Great post Juliet - and the images of the 'play traces' (paths, worn cliff edges) bring it to life. It's so important to document children's playful uses of 'non-prescriptive' spaces, whether in the city, the town or the countryside.
So true. I find it sad to see large numbers of children 'caged' in play areas with soft fall surfacing and man made structure while the lovely wild spaces are empty on the other side of the fence! Thanks Juliet.
Thanks for your comments! Tim - I like the idea of "play traces" - never heard of that before.
Niki - the lovely thing about the park is the lack of notices around - so historically children have always used the rock outcrops. http://creativestarlearning.blogspot.com/2009/04/this-place-still-rocks.html
Juliet, I grew up in a town in Minnesota on the Mississippi River. We were forbidden to go there by our parents, but we were down there every chance we got. I now live in another city on the Mississippi. Every chance I got, I took my own children down there to hunt for rocks and climb over dead trees. To me there was no better natural, exploratory playground. To this day, I still walk the Mississippi to find things to bring into my classroom.
5 comments:
Great post Juliet - and the images of the 'play traces' (paths, worn cliff edges) bring it to life. It's so important to document children's playful uses of 'non-prescriptive' spaces, whether in the city, the town or the countryside.
So true. I find it sad to see large numbers of children 'caged' in play areas with soft fall surfacing and man made structure while the lovely wild spaces are empty on the other side of the fence! Thanks Juliet.
Thanks for your comments! Tim - I like the idea of "play traces" - never heard of that before.
Niki - the lovely thing about the park is the lack of notices around - so historically children have always used the rock outcrops. http://creativestarlearning.blogspot.com/2009/04/this-place-still-rocks.html
Juliet, I grew up in a town in Minnesota on the Mississippi River. We were forbidden to go there by our parents, but we were down there every chance we got. I now live in another city on the Mississippi. Every chance I got, I took my own children down there to hunt for rocks and climb over dead trees. To me there was no better natural, exploratory playground. To this day, I still walk the Mississippi to find things to bring into my classroom.
Thanks Tom - it sounds like an amazing place!
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