Preschools using nature as new playground equipment
Preschools using nature as new playground equipment
The plastic red slides at Friendly Avenue Christian Preschool often sit abandoned during playtime.
Instead, the children make dirt pies and flower cakes, discover hidden fairies in ferns, and glue sweet gum balls and leaves to pieces of paper.
“This is their space,” said Sandy Johnson, the school’s director. “As long as they are respectful of the materials, they are allowed that creative freedom.”
The school is one of a small but growing number of preschools and child care centers in the county replacing traditional play structures with nature-based play areas.
The changes are part of a national trend to get children back outdoors and connected to nature. Some parents, doctors and early childhood experts worry that too little unstructured playtime contributes to obesity, hyperactivity, and poor thinking and social skills in children.
“There are many things we can do to prepare children for kindergarten,” Johnson said. “But teaching them to be present in the moment and enjoy their surroundings — I think sometimes we forget that part. They only get to be kids once.”
Advocates of outdoor learning environments include the N.C. Partnership for Children, which administers state money to early childhood centers, and the Natural Learning Initiative at N.C. State.
The state Division of Child Development and Early Education, which regulates the centers, also has been working to make the outdoors a place for learning rather than a break from it.
Those groups have trained child care workers, teachers and landscapers on creating and maintaining outdoor learning spaces.
More than $22,000 in grants went to centers in Guilford County during the past five years — including Friendly Avenue Christian Preschool, Quality Child Care in north Greensboro, A Friends Playhouse in Whitsett and A Child’s World in Jamestown.
“We’ve been pushing in this area for a number of years,” said Marcy Maury, a program coordinator with the Guilford Partnership. “We’ve made some headway.”
Maury and others believe playgrounds lack the variety of activities children need to develop good thinking, speaking and social skills. Children spend a lot of time fighting over swings or playing competitive games.
Some research shows children learn more and play better when they can build forts, tend vegetable gardens, explore wildlife or act on a stage.
“Nothing is wrong with play equipment,” said Nilda Cosco, a researcher with the Natural Learning Initiative. “What is wrong is to just consider an outdoor environment the play equipment and wood chips and grass. Children need much more than that.”
Quality Child Care and A Friends Playhouse removed their expensive play structures and replaced them with tree stumps, wood arbors, grassy hills and baskets of sticks and pine cones.
The children now explore the whole playground, chasing each other, digging up worms and playing make believe, said Kristen Beasley, who directs Quality Child Care on Yanceyville Road.
“This is really back to basics, back to what we did as kids,” she said.
Friendly Avenue Christian Preschool plans to replace its plastic and metal play structure with a grassy knoll with an embedded slide, where children can climb and slide.
Meanwhile, the children make superhero capes out of scrap fabric, plant beet and radish seedlings in raised beds, and stomp around in plastic pools of dark brown mud.
Many parents, including Charly Roper of Summerfield, like the changes. She said her 5-year-old daughter used to fear butterflies and hate getting dirty.
“Now it’s gone from her being terrified of the bugs to wanting to bring a bug catcher to school so she can take home God’s creatures,” she said.
Greensboro parent Eric Searls said his 4-year-old son has eaten more vegetables in the past three months than in his entire life.
“The school’s really done a good job of not just using it as another play facility but as an educational tool, from the menu, to the food they grow and bring home,” Searls said.
The centers’ biggest challenges are designing outdoor areas to meet safety regulations and recruiting volunteers to help build and maintain them. Improperly planted trees and bushes die. Weeds take over neglected beds.
“It has been a challenge,” said Debra Lineberry, owner of A Friends Playhouse.
“We’ll just keep working on it. We’ll just keep planting.”
While the kids keep playing.
The plastic red slides at Friendly Avenue Christian Preschool often sit abandoned during playtime.
Instead, the children make dirt pies and flower cakes, discover hidden fairies in ferns, and glue sweet gum balls and leaves to pieces of paper.
“This is their space,” said Sandy Johnson, the school’s director. “As long as they are respectful of the materials, they are allowed that creative freedom.”
The school is one of a small but growing number of preschools and child care centers in the county replacing traditional play structures with nature-based play areas.
The changes are part of a national trend to get children back outdoors and connected to nature. Some parents, doctors and early childhood experts worry that too little unstructured playtime contributes to obesity, hyperactivity, and poor thinking and social skills in children.
“There are many things we can do to prepare children for kindergarten,” Johnson said. “But teaching them to be present in the moment and enjoy their surroundings — I think sometimes we forget that part. They only get to be kids once.”
Advocates of outdoor learning environments include the N.C. Partnership for Children, which administers state money to early childhood centers, and the Natural Learning Initiative at N.C. State.
The state Division of Child Development and Early Education, which regulates the centers, also has been working to make the outdoors a place for learning rather than a break from it.
Those groups have trained child care workers, teachers and landscapers on creating and maintaining outdoor learning spaces.
More than $22,000 in grants went to centers in Guilford County during the past five years — including Friendly Avenue Christian Preschool, Quality Child Care in north Greensboro, A Friends Playhouse in Whitsett and A Child’s World in Jamestown.
“We’ve been pushing in this area for a number of years,” said Marcy Maury, a program coordinator with the Guilford Partnership. “We’ve made some headway.”
Maury and others believe playgrounds lack the variety of activities children need to develop good thinking, speaking and social skills. Children spend a lot of time fighting over swings or playing competitive games.
Some research shows children learn more and play better when they can build forts, tend vegetable gardens, explore wildlife or act on a stage.
“Nothing is wrong with play equipment,” said Nilda Cosco, a researcher with the Natural Learning Initiative. “What is wrong is to just consider an outdoor environment the play equipment and wood chips and grass. Children need much more than that.”
Quality Child Care and A Friends Playhouse removed their expensive play structures and replaced them with tree stumps, wood arbors, grassy hills and baskets of sticks and pine cones.
The children now explore the whole playground, chasing each other, digging up worms and playing make believe, said Kristen Beasley, who directs Quality Child Care on Yanceyville Road.
“This is really back to basics, back to what we did as kids,” she said.
Friendly Avenue Christian Preschool plans to replace its plastic and metal play structure with a grassy knoll with an embedded slide, where children can climb and slide.
Meanwhile, the children make superhero capes out of scrap fabric, plant beet and radish seedlings in raised beds, and stomp around in plastic pools of dark brown mud.
Many parents, including Charly Roper of Summerfield, like the changes. She said her 5-year-old daughter used to fear butterflies and hate getting dirty.
“Now it’s gone from her being terrified of the bugs to wanting to bring a bug catcher to school so she can take home God’s creatures,” she said.
Greensboro parent Eric Searls said his 4-year-old son has eaten more vegetables in the past three months than in his entire life.
“The school’s really done a good job of not just using it as another play facility but as an educational tool, from the menu, to the food they grow and bring home,” Searls said.
The centers’ biggest challenges are designing outdoor areas to meet safety regulations and recruiting volunteers to help build and maintain them. Improperly planted trees and bushes die. Weeds take over neglected beds.
“It has been a challenge,” said Debra Lineberry, owner of A Friends Playhouse.
“We’ll just keep working on it. We’ll just keep planting.”
While the kids keep playing.
评论
发表评论