Recess

Bundle up! Don’t let the cold stop you, get outside and play.

I just stumbled across this article, “Going outside—even in the cold—improves memory, attention,” that the TKF Foundation posted on their Facebook page, which is so timely given a conversation I had this morning.

I was talking with a friend about the importance of outdoor play for children (well, for all of us, but this conversation was about kids). We live in New York in the Hudson Valley, where it gets cold in the winter. It has been getting cold here in the winter for a long time (and I’m talking geological time), and yet last week, his son’s school barred students from going out during recess because “it was too cold.” It was 30 degrees out. Um, hello-o, that’s barely above freezing. People upstate, like in Buffalo, not to mention North Dakota, would just laugh.

A couple of months ago, another parent told me that her son’s school was using recess – or the withholding of it – as punishment. Misbehave and you don’t get to go out at lunchtime. This is like trying to put out a big fire by giving it more oxygen. Kids need exercise. They need to blow off steam. They need unstructured play. They need to socialize outside of the classroom.

This is, sadly, a common problem, which is why the Children & Nature Network and lots of other wonderful organizations have sprung up in recent years (for a partial list, see the Therapeutic Landscapes Network’s Get Out and Play! page). Access to nature – for play, for fresh air and exercise, for a sense of wonder, for growing the next generation of stewards – is critical, and we need to keep fighting for it. So here’s some ammunition for our fight:

The Case of Elementary School Recess by the U.S. Affiliate of the International Play Association.

Several studies by Frances Kuo and Andrea Faber Taylor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Landscape and Human Health Lab have proven the benefits of “doses” of nature for kids, including those with ADHD. For a good summary, click on this link: http://lhhl.illinois.edu/adhd.htm, and also “Children with ADHD Benefit from Time Outdoors Enjoying Nature.” Here are the actual citations:

Coping with ADD: The surprising connection to green play settings.” Andrea Faber Taylor, A., Frances Kuo, & W.C. Sullivan, (2001).  Environment and Behavior, 33(1), 54-77.

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‘Back to School? Make Time for Play!’ The Grass Stain Guru

Fairy and flowers
A fairy takes time to smell the geraniums.

“It is becoming increasingly clear through research on the brain as well as in other areas of study, that childhood needs play. Play acts as a forward feed mechanism into courageous, creative, rigorous thinking in adulthood.”
–Tina Bruce, Professor, London Metropolitan University

I’m at the ASLA (American Society of Landscape Architects) conference in Washington, D.C. this weekend, so opportunities for blogging are slim – too busy exploring wonderful restorative landscapes in the D.C. area! For updates and pictures, visit the TLN page on Facebook. So instead, I’m sharing a wonderful post by my friend Bethe Almeras, a.k.a. The Grass Stain Guru. Bethe is Director of Education & Outreach for Head Start Body Start National Center for Physical Development and Outdoor Play, and co-founder of the National Wildlife Federation’s Green Hour®. She is a play advocate who’s not afraid to get her knees dirty, and I’m a big fan her work. I’m actually going to meet Bethe for the first time tomorrow, and I’m very excited. Grass stains, here we come!

Here’s an excerpt from The Grass Stain Guru’s post; click on the title below to link to the full version.

Back to School? Make Time to Play!

This year as you send the kids off to school, take a moment to think about their days. Their weeks. Is there enough time for play? Not sports, or after-school activities, but real honest-to-goodness play? Child-directed, child-driven free play — no rules unless they decide to cook some up.

You see, adults have this habit of thinking that soccer or gymnastics or even music lessons are play. But they’re not. They ‘re great, but they are goal driven and adult directed, which is exactly what school is. Children spend all day in school. They need to take a break and be put in the driver’s seat for awhile.

Click here to continue…