“Play is the only way the highest intelligence of humankind can unfold.” ~ Joseph Chilton Pearce
When Children Build
Their Own Three-Storey Playgrounds
A travesty? Wheelchair and crutch bound children everywhere, and
lawsuits galore? An unappealing jumble of bent nails and ill cut wood? A
blight on the neighborhood? Certainly not. Balderdash. No way. Quite the
contrary. The
Kolle 37 bauspielplatz in the Prenzlauer Berg neighborhood
of Berlin is a wonderland. A place of imagination and exploration that
melts even the most hardened cynics. A social hub for the neighborhood,
a place that parents want to go. A soaring structural and
architectural delight that has a better safety record than playgrounds
that have been designed to be ‘safe’.
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Reaching Their
Potential Through Mud
All the Tiger
Mothers and Helicopter Parents can raise their children as they see fit.
My kids are already reaching their potential through mud...and sticks,
and rocks, and trees, and salamanders. Really. In an age where children
rush from one activity to another, hooked up to electronic gadgets
between stops, it’s hard to overestimate the value of getting dirty. In
fact, I’m trusting my children’s futures to it.
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The Curriculum of Play
John Taylor Gatto writes about how play teaches empathy, how to endure, how to
enjoy leisure, adventure, independence, self-reliance, and more. And you
don't get much of that in school, which is why home-based education and unschooling are so important
to children's mental and physical health.
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Lesson Learned: Allowing Kids Time to be Free
Children can teach us parents that it's okay to do something for fun and that, when they express interest
in an activity, we can allow them to have fun with it, rather than immediately jumping in to structure it. Formalizing an activity can sometimes remove its play value for a child.
Read more of this article . . .
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