Wow! Check out this great new video about a great new project we are working on in the city of Portland, OR. My playscape partner Leon Smith is leading it and working with loads of kids on the design doing field trips, brainstorming, drawings, model building and more. Exciting stuff!!
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Brooklyn Swarm Build TIMELAPSE!
Hee hee – fun times in the big city. Here a group of spirited volunteers got together to plant themselves a hillslide. Nice! Shoveling, pickaxing, gathering free woodchips from a local cemetery, light carpentry and heavy comradery added up to a fun day of work and a great new 4′ hillslide planted in the community’s sweet children’s play courtyard. Yeah!
International MUD DAY
Woo hoo! International Mud Day at the new Hands-on-Nature ANARCHY ZONE at the Ithaca Children’s Garden. YEAH!!!! Mud pools, mud slides, mud pies, mud cloth, mud mountains. We got 60 cubic yards of screened topsoil delivered and the Ithaca fire department was amazingly generous and came to soak it all up and make some yummy silky crazy mud. And what a day. I’ve never seen so many smiles in one place! And why is that? Mud. Earth. Humans. Humans have been getting muddy as long as there have been humans. (You know it’s true!) And kids? Come on!
There’s something about going past the point of no return, isn’t there? Plunging in. Into the mud, yes. But also plunging into the PLAY. Saying yes to mud, yes to life, yes to the spirit of play. Yes, yes, yes!
Calgary Soaring
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My springtime adventures began with a trip to a very special school in Calgary, Alberta Canada. I was invited to lead a natural play workshop for teachers and staff at Renfrew Education Services — a five-site school that specializes in children with special needs, preK through teen who’s moto is “helping kids soar”. The facilities are amazing, the staff is incredible, and the dedication to children’s growth and development is inspiring. Families of children with special needs from all over Canada move to Calgary so their children can attend this wonderful school. I was honored to be asked to present ideas to this group. It was especially moving for me because my own brother Lance (who had special needs) in the last year of his life attended a school much like Renfrew. I know what a positive impact a place like this can have on children and their families.
The first part of my trip was to visit all five sites to observe children and meet with staff to find out their dreams, concerns, and hopes for adding nature and natural elements to their yards and classrooms. I saw some amazing stuff happening—from HUGE sand boxes INSIDE the classrooms, to “cubby cubes” for kids to cuddle inside of, to high tech multi-sensory “snoezelen” therapy rooms. The next day was the workshop day to brainstorm ideas, show pictures, and dream about how to add natural elements to the children’s lives. We even brought in loads of fresh herbs from the grocery store and teachers picked, plucked and mashed them together until the room was a rich, enticing herbal sensory delight. Maybe kids could work with herbs in the same way…
Then I had a day to play and was able to visit the gorgeous Canadian Rocky mountains—only 1-1/2 hours from downtown Calgary. First stop Banff and the Banff Springs Hotel. Then a nice hike to take in the mountain views. Then on to Lake Louise for some sun, snow, and high peaks.
Did I mention my surprise moose sighting??
Spring Willow Hut Build
We cannot display this galleryThis past weekend I had the pleasure of building another great living willow hut…this time in a sweet public park in my own town of Spencer, NY. Local organizer and volunteer extraordinaire, Nicole O’Connell-Avery, is spearheading a natural playscape project for little kids in the park. The first build of the project: a Living Willow Hut of course! Nicole and I have been plotting and planning over the winter and last weekend was the big day. We had arranged to get willow cuttings from local friends who have willow by a creek on their land. As it turned out we didn’t need any: Nicole works at Cornell University and was jogging by landscapers trimming the beautiful showy Curly Willow trees on campus. She asked if she could have the cuttings and of course they said yes! (You gotta love a natural playscape project: it’s all about being in the right place at the right time and not being afraid to ask for help. Yeah!)
We put out the word for volunteers, arranged for tools and set the time for 9:00am Saturday morning. OK, so it was pouring down rain and no volunteers showed up. But that didn’t stop us! We dug right in and started to work. Then we realized the slick hole-poking tools that Nicole brought couldn’t poke through the rocky ground. But that didn’t stop us either! We shoveled, pick axed and plucked stones and soon we had a perfect trench to plant our willows. That morning was also the day of the big Easter egg hunt in the park so we had lots of kids and families looking on and appreciating our work. (Folks in Spencer, NY know all about living willow huts; we built a big one at the elementary school 2 years ago and it is sprouting up nicely.) No sooner had we finished but the Easter Bunny herself showed up to give us her blessings! The magic of a willow project…
So: now is the perfect time to plant willow if you get the chance (before they totally leaf out). The best kind of willow is not weeping willow or shoots from large willow trees (they’ll get too big). Instead look for willow that grows weedy and reedy by creaks and streams in your area. Take thumb-size cuttings 6-8′ long. Park them in water in a cool dark place. And when you’re ready, simply push them in the ground and water, water, water. Woo-hoo!
Early Spring Playscape: snow, mud, brown, bulbs!
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Here is another wonderful home-based preschool center in Ithaca, NY that I love visiting throughout the seasons: Corner of the Sky, run by my friend Valerie http://cornerofthesky.org/ As the snow continued to recede children found spring bulbs, protected delicate green tree-seedlings from trampling feet, and rode the wagon through the barely budding lilac tree tunnel. “Smell the lilacs Rusty. It smells like spring!” I used my sensory imagination…and sure enough, I smelled it too! Playscapes don’t always have to pretty and pristine —just chocked full of possibility, plants, and imagination. I can almost imagine spring is coming….
Snow Day
Winter fun at The Seed Center – a home-based childcare center in Ithaca, NY owned by Jacquelyn and Aaron Buchel. Their program is wonderful and they have a beautiful environment for the children, inside and outside. I have been enjoying visiting to photograph the seasonal fun in their outdoor playscape. Here are the latest adventures….We cannot display this gallery
Kids in The Wild Woods
We’re halfway into our New Zealand – Australia journey, kicking back for a day in Christchurch, NZ – the biggest city on New Zealand’s south island. After spending our first week on the north island, yesterday we took a 3-hour ferry ride to the south island. All was perfectly smooth and calm for our crossing from Wellington. (which was quite a relief since my last ferry ride a year ago from Puerto Rico to Culebra island was, well, “eventful”.) After the ferry we took the once-a-day five hour train down to Christchurch. Beautiful scenery. Crystal blue Pacific ocean on the left side of the train. Snow-capped mountains on the right side. They even had an open air car where you could get an exciting wind-blown up close view of the passing scenes. Today we are resting in a sweet little “batch” or beach house in Governor’s Bay (for those of you following along with google maps). Tomorrow we’re working with a local Playcentre to build a water play river and falls with volunteers. Stay tuned!
So, with feet up its time to start catching up on some of the great adventures we’ve been a part of so far. (its been a FULL 12 days so far!) Let’s go way back up to Whangarei and Open Spaces Preschool. Not only do they have a fabulous indoor+outdoor environment for children with fun-loving staff, natural materials, and yes, chickens (!), but the children also have a very very special place to visit and connect with the natural world: The Wild Woods.
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The Wild Woods is a section of wooded grazing land about a 1/4 mile back from the preschool. It is part of the director Cherry Daly’s family farm where they raise horses, cows and sheep on 130 acres of woods, creeks, and open pasture land. The Wild Woods is Open Spaces Preschool’s version of a Forest Kindergarden or Forest School – where the classroom is the woods. The forest kindergarden movement is popular in European countries especially Norway, Sweden, and Denmark. Children explore the natural environment in all seasons and all types of weather. “There is no such thing as bad weather – just bad clothing.” The movement is catching on all over the world.
Two years ago Cherry attended the Nature Action Coalition for Children working forum at Arbor Day Farms in Nebraska where she was inspired by the fabulous Claire Warden of Mindstretchers in Scotland. Claire runs a number of of nature kindergartens and travels the world inspiring groups to bring more nature to children and to bring more children to nature. (Claire also took the picture on the cover of my book of her daughter and a friend at one of her nature kindergartens) Cherry saw the great things that the children were up to at Claire’s nature kindergartens and a light bulb went off in her head. “Why don’t we do the same thing on a part of our land? I know just the place!”
When she returned home to New Zealand she talked it over with her family and they agreed to designate a 5 acre parcel of land for the preschool’s daily use. Let me just say it is a stunning, sacred piece of land. Ancient trees ring an open meadow. Volcanic rock outcroppings covered with lichen. (remember that a dormant volcano just down the road?) Some of the trees are 500, 600, 700 years old! For you tree buffs look these up: Puriri, Trairie, Rewa Rewa, Kauri, Matai, and Pohutukawa. (we don’t have these in upstate NY!)
The Natural Phenomena conference itself would be held on these grounds. The day before the conference I had the immense pleasure of joining a group of children and teachers on their adventure in the Wild Woods. Every day a group of 8 four and five year old children and 2 teachers visit the woods for 3-4 hours. They take the 15 minute walk along the dirt driveway, horses, mud puddles, and “Miss Piggy” and enter into the woods. From there the children are free to roam. The teachers follow the children’s lead and stand by as children climb trees, help turn over logs to look for spiders, push children on rope swings, apply the occasional band-aid, and get lunch ready complete with wipes for dirty hands. I joined the children on their investigations and explorations and as always I was amazed at how natural it is for children to be in nature. It makes sense, sure: throughout history humans have always been connected to nature and it makes sense that children would feel comfortable and curious as they dig and discover the magic and mysteries of their world. And yet it’s still almost surprising to see these modern children approaching the land and landscape with such curiosity, calm, respect, interest, and depth. Is it surprising because typically children are not allowed to do this? Not trusted? Is there a fear for their safety? Their health? Are adults too busy to slow down with children to do this? Children….in the woods?!?
It renews my belief that children are amazingly competent learners, know their limitations and can be trusted to take appropriate risks, and are deep thinkers with great empathy for other living creatures on the planet — animals, insects, or plants. Traditional Maori culture and ideas are woven into the fabric of everyday life in New Zealand and especially in schools. The Wild Woods kids have been taught Maori concepts of respect and caring for all living things. They are careful not to step on living seedling trees or pull out living plants, and always try to touch the bugs and worms they discover “gently”. While the children were certainly having fun, I sensed the underlying feelings of honor and respect that the children had toward the land they were exploring. It was a sacred feeling. Something deep. Something special. When the children got back to the preschool at the end of the day it was all rough and tumble wildness, block building, running, racing, paper airplane flying and whooping it up. But the time they spent in the Wild Woods was different. It was heart time. Earth time. Connecting somehow with the universe time. Taking place amidst the cathedral of trees it felt holy.
All schools cannot suddenly change to be outdoor-only forest schools like they have in Scandinavia. But how many schools are within walking distance to a natural area that could be used for exploration? It doesn’t have to be a forest of ancient trees. It could be an open meadow. A beach. A vacant lot. A creek. A park. A college campus. A scrubby patch of trees in a forgotten corner of the school grounds.
Imagine that: children exploring nature as a normal daily event.
copyright Rusty Keeler 2010. Please contact me for reprinting this article.