressure on schools to pursue academic pursuits such as teaching kids shapes, colors and the ABCs.

"We know children learn through play, including vigorous play," says Kristen Copeland, a pediatrician at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center and the study's lead author. "They practice fundamental motor skills like skipping, playing with balls, jumping and climbing." Physical activity helps prevent excessive weight gain and helps children develop healthy habits that can last them a lifetime, she says. But such play is getting squeezed out because of other priorities.

"These kids finish preschool and don't know how to skip, and that doesn't upset their parents as long as they know their ABCs and can count to 10," Copeland says.

The study, published today in Pediatrics, the journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics, found that educators said they know vigorous activity is important to children. But they cited several barriers, including concerns about injuries, focus on academics and limited outdoor space and playground equipment.

It doesn't take a lot of expensive equipment for children to be active, Copeland says. "They just need to be taken outside and given the time, space and freedom to run. Many kids spend all day in child care, so this may be their only chance to be physically active."

Angela Mollard: To the wild yonder

noreply@blogger.com (Tess Michaels) — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 05:52:00 +0000

Angela Mollard: To the wild yonder | thetelegraph.com.au

I wonder as I read this....If this is what happens to someone who has only been exposed to the "Tech revolution" for a short period what is the the effect going to be on a child who has been weaned on an Ipad ? (see
In 2012, be kind to your brain, Babies with Ipads, iPhones | Steve Jobs | Nature Deficit Disorder, iPadding toddlers: When is it too soon?, Too much screen time eating into playtime, Babies and toddlers should learn from play, not screens, Smartphone on wheels for a fascinating ride in the back seat, VINCI | Why VINCI?)

Excerpts below -the full article can be read from the link above

FOR a year now, I’ve had a little quote pinned above my desk. “Tell me,” it says, “what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?” On a particularly joyless day, I scribbled a response: “Make lunch boxes.”

....recently I’ve felt disconnected, which is absurd because last year I received 13,506 emails, sent 432 tweets and became Facebook ‘friends’ with someone I kissed in 1989. I’m so connected that I go online the second I wake up. I’m linked in, favourited, retweeted, liked.

Trouble is, all this click-and-flick stuff isn’t nourishing me or the people I care about. .....I miss being transported by a great book, enlivened by a lengthy conversation, wearied by a long walk. I crave smiles made with mouth muscles, not emoticons. I yearn for the stillness and soft foot of nature. Late last year, sitting with my husband beside a lake in the rain, I cried. Not because I was upset, but because I’d sat still long enough to feel something.

Tech torpor, nature deficit disorder, digital ADHD - call it what you like, it’s fracturing our lives. How many couples spend their evenings on separate devices? How many babies looking up from their prams see their parents’ faces masked by an iPhone? New research shows Australians are less inclined to embrace adventure and try new things, with 80 per cent blaming technology and social networking for their inertia. Add to that the 130 million days of stockpiled annual leave and you get the sense there are a lot of people visiting life rather than living it.

So, this year, I’m going trekking in Nepal. It’s a long-held dream, conjured before children and mortgage and responsibility, and put on hold for more than a decade. I signed up before they told me it would be so cold at night I’d have to pee in a zip-lock bag, and before reading that altitude can affect co-ordination (I’m challenged at sea level).

For me, the appeal is as much nature as nurture. My screensaver is an inky blue mountain iced with snow, wild and precious. It’s time I did more than just look at it.

Trailing, can do better: report needs answers

noreply@blogger.com (Tess Michaels) — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 05:23:00 +0000

Trailing, can do better: report needs answers

'There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics.' allegedly Benjamin Disraeli

'We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.'

Albert Einstein.

Excerpts below -the full article can be read from the link above

When Julia Gillard was in Sydney this week to announce extra schools funding for students with disabilities, she stressed the need for Australia to win the "education race" against its Asian neighbours.

The call followed the lament by her Minister for School Education, Peter Garrett, over disappointing results from last year's national literacy and numeracy tests. There has been no marked improvement, and performance of top students is going backwards.

The brightest and most socio-economically advantaged children are concentrated in independent and public selective schools; the disadvantaged and poorest academic performers are in the public system.

For 10 years under the Howard government, Australia suppressed data comparing the performance of independent and public schools.

Sue Thomson, from the Australian Council for Educational Research, says the latest OECD snapshot revealed, for the first time, no significant differences in test scores from public and private schools after they were adjusted for the socio-economic background of students and their school peers. This confirmed the performance of Australian students is linked to the family background of students and their peers – not the school they attend.

Data from other OECD countries consistently showed public schools performed as well or better than independent schools after socio-economic factors were accounted for. The Australian private schools lobby rejects the research as flawed.

"Any supposed performance advantage from going to a private school is entirely due to the fact they come from advantaged backgrounds and are concentrated together."

But money will not solve all the problems. High-performing countries recruit high-calibre teachers with masters degrees. They do not focus on standardised testing and "teaching to the test", which teachers complain of in Australia.

"What goes on in Chinese classrooms, for example, is a process of teaching kids to think and not a process of just drumming in facts," Sweet said.

Barry McGaw, who heads the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority, is concerned schools are not stretching the top students.He believes there has been too much focus on developing basic skills to meet minimum standards.

He found students in south-west Sydney were studying lower levels of mathematics and English than those in northern Sydney, despite being of similar ability, because "south-western Sydney schools weren't offering the higher level courses".

Force of Nature

noreply@blogger.com (Tess Michaels) — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 11:21:00 +0000

Force of Nature - Bethesda Magazine - January-February 2012 - Bethesda, MD

Outside the box, my favourite place. Whether that box be a screen, a building, a life style or an idea, that's where I believe creativity exists. Anyone who is of the belief that play and learning cannot coexist..... read on MacDuff!

I'm somewhat jealous reading this article as I was brought up in a strict factory type preschool that locked you in a cupboard if you drew outside the lines of the stencil .... products for Mummy and Daddy. Ahh...those were the days.

Excerpts below -the full article can be read from the link above

'A boy, just 4, leaps into a puddle. Mud splatters high across his boots and pants. The boy races from puddle to puddle, leaping, splashing and laughing. He is exultant as he discovers his own power in the mud-puddle universe. He’s also gleaning an early physics lesson: For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. At a lot of nursery schools, that reaction might include chiding the child for making a mess.

“We like to get dirty,” the boy’s teacher, Lorrie Clendenin, says, smiling. “We like to explore. The parents know that we are all coming home messy. We dig. We take hikes when it rains and snows. We’re always out.”

In the 79 years since the Outdoor Nursery School was founded, the nation has changed in ways that make the school profoundly countercultural. American children today spend dramatically less time outdoors than they did in 1933 for a host of reasons.....Television has redefined Americans of all ages as consumers of both hawked goods and time spent sitting transfixed in front of the electronic screen.

The suburbs—once marketed as bucolic and expansive escapes from the confines, ills and dangers of the city—are now developed in ways that sharply limit open land where children can play and explore.

Parents who grew up roaming freely in the neighbourhoods of their youth are often afraid to let their children do the same. Schools pressured to reduce budgets and raise test scores cut recess and physical education. Teachers assign ever more homework, effectively tethering children indoors after school.

Jane Clark, a University of Maryland professor of kinesiology, coined a phrase to describe today’s physically constricted youths: She calls them “containerized kids.”

There is a nascent movement to free containerized kids to spend more time exploring the natural world..... although nursery schools designed around teaching children outdoors are relatively rare nationwide.

Teachers at both nursery schools remark how calm their charges are after time outdoors. On the coldest, bleakest days of winter “even the 2-year-olds love to go outside,”......By the time we get back in, everybody is pretty wet. But now they happily settle down and do whatever they are going to do next. It’s calming being outside.”

Watching these preschoolers, it’s easy to believe that even in modern-day suburbia, an evolutionary memory of roaming the land is hardwired into our brains—and we deny it at our peril.'

Health and safety culture is keeping children from nature, says Sir David Attenborough

noreply@blogger.com (Tess Michaels) — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 10:48:00 +0000

Health and safety culture is keeping children from nature, says Sir David Attenborough | Mail Online

Excerpts below -the full article can be read from the link above

"Britain's health and safety culture is discouraging children from 'roaming the countryside', Sir David Attenborough said yesterday. He said Britain risked losing the next generation of naturalists because of unfounded fears over safety.

'Fear and laws ruining fun': Sir David warned that the next generation of naturalists was being deterred from observing nature

He added that children had become 'out of touch' with their own environment and were likely to know more about exotic animals than those domestic to the UK. 'I dare say they know more about East African lions and game than they do about foxes,' he said."

Standardized Tests - Your Rights and the Impact on Your Child

noreply@blogger.com (Tess Michaels) — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 11:07:00 +0000

Standardized Tests - Your Rights and the Impact on Your Child

My thanks to Melissa Taylor from Imagination Soup for drawing my attention to her post which detailed an interview she had with Susan Ohanian. Susan is a staunch opponent of Standardised testing in the US and commentator on how the fixation has caused a trickle down effect that's gradually eroding undirected creative play and the development of any non-quantifiable skills in pre school environments.

You may ask why am I posting about a US problem and how does it relate to naturalistic play and environments? I'm glad you asked. Australia has always had a habit of scouring the world for ideas that have been tried and failed dismally in other countries and then attempting to implement them in the face of logic and generally at great cost and frustration of the community.

Currently we have NAPLAN, which, according to its million dollar website....tests Australian School children in Years 3, 5, 7 and 9. It tests the types of skills that are essential for every child to progress through school and life, in reading, writing, spelling, grammar and punctuation, and numeracy...(and) is the measure through which governments, education authorities and schools can determine whether or not young Australians are meeting important educational outcomes..... This report shows final NAPLAN results by gender, Indigenous status, language background other than English status, parental occupation, parental education, and location (metropolitan, provincial, remote and very remote) at each year level and for each domain of the test.

I could go on at great length about the egrerious mistake that is NAPLAN but Google the words NAPLAN and funding and you'll see what it's about -Money.

The passages below are Susan Susan responses to questions about the purpose, validity and efficacy of Standardised testing in the US.

'The standardized tests are taking over more and more of every child’s day. Some districts have pre-K screening–so parents can know if their children are “on track” for the rigours of the kindergarten curriculum. Kindergarten, which means “children’s garden,” was intended as a place for children to engage in creative play, learning important social and developmental skills, a place where they learn to care about one another and help one another. Now it is a place of worksheets, homework, and curriculum rigour. Look that word up in the dictionary and ask yourself if you want that for your child at any age.

Research shows that test scores are a much better measure of family income than of student ability. We don’t need grades based on standardized tests to determine how schools are doing on those standardized tests. We can look at the zip codes of the students and predict the rating by the poverty index of the community.

In an effort to boost test scores, teachers often feel pressured to devote more time to test prep, thus narrowing the curriculum. When curriculum is reduced to subjects that are tested, children are deprived of the varied experiences that allow them to find new interests and talents.....More testing means more testing. It means that a child’s opportunity to experience a rich and varied school experience is reduced to the narrow range of items that can be tested.

Hiding behind a smokescreen of “preparing workers for tomorrow’s global economy,” these so-called education reformers treat children as commodities and teachers as mere functionaries in an accounting system. We need to protect our children, and this means asking for schools that nurture curiosity, imagination, independence, laughter, joy.'

Finally I'll let Sir Ken Robinson make my point for me about what happens when you stifle creativity.

Threat of toxic playgrounds

noreply@blogger.com (Tess Michaels) — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 01:49:00 +0000

Threat of toxic playgrounds - Sun Herald

Wow! You can certainly say this about the Australian press, if it's a contemporary global topic, they're sure to pounce on it -six months to a year later.

I have posted previously on this issue, see Dangers of Artificial Turf and while we're looking at potentially dangerous surfaces in childcare centres/services lets not be myopic, see Schools and Daycare Are Top Sources of Kids' Toxic Chemical Exposure.

We have used artifical turf in natural playspace projects in the past. Generally it was used in projects where because of exceptionally high foot traffic, excessive shade, extreme weather conditions, or being positioned in an area that would not allow the installation of real turf (raised slabs, rooftop playspaces etc) it was the more practical and safe alternative.

Like most things you get what you pay for and we recommend people who intend to install artificial turf do their research (see the questions to ask in Dangers of Artificial Turf ) and chose a manufacturer/installer who can provide proof of the safety of their product and abides by the ANZ safety and quality standards. In the past we have used the Australian manufacturer and supplier Flexitec.

The American Society of Landscapes Architects Magazine, LAM (01/2012) provides a detailed article entitled "A Shopper’s Guide to Fake Grass", which gives an analyse of the physical make up of various artificial grasses, different methods of grass construction and an insight into contemporary safety hazards.

The text below is an extract from the Sun Herald article.

'At Montessori East pre-school and school in Waverley, the principal, Bill Conway, said he was worried about artificial turf and it was being removed. Montessori's new playspace was designed by Tessa Rose and constructed by Jaime Miller Landscapes, photos can be viewed here later this week.

An oncologist with the Yale Cancer Centre in Connecticut, Barry Boyd, who is also a consultant to the Environment and Human Health Inc, has said: ''While fear of raising concerns may be an understandable motive for limiting public information about risk, the long-recognised goal of limiting childhood exposures to environmental hazards must take precedence.''

Artificial turf has gained popularity in Australia in the past decade as a way of extending playing hours???? and cutting maintenance time and costs. Schools, councils and sport groups have opted to use it to replace grass.

One professional turf adviser, Martin Sheppard, who consults councils and other groups on the use of artificial turf, dismisses concerns about safety, saying it poses fewer environmental dangers than the street. Mr Sheppard, who has been advising on artificial turf for 30 years, says the turf has been used since 1965 around the world. If there are serious health risks, he argues, they would have been identified. Correct. If anyone was looking for them.

Yet across the US, schools have been digging up the turf and reinstating grass, concerned about toxic chemicals and heavy metals, including lead, which was used in some of earlier generations of turf.

Gavin Edwards, of the school of chemistry at the University of NSW, said lead no longer appeared to be used in new versions of the turf. Dr Edwards said concerns about emissions of toxic components could be minimised by pre-treating some of the components, including the crumb rubber from car tyres. Shouldn't that be done already. Is it OK to sell a product that you know may pose a potential health hazard, until your caught, then take remedial action? He agreed there should be some standards to regulate what materials can be used in the turf.

''Over the past 50 years technological advances have seen artificial turf mature from a product with many problems, to one that is becoming used more widely,'' Dr Edwards wrote in a report in 2010 commissioned by Turf Australia. ''Nonetheless, even with the latest 'third-generation' surfaces, problems still exist and questions remain unanswered.'' Obviously the answer is YES.

Dr Edwards said an overlooked issue was the heating of the turf to temperatures that could cause injury. He quoted a study by Brigham Young University in Utah that showed it reaching temperatures much higher than grass and in some cases almost three times the air temperature, recording 93.3 degrees.

The same study said one coach developed blisters on his feet, despite wearing tennis shoes, as a result of the extreme temperatures and that the New York State Department of Health had issued warnings.'

Obsession with safety is ruining our playgrounds

noreply@blogger.com (Tess Michaels) — Sat, 21 Jan 2012 05:42:00 +0000

Obsession with safety is ruining our playgrounds - latimes.com

Thank you to our friend Lenore Skenazy of Free Range Kids for bringing our attention to the above article in the La Times which addresses the hysteria (fuelled by the fear of liability and vexatious litigation) surrounding safety in public playgrounds.

To quote Lenore "How have we evolved to a society that sees splinters, blood and lawsuits every where we turn? Especially in light of my hero Phillip Howard’s contention that (according to the LA Times piece) there is no data showing an increase in playground injuries or lawsuits!

We are drunk on safety and hallucinating pink liability issues. (Elephants are too big to safely be hallucinated anymore.) Time to sober up and let kids have fun. — L.

Picture from the highly recommended Rants from Mommyland

LEGO Friends Petition: Parents, Women And Girls Ask Toy Companies To Stop Gender-Based Marketing

noreply@blogger.com (Tess Michaels) — Sat, 21 Jan 2012 05:21:00 +0000

LEGO Friends Petition: Parents, Women And Girls Ask Toy Companies To Stop Gender-Based Marketing

"Some girls like superheroes, some girls like princesses, some boys like superheroes, some boys like princesses. So why do all the girls have to buy pink stuff and all the boys have to buy different color stuff?"

As discussed in my December post Lego targets girls with block and awe campaign I disagreed with the proposed reasoning and PR given for Lego's new range of play materials targeted at the young girls. It seems I wasn't the only one. The article above from the Huffington Post provides information about a grassroots campaign in progress to address the obvious gender based marketing. Details of the campaign can be found here.

A video detailing what Riley (of the Riley talks about pink stuff video) did subsequently can be viewed below.

"Nature Deficit Disorder” in Pakistan | NewsPakistan.PK

noreply@blogger.com (Tess Michaels) — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 21:22:00 +0000

"Nature Deficit Disorder” in Pakistan | NewsPakistan.PK

I suppose it's my ignorance but I had thought that in Afghanistan you couldn't avoid nature. The desire to be like the West carries more than just opportunities. You blindly embrace the lifestyle you get the whole package.

"Pakistan has been a victim of political and security crisis for a very long time, and ironically, they have apparently now adopted and evolved to these inevitable circumstances. Life continues seemingly uninterrupted one turmoil after another.

Just as in other parts of the world, the country (Afghanistan) has experienced the IT revolution. With hundreds of channels on TV and access to wireless high speed internet, parks and playgrounds which were once the hub of all activity are now abandoned and deserted. Urbanization in Pakistan is among the highest of ratios in Asiatic countries and the newly built sky scrapers and condos leave little space for the luxury that was once called a park. “Nature deficit disorder" if it may rightfully be coined as so, is more than inevitable".

How children in China's urban jungle are reconnecting with nature

noreply@blogger.com (Tess Michaels) — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 23:43:00 +0000

How children in China's urban jungle are reconnecting with nature

Really sad, but more and more the rule rather than the exception.

'The child who answered didn't even look up, being too busy adding leaves to the "cake". We laughed, but also felt a little sad. It was good to see the children at ease and happy and feeling close to nature. But it was also obvious that it had been a long time since they'd seen any real nature and that they rarely got to play outside; otherwise, they wouldn't have been so excited about this scrap of land'.

"Now I see the secret of making the best persons; it is to grow in the open air and to eat and sleep with the earth." Letting children build an emotional connection to nature, to ignite their curiosity and passion – that is the root of all learning. - Walt Whitman

Great link - Friends of Nature - oldest environmental NGO in China.