This blog from the Tinkergarten community, supports families, leaders and those attending Tinkergarten outdoor playgroups. Blog posts are categorised for ease of use and include early learning, parenting, nature, meet our team and #OutdoorsAll4 which encourages outdoor play throughout all seasons.
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This episode of the Sage Family Podcast is an engaging interview with Peter Gray, Evolutionary Psychologist, blogger and author of the inspiring book Free to Learn. Peter explains why the adult way of looking at childhood can have a negative impact on childhood learning and the consequences of disallowing inoculations of risk. Peter is a research professor of psychology at Boston College and founding board member and president of the alliance for self-directed education.
Subject Area: Risky Play
Kathleen Lockyer, creator of the Nature-Led Approach is an Occupational Therapist of 20 years experience and a leader in Sensory Processing Disorders and Therapeutic Listening. She is also a Naturalist, Herbalist and mother of two teenage women. Kathleen has dedicated her life to creating programs and trainings to facilitate child development by using routines of Sensory Processing and Integration in the natural world. Kathleen is a self proclaimed “fierce protector of children and childhood” and her empowering blog and mentorship program is a light in the storm for parents & educators with sensitive children.
Subject Area: Occupational Therapy
Tim Gill is an independent scholar, advocate and consultant on childhood. His website and blog focuses on the changing nature of children’s play and free time, and their evolving relationships with the people and places around them. Tim argues for a balanced, thoughtful approach to risk in childhood: a position set out in his 2007 book No Fear: Growing up in a risk averse society Tim is a longstanding advocate for child-friendly urban planning and design and supporter of the Playing Out movement.
Subject Area: Risk, urban planning
Do you like the idea of your children being able to play freely outside their own front door? Playing Out began with discussions amongst like-minded parents in South Bristol, UK. As their children grew, the parents started to feel frustrated that their freedom to play outside was so limited, being close to the city centre with few green spaces. Two mums came up with the idea that they could take the street party model and apply to close their street to traffic one day after school, giving the road over to the children to play in. The success of this initial event generated much discussion and media coverage both nationally and internationally and Playing Out was born. This website hosts an active blog and instructionals on how to organise your own Playing Out session.
Subject Area: Street Play
When Joseph Cornell’s first book, Sharing Nature with Children, was published in 1979, it was met with universal acclaim. J. Baldwin, editor of Whole Earth Review, wrote, “This is absolutely the best awareness-of-nature book I’ve ever seen. Sharing Nature with Children has become justly famous because it works.” Joseph Cornell’s books sparked a world wide movement called Sharing Nature, devoted to helping children and adults deepen their relationship with the natural environment. This website contains high quality resources, exercises you can do with children to bring awareness of nature, detailed information on Flow Learning™ principles, thought provoking articles and online training. Full of inspiration for educators, the Sharing Nature movement uses the Flow Learning™ system of teaching that encourages empathy and brings ecological principles to life.
After the publication of “Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder” in 2005, author Richard Louv and others co-founded the Children & Nature Network, a nonprofit organisation whose mission is to fuel the worldwide grassroots movement to reconnect children with nature. The Children & Nature Network aims to connect all children, their families and communities to nature through innovative ideas, evidence-based resources and tools, broad-based collaboration and support of grassroots leadership.
Nature Play Canberra is about getting more children outdoors more often so they can reap the benefits of unstructured playing, learning and being physically active. Includes resources for schools, families and research links.
This website run by author, blogger, TV personality and activitist Lenore Skenazy discusses how to raise safe, self reliant kids without going nuts with worry. Parents are encouraged to let their children have more opportunities to be independent, spend time on their own and explore age appropriate risks with the knowledge that making mistakes and learning from them are valuable life experiences.
This new collaborative venture from Free Range Kids author and blogger Lenore Skenazy, research professor Peter Gary and others, supports the idea that children are smart, strong and capable yet they are in danger of not being able to practice problem solving with adults always hovering around solving problems first. They believe in giving children the freedom and opportunity to take risks, deal with disappointment, figure things out and make their way in the world as all generations before them have done, up until now. Witty, informed, some would say controversial, but always thought provoking content.