Going Back to Nature on the Playground
A few years ago the school boards in Toronto decided that the playgrounds were not safe, tore them down and re-built them with child safety regulations in mind -- and injury rates in the new playgrounds decreased by 49%. Obviously a lot of thought went into the new playgrounds but I wonder if they could have also upped the fun quotient along with the safety.
Enter companies like Bienenstock Natrual Playgrounds (who are redesigning the outdoor space at my eldest son’s asphalt-laden school). They build “natural playgrounds” which are more open-ended and are integrated into the environment. They aim to connect kids to nature through their play structures, many of which are logs and natural formations. When you hear Adam Bienenstock talking about child development and playground theory (I made that term up), it’s a bit of a “ah hah moment”.
Like the fact that kids do not connect a piece of 2 by 4 as coming from a tree; or that putting in a car or train that kids can sit in actually limits their play; or that kids love plain forts because they can be a million different things and that sometimes kids need quite, introspective places to just sit.
At my two younger kids’ school, there is a forest (more like a shrubby area) and once the kids have graduated from the slides that is where they play. Yes, it can be a bit scary because you can’t see your kid from across the yard. But that is where the imaginative play is going on.
Many child development experts say that free play is where the major brain growth happens and that a forest or a small area hidden under an overhang can be the spark that sets off imaginative play for hours.
For kids growing up in urban environments, playgrounds may be the only place that they can experience free play in an outdoor environment so it makes sense that we start thinking about these parks as a way to generate imagination and a love of the outdoors as well as a love of tag. It seems obvious that their play spaces should be as varied and organic and imaginative as their inner life and yet it feels like playgrounds are getting more and more cookie cutter.
After hearing about natural playgrounds, it made me realize that cute backyard structures like castles are probably not as engaging as simple playhouses. If you are thinking about a climbing structure for your backyard you may want to contemplate the fact that once tall play structures are removed from schools, teacher absenteeism actually decreases because it is very stressful for teachers to stand and watch kids potentially fall and break their limbs. Probably even more stressful for parents.
So can a playground make a kid want to save the planet? I guess we’ll see.
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