Danger is coming back to Australian playgrounds with experts advocating risk in children’s play | DailyTelegraph

Danger is coming back to Australian playgrounds with experts advocating risk in children’s play | DailyTelegraph

Something most educators are already aware of, but now it's in the media it must be real.

Full article can be read from the hyperlink above.

All healthy lessons, says the country’s highest authority on playground safety, Associate Professor David Eager, who is a keen advocate of risk in children’s play.

It’s not that playgrounds are dangerous, or that he wants to see children hurt.

Rather, he believes that calculating risk is an essential lesson of childhood, and that exposing kids to controlled risks, such as a fall that might, at very worst, fracture a bone, will keep them safer in the long run.

“Children need to be given opportunities to engage in activities where they will be able to learn from their mistakes,” said Professor Eager, from the Faculty of Engineering at the University of Technology, Sydney.

“It’s okay if your children have an accident. Children who are exposed to too little challenge often take on inappropriate risks, where the chance of injury is high, because they lack the ability to judge the level of risk and the strategies and skills to tackle it effectively.”

The Importance of Maintaining a Sense of Wonder and Excitement

The Importance of Maintaining a Sense of Wonder and Excitement

A great medium for introducing children of all ages to the wonder that is nature.

“We stand now where two roads diverge. But unlike the roads in Robert Frost’s familiar poem, they are not equally fair. The road we have long been traveling is deceptively easy, a smooth superhighway on which we progress with great speed, but at its end lies disaster. The other fork of the road — the one less traveled by — offers our last, our only chance to reach a destination that assures the preservation of the earth.”

Why adults have to stop trying so darn hard to control how children play - The Washington Post

Why adults have to stop trying so darn hard to control how children play - The Washington Post

"You can’t role-play empathy! Or lecture children to death on how important it is to include other children. Children need to learn these things through practice. LOTS of it! This is best done through daily play experiences with other children – especially outdoors, where children can roam, explore, and play away from the adult world."

Costly playgrounds boring kids: UBC | Vancouver 24 hrs

Costly playgrounds boring kids: UBC | Vancouver 24 hrs

Love this article and study, again from Canada, into activity levels derived from child directed play and the 7 C's that should be inherent in each playspace, i.e. character, context, connectivity, change, chance, clarity, and challenge.

I particularly like the diagrams which provide conclusive examples of how current licensing laws under calculate the area that children require to play. Coincidentally child space calculations in Australia are the same as those in BC i.e. 7m2.

The article can be read from the hyperlink above and the full study, which is bloody good reading, can be found here http://wstcoast.org/playspaces/outsidecriteria/7Cs.pdf

The biggest risk is keeping kids indoors : TreeHugger

The biggest risk is keeping kids indoors : TreeHugger



Great article with a link to current canadian research. Access the full article from the hyperlink above.

“Access to active play in nature and outdoors—with its risks— is essential for healthy child development. We recommend increasing children’s opportunities for self-directed play outdoors in all settings—at home, at school, in child care, the community and nature.”



Activity statement can be accessed through article.


Abstract

: A diverse, cross-sectorial group of partners, stakeholders and researchers, collaborated to develop an evidence-informed Position Statement on active outdoor play for children aged 3–12 years. The Position Statement was created in response to practitioner, academic, legal, insurance and public debate, dialogue and disagreement on the relative benefits and harms of active (including risky) outdoor play.

Photos of the completed The Green Elephant Early Learning Centre

                                     The Green Elephant Early Learning Centre,
                                         Rosebery, Sydney New South Wales, 
                                                      Construction: J M Landscapes


It was a total pleasure working with Greg And Effie to create a design for this purpose built centre. It makes a great difference to have owners and architects who are both knowledgeable and enthusiastic to embrace the benefits of natural play environments. I have previously discussed the emergence in Sydney of centres such as this in my post Childcare playspace design response to population density changes. The Green Elephant Early Learning Centre is an outstanding example of a project where consideration was given to the use of the space prior to the build rather than attempting to retrofit an unsuitable space after the design.
 

Nature Table

Just putting the finishing touches to a nature table, then off to its new home. The table is made from reclaimed wood and the critters are firmly locked in place with perspex and then sealed against the elements. The centipede has been placed in natural hollow in the wood and then covered with perspex to rectify the levels and stop busy little fingers from taking it home.