How Play Wires Kids’ Brains For Social and Academic Success

How Play Wires Kids’ Brains For Social and Academic Success | MindShift

Full article can be read from the hyperlink above.

 (David Gilkey/NPR)

"When it comes to brain development, time in the classroom may be less important than time on the playground.

“The experience of play changes the connections of the neurons at the front end of your brain,” says Sergio Pellis, a researcher at the University of Lethbridge in Alberta, Canada. “And without play experience, those neurons aren’t changed,” he says.

It is those changes in the prefrontal cortex during childhood that help wire up the brain’s executive control center, which has a critical role in regulating emotions, making plans and solving problems, Pellis says. So play, he adds, is what prepares a young brain for life, love and even schoolwork."

Learning for Life: 1st Outdoor Play Party of 2015!

Learning for Life: 1st Outdoor Play Party of 2015!

Full article can be read from the hyperlink above.

Great article from Kierna Corr from Learning for Life about the unlocked potential that lies in every playspace.

Picture from http://springboarddiscoverybox.com

'Our playground has evolved from being a clean, open, tidy space to become one full of different little areas for children to enjoy exploring.'


I love that.


Designing natural playspaces is challenge enough without butting up against the idea that a space has to be clean and tidy to be valid. It is an adult-centric idea that needs to be educated out of existence before you can start creating a space that is both enticing and challenging, one that has potential for awe and possibility.

Can Young Children Help Create a Sustainable World? - Liz's Early Learning Spot

Can Young Children Help Create a Sustainable World? - Liz's Early Learning Spot

A great contemporary Australia Blog posing some very interesting questions..... "While most teachers profess interest in sustainable living research shows that effective programs require at least one highly committed and enthusiastic teacher or leader if it is to continue. "

How the latest playgrounds are making child’s play fun again

How the latest playgrounds are making child’s play fun again - The Globe and Mail

Helle Nebelong and a number of other prominent contemporary designers talking about the renaissance of common sense and adventure playgrounds in Europe and the US. We may get back to it in another 50 years.

Evergreen’s Toronto Brick Works

This is an eclectic play space that feels as wild as the postwar adventure playgrounds – less dangerous, but liberating. The presence of nature here, Nebelong argues, is crucial. “If you ask children what they want, … they have lots of ideas about bushes and trees where they can pick apples,” she says. “It’s a grownup approach that all things to do with childhood should be colourful, and have heavy equipment and horrible rubber in lots of colours.”..........
Beginning in the 1970s, driven partly by a handful of lawsuits from the parents of injured children, official opinion began to focus on what might go wrong. Safety regulations in the United States and Canada became stiffer and began to alter the landscape.“In some ways, the lawyers were designing the playgrounds,”

Evergreen’s Toronto Brick Works

EMPOWERING THE NEXT GENERATION TO CONNECT WITH NATURE: A GLOBAL MOVEMENT

parksjournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/PARKS-20.2-Lopoukhine-et-al-10.2305IUCN.CH_.2014.PARKS-20-2.NL_.en_.pdf

A great paper, well worth the read.


"At the most basic of levels, we learned that plants and animals provided food, fibre and skins and so we tended them and cared for them. Our affiliation, however, goes deeper than addressing the biological necessities of life. Nature has provided spiritual, aesthetic, and philosophical pillars for the growth and expression of human culture."

Creating and Managing Places Where Children Engage with Nature

natureplayandlearningplaces.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/Nature-Play-Learning-Places_v1.2_Sept22.pdf

An American paper but the philosophy & concepts are still relevant

BBC News - Children 'prefer to play outdoors than watch TV'

BBC News - Children 'prefer to play outdoors than watch TV'

Read more from the link above

"As a consequence, street play is becoming increasingly rare, with parents citing traffic and stranger danger as reasons for keeping tabs on their children - either indoors or in the back garden."

Children themselves said they wanted to explore through unstructured, free-spirited play, with 67% preferring free play.