10 Ways to teach children to love nature
Category: Play
A couple of weeks ago the UK laundry brand Persil (known in many parts of the world as Omo) released a set of short videos called ‘Kids Today’. The aim is to give parents insights into the intrinsic value of play, using ‘point of view’ cameras to bring the viewer closer to the world as seen through children’s eyes. Here is the first, entitled ‘Play Face’.
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A great way to introduce children (and playful adults) to imaginative design, growing and caring…..mini gardens.
Old containers like this metal bath are great for putting some limits on the space and provide a focal point in the garden too…..
…and plastic trays can replicate ‘real garden’ shapes…
or maybe you have some old cracked pots?
…let the imagination run wild and create a whole ‘fairy world’…
..or why not let them loose in your big garden?..
..and maybe even add a miniature (recycled) greenhouse..
Old School Gardener
In the last two months our family has spent time in six different countries, visiting parks in every location. I have a growing theory that the casual observer can learn something about the culture from paying attention to the types of equipment in a playground and watching the ways that equipment is used by the children and the adults they are with.
My sampling of playgrounds from the countries in the title of this post (plus, the post I wrote a few weeks ago about parks in Japan) is very small, and I’m sure does not provide a clear overview of playgrounds across that country. Still, I enjoy reflecting on our experiences in these parks and wondering what conclusions I can draw given my very limited experience.
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Two pictures to illustrate how I try to take inspiration from the natural world in creating ‘playful landscape’ features. The playful landscape was created in Fakenham, Norfolk. The ‘Giant’s Causeway’ here uses different lengths and thicknesses of smooth-planed, pressure-treated timber, inserted into a concrete foundation within a formed, grass covered mound, and with gravel to fill in around each ‘step’.
- The Giant’s Causeway in Northern Ireland, by Joe Cornish
A ‘Giant’s Causeway’ at Fakenham, Norfolk
Old School Gardener
The Benefits of Winter Outdoor Play
Great ideas from Wilko Life! Click on the title for the full article.
Old School Gardener
Just before Christmas, I was helping out at an after-school play session in a community centre in Tower Hamlets in East London. Eight-year-old Jane arrived, took a plastic mug from the kitchen, sat down at a table near me, and started clapping her hands and the table, and tapping and flipping the cup, in a repetitive, rhythmic routine.
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There is much art in the creation of vibrant public play spaces. Their aesthetic, their physicality and their spatial rendering push mind and body to new imaginative experiences. This presents a great opportunity for virtual galleries like PlayGroundology FB to curate news, design, research, advocacy and trends.
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After a couple of years of experimentation, I’ve found the pace that I think I can maintain. Each weekday two new posts are added to the gallery which is purposefully light on words and heavy on visuals. For those looking for story, words can frequently be found via bitly click throughs in the accompanying text.
Each day is a discovery of what is new in the realm of outdoor play and what is informing and inspiring playscapes in a variety of countries around the world. In the past year, growth in page likes has gone from just under 400 to…
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Open Ended Spaces
Old School Garden 