25 Blogs promoting natural playful childhood

Thanks to Grass Stain Guru: Childhood was meant to be messy for compiling this list of websites and blogs devoted to natural and playful childhood experiences!

Please send your suggestions folks!!!

• Eyes on Nature
• Free Range Kids
• Fun Neighborhoods
• Fun OC Parks Blog
• Let Kids Play
• Outdoor Bloggers Summit
• Play Outdoors
• Playborhood
• Stop Homework
• The Body Smart Blog
• The Green Mama
• Your Wild Child
• The Outdoor Parent
• Kids Gardening
• Head Start Body Start
• Alliance For Childhood
• Hooked On Nature
• Discover the Forest
• USFWS: Let’s Go Outside
• Safe Routes to School
• Active Kids Club
• Children & Nature Network
• National Institute for Play
• Green at Birth
• Pixie Wings and Whimsical Things

UPDATE: Okay, the list is going to be more than 25 as I keep adding things!

Experimenting with the Laws of Physics: Grandpa and the Grandkids

I love how my dad plays with the grandkids!

My dad is really smart and talented.

• If you need something excavated and leveled in a tricky, difficult situation my dad is the one to call.
• He has an amazing talent with earth.
• His abilities to get unstuck in wet dirt are legendary.
• Like many boys today, he loves to learn with his hands and by experimenting.

I love that he encourages that kinesthetic learning with all the kids, boys and girls.

Here is some fun they had today experimenting with trajectories, weights, ballasts, pulleys, leverage and force.

Grandpa's stone yard is full of natural and manmade materials for exploration

Goal orientation and persistence in action

It is clearly evidence that I am not a helicopter parent when it comes to real world play :-)

Levers

Balancing

Climbing

Tying  knots

Pulling from the right

Pulling from the left

Brainstorming strategies

More people pulling

Adding ballast weights

Grandpa asking questions about how strategies might work

Success!! Pallets down!!

...and the *real* playground sits empty at grandma and grandpa's

Kidscaping and Natural Playgrounds: 10 Sources for Design Inspiration

Kidscaping at Hoffman Hoopla

I've been introduced to lots of folks (lots from Australia!) encouraging "Natural Playgrounds." (Thank you Facebook!)

Instead of (or in addition to) commercialized play structures these natural play spaces encourage interaction with nature and reliance on natural, rather than "man"-made structures.

This is something many play and child development specialists are advocating, especially in light of increasing autism spectrum disorders, childhood obesity, and early and extensive use of technology by kids.

Google Search "Natural Playscapes"

Here are some great resources for inspiration:

1. Natural Montessori Playgrounds. This includes an overview and checklist of potential materials to include in a natural playground.
2. Dwell. Features a step-by-step slide show tutorial on how to build a natural playscape.
3. Let the Children Play. This blog features ideas and photos from amazing schools that are implementing natural play areas.
4. Rusty's Blog.  Author and owner of Earthplay, Rusty shares photos and ideas for incorporating natural features into kids' play.
5. Hoffman Hoopla Kidscaping Projects. Please visit their blog to see all the amazing features they've incorporated into their backyard!
6. Childscapes (AU). Company specializing in natural playscapes.
7. Natural Playgrounds (US).Company specializing in natural playscapes.
8. Earthplay (US). Company specializing in natural playscapes.
9. Google "Natural Playscapes" and select images. You'll be lost daydreaming for hours!
10. Library.  Check your local library for these inspirational design books:

Books for more ideas:

K-12 math learned in 30 hours?! Learn math without "teaching?"

source

Learning what you want, when you want, how you want. That's the general approach followed by unschoolers, and advocates of natural learning or self-directed learning. [See principles of unschooling and unschooling 101]

Unschooling is popular among homeschoolers, even among new "converts" who have seen the emotional damage done to their children by academic environments.

This natural learning or self-directed learning is even "endorsed" by a leading academic scholar .



But how can you learn math without being strictly being taught?

"If you never teach a stitch of math, in a mathematical culture your kids will learn heaps of it anyway. " [Here are 4 ideas to get started.]

And, it turns out that if you wait until a kid is ready and motivated, they can learn everything they need to know about math concepts from K through 12 to do well on an SAT in 30 hours according to David Albert.

Here's some good reading on the subject:

Have Fun. Learn Stuff. Grow.: Homeschooling and the Curriculum of Love


Wounded by School: Recapturing the Joy in Learning and Standing Up to Old School Culture



Unschooling Rules: 55 Ways to Unlearn What We Know About Schools and Rediscover Education


Teach Your Own: The John Holt Book Of Homeschooling


Feel-Bad Education: And Other Contrarian Essays on Children and Schooling


Punished by Rewards: The Trouble with Gold Stars, Incentive Plans, A's, Praise, and Other Bribes



The Schools Our Children Deserve: Moving Beyond Traditional Classrooms and "Tougher Standards"



The Unschooling Handbook : How to Use the Whole World As Your Child's Classroom

Lawns with Less Grass: Outdoor play spaces for children

We have been working to eliminate as much unnecessary grass as possible. 

If the grass isn't a space in the yard that is conducive to playing ball or some other purpose, I feel there is no need for grass which needs to be watered and mowed.

Instead, my goal is to make our yard a magical place for kids to grow and explore, even in the middle of the city.

So we added a small pond, lovingly referred to as a puddle by my neighbor, and lots of plantings.

Perennial beds, vegetable gardens, fruit trees and bushes, and paths give us lots of alternatives to grass.

Butterflies, birds, rabbits, hummingbirds, bees, and even deer come to visit our little oasis in the city.

I drew much inspiration from "A Child's Garden: 60 Ideas to Make Any Garden Come Alive for Children" by Molly Dannenmaier.  The photos are incredible.  The ideas unique and magical. I wanted to jump into each page and live there. 

The book provided ideas for creating the essential elements of an outdoor playspace including, water, dirt, sand, creatures, and places for climbing, pretending, hiding, picking, moving, learning, imagining.

Because we live on a corner lot, with lots of front yard and hardly any back yard, all our gardens are front yard gardens.  So it was wonderful to find a book all about growing in the front yard instead of the traditional back yard garden. 

I love the concept of The Welcoming Garden by Gordon Hayward, with gardens that call out an invitation to enter and gather instead of being seen as barriers or perimeter borders.

Here are the books which have been useful in thinking about how to create our outdoor environment for children and adults, keeping in mind low-maintenance goals while being on a small plot of land in which all our space is in the front.  That's a tall order!  These are some great books to help.