Adapt the how-to steps in this guide to turn your backyard into a vibrant, fun-filled Nature Play space.
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.
Includes optional access to a free weekly newsletter of outdoor ideas and activities.
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
This article from father of two, David Davis, explains why exploring the wilderness of the sky from your own back yard can be a great way to get more ‘green time’ into your family routine. He shares his humorous tips and tricks for getting started, realistic expectations and suggestions for basic (and affordable) equipment to make the experience a success.
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.
Italian childhood advocate Professor Carla Rinaldi, president of the global Reggio Children movement, presented this report during her Adelaide Thinker in Residency. In it, she encourages educators and the wider community to rethink notions of childhood learning, recognising that children learn from birth. Professor Rinaldi urges South Australia to divide early education into two distinct learning groups, from birth to three and from age three to six, and introduce recognised degree qualifications for everyone working with children in these age brackets.
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.