Tag Archive: play


PicPost: Bearly Talking

Image
Filed under: Design, Open Spaces, PicPosts- great photographs, Play — 1 Comment
04/07/2013

PicPost: Brock ends

Tags: , , , ,
Comment
Link
Filed under: Play, Wildlife and Nature — Leave a comment
25/06/2013

Playing out – and nature in the garden

street playA super couple of items from Monday’s BBC TV ‘One Show’. The first is about the new street play project in England, the following item about what nature can live in a square metre of a garden….The two items begin about 2 minutes from the start of the programme and last about 12 minutes in total.

Enjoy and share!

Old School Gardener

Tags: , , , ,
Comment

PicPost: Everything but the kitchen sink

Filed under: Design, Play — 2 Comments
24/06/2013

PicPost: Everything but the kitchen sink

From: Fun at home with kids

Tags: , , ,
Comment

PicPost: See and Saw

Image
Filed under: PicPosts- great photographs, Play — Leave a comment
14/06/2013

PicPost:

‘PROPER see-saws made with a long plank so that you can go very high and have to hold on tight…..you don’t often see such exciting ones now. A missed learning opportunity?’ (Let the Children Play)

‘Seesaws go by several different names around the world. Seesaw, or its variant see-saw, is a direct Anglicisation of the French ci-ça, meaning literally, this-that, seemingly attributable to the back-and-forth motion for which a seesaw is known.

In most of the United States, a seesaw is also called a “teeter-totter”…. the term originates from the Norfolk language word tittermatorter. A “teeter-totter” may also refer to a two-person swing on a swing seat, on which two children sit facing each other and the teeter-totter swings back and forth in a pendulum motion….

In the southeastern New England region of the United States, it is sometimes referred to as a tilt or a tilting board. Makeshift seesaws are used for acrobatics.  Speakers in northeastern Massachusetts, United States, sometimes call them teedle boards. In the Narragansett Bay area the term changes to dandle or dandle board…. “There are almost no “Teeter-” forms in Pennsylvania, and if you go to western West Virginia and down into western North Carolina there is a band of “Ridey-Horse” that heads almost straight south.

This pattern suggests a New England origin or importation of the term that spread down the coast and a separate development in Appalachia, where Scotts-Irish settlers did not come from New England. “Hickey-horse” in the coastal regions of North Carolina is consistent with other linguistic and ethnic variations….

In Korea, one form of the seesaw is known as a Neol (널) and is used for Neolttwigi  (널뛰기) by women and girls, though in South Korea the playground variety, the same as is known elsewhere in the world, is also commonly called a see-so (시소).’

Source: Wikipedia

photo via Precious Childhood

Tags: , , , ,
Comment

PicPost: Play it again

Image
Filed under: PicPosts- great photographs, Play — Leave a comment
12/06/2013

PicPost: Never Grow Up

‘We don’t stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing.’

photo via Play England

Tags: , , ,
Comment

Style Counsel: Family Gardens

Filed under: Design, Play, Style Counsel: snippets on garden styles — Leave a comment
07/06/2013

family eating in the gardenYou might not think of ‘family gardens’ as a particular garden style, but there are some common ingredients needed for a successful space for everyone from the toddler through to parents (and possibly grandparents) as well as the family pet(s) of course! My latest ‘snippet on style’ focuses on what you might need in your family space.

Having said that there are some common ingredients in family gardens, in terms of its overall look these spaces can adopt almost any of the more common design styles such as formal, country, cottage etc., though the functional needs of the family garden do impose some limitations. The minimum requirements are usually to provide a flexible space for games (and scope for these games to change as children grow), room for entertainment and play, and an area for outside dining (maybe including an area for cooking the food too, such as a barbeque). The smallest gardens can accommodate a sandpit or swing, while larger plots have space for separate adult- and child-friendly zones. The key features often include:

  • Play equipment

  • Colourful materials

  • Dens and tents

  • Tough plants

  • Wildlife features

  • Easy care seating

For tips on including play opportunities in gardens see my earlier article ”Free range’ children? – seven tips for successful garden play’ and others on play.

Play equipment can be made to look attractive as well as practical
Separate areas, possibly using different lvels, can mean adukts and children have their own spaces but are close enough for supervision 9which in my experience works both ways!)
A simple terrace or patio which is big enough to cater for eating/relaxation and provide a space for flexible play, including bringing toys outside.
Plantign can be used to screen off less attarctive play features and at the same tiem createa sense of mystery and ownership for the childrenpff
How about a den made from tree bark?
Try incorporating space for growing food or other plants as a family
Some play equipment can be concealed or made into interesting garden features, like this sunken trampoline in a grass mound
Water safety for younger children is especially important. Strong pond covers like this one can enable youngsters to look but not fall in…
Can your family garden provide pet – friendly features too?!

Other articles in the ‘Style Counsel’ series:

Productive Gardens

Japanese Gardens

Country Gardens

Modernist Gardens

Formal Gardens

Mediterranean Gardens

Cottage gardens

Old School Gardener

If you’ve enjoyed reading this post and others on this blog, why not comment and join others by signing up for automatic updates via email (see side bar, above right ) or through an RSS feed (see top of page)?

Tags: , , , , ,
Comment

PicPost: Sleeping Giant

Image
Filed under: PicPosts- great photographs, Play, Wildlife and Nature — 1 Comment
26/05/2013

PicPost: Sleeping Giant

Tags: , , ,
Comment

PicPost: On top of the world

Image
Filed under: Play, Wildlife and Nature — Leave a comment
23/05/2013

PicPost: Playful

Tags: , , ,
Comment
Link
Filed under: Play, Wildlife and Nature — Leave a comment
15/05/2013

IMG_5482

Today is National Children’s Day!

‘We have 50 things you could do to celebrate before you’re 11 and 3/4. How many have you ticked off the list?’

Outdoor Nation at the National Trust

Tags: , ,
Comment

SkyWire: England’s longest and fastest zip wire

Filed under: Play — Leave a comment

‘The SkyWire will reopen on Saturday 18 May! From this date you’ll be able to take an adrenaline-fuelled headfirst ride in the new ‘superman’ harness. It’s still the longest zip wire in England at 660m and now it’s definitely the fastest. We’ve clocked our test pilots going at 60mph!’

Source: The Eden Project

Tags: , , , ,
Comment
Finding Nature

Nature Connectedness Research Blog by Prof. Miles Richardson

Families Connect

Norfolk Green Care Network

Connecting People with Nature

Discover WordPress

A daily selection of the best content published on WordPress, collected for you by humans who love to read.

Susan Rushton

Celebrating gardens, photography and a creative life

Unlocking Landscapes

Writing, photography and more by Daniel Greenwood

Alphabet Ravine

Lydia Rae Bush Poetry

MU Library Treasures

TIME GENTS

Australian Pub Project, Established 2013

Vanha Talo Suomi

The Journey from Finnish Rintamamiestalo to Arboretum & Gardens

Marigolds and Gin

Because even in chaos, there’s always gin and a good story …

Bits & Tidbits

RANDOM BITS & MORE TIDBITS

Rambling in the Garden

.....and nurturing my soul

The Interpretation Game

Cultural Heritage and the Digital Economy

pbmGarden

Sense of place, purpose, rejuvenation and joy

SISSINGHURST GARDEN

Notes from the Gardeners...

Deep Green Permaculture

Connecting People to Nature, Empowering People to Live Sustainably

BloominBootiful

A girl and her garden :)

Winterbourne House and Garden

greygoosedotco.wordpress.com/