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Playful Moment of the Day
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Author: Beth Kelley
Beth Kelley is an applied & digital anthropologist with an overall interest in how people engage with and are impacted by their environments and vice versa. This has manifested itself in many ways, by looking at creativity, playful spaces, built environments, and environmental enrichment, sustainability, design research, and integrative and collaborative models of learning such as through play and hands-on learning.
The Games These Benches Play « The Dirt
Playful design in an urban environment? My favorite!
Clever and talented Danish artist Jeppe Hein has been custom-making his “Modified Social Benches” for museums, arts festivals, and plazas since the mid-2000s. Most recently, he created a unique set of art you can sit on for Beaufort04, the fourth Triennial of Contemporary Art by the Sea this summer in Belgium. Kids, cool kids, and adults all seem to love playing with these.
Hein says his powder-coated aluminium “social benches” borrow their basic form from the standard park bench, but are altered to make the “act of sitting on them a conscious physical endeavor.” As they mutate, the benches become spaces to “inhabit,” rather than just places to park it and relax for a moment.
more via The Games These Benches Play « The Dirt.
The pieces may seem like fun one-offs, but something then happens between the work and the community: “As is the case with much of Hein’s work, the Modified Social Benches on the dyke in De Haan seem to hide behind a disguise of fun and entertainment. But what they actually evoke is a process of interaction and communication that works on different levels.”
Check out more at ASLA’s blog The Dirt.
Related articles
- The Games These Benches Play (dirt.asla.org)
Bee boulevard: How to turn an urban corridor into a haven for native pollinators | Grist
I couldn’t stay away for long, could I?
I thought this was an interesting article about actively creating space in urban environments to promote biodiversity and making our lives as humans healthier (more bees means more flowers, fruits and veggies), and it just so happens to make the space prettier and more enjoyable visually as well.
Several years ago, Sarah Bergmann, a painter by training, started asking questions about the fate of the world’s pollinators. And while she’s not an environmentalist per se, Bergmann’s art and graphic design work never stray far from the environmental sphere. To her, the complex and shifting relationships between pollinators and plants have always begged further investigation. Bergmann’s response to what she learned is a work-in-progress called the Pollinator Pathway, a mile-long corridor of pollinator-friendly, mostly native plants stretching between two green spaces in the heart of Seattle.
Bergmann chose the pathway’s two endpoints — the Seattle University campus and a lot-sized forest called Nora’s Woods — for their diverse plant life and lack of pesticides. Since building the first test garden in 2008 with the help of a small city grant, she and hundreds of volunteers have installed 16 more gardens in parking strips along the way. “It’s not just a random line of plants; it’s meant to find two existing green spaces within the city and draw a line between them,” she says.
Gardens are built with the cooperation and enthusiasm of homeowners on the corridor, who have also agreed to maintain them. They must be drought-tolerant, pesticide free, and, ideally, contain at least 70 percent native plants — though Bergmann says the project hasn’t quite hit that target yet. And of course, the plants must be appealing to bees and other pollinators. These requirements, combined with city height restrictions for parking-strip vegetation, led to a list of about 50 plants that can be part of the pathway.
Biologists have been promoting migration corridors for mammals and birds for decades, so why not bees? Gardening is also a fun, playful activity for many people, and the idea that they’re helping out something else in return is also satisfying.
Find out more about creating bee corridors via Bee boulevard: How to turn an urban corridor into a haven for native pollinators | Grist.
Related articles
- Bee boulevard: How to turn an urban corridor into a haven for native pollinators (grist.org)
- Why Bees Need Trees (wtcampaigns.wordpress.com)
- Wild pollinators support farm productivity and stabilize yield (sciencedaily.com)
Baby vacation
Dear readers,You may have noticed the site got a little quiet last week. That is because my daughter was born, so we have been suddenly thrown into parent mode, not leaving room for much else. Once the dust settles I will continue to update this blog, especially now that I have one of the best authorities on play living under my roof!
Get outside and play for me while the weather is still nice.
🙂
Visualizations, brainstorming, and daydreaming
I’ve been reading about visualization a lot lately. It can seem kind of hokey or too touchy-feely for some, and I’m usually not one to buy into “if you build it, they will come” kinds of ideas. However, studies are finding that visualization has a lot of positive benefits; usually articles and research focus on the relaxation and pain reduction aspects of visualization, but it also helps formalize one’s ideas, missions, and goals, and how to achieve them.
When most people visualize something for relaxation purposes, they think of outdoor spaces, whether it’s the beach, the woods, or a mountain top. Something wide open. Very few people think of cityscapes when trying to visualize a relaxing place. Women in labor or people using visualization for pain reduction will visualize things opening and releasing, usually a flower or something else natural.
For goal setting, visualization is definitely more personal, but it also often involves the person visualizing themselves doing something they enjoy, whatever it is that makes them feel happy and alive, energized and inspired to go after their goals. Scoring the game-winning goal, building the perfect dream house, nailing the presentation at work. The object of the exercise in all of these cases is imagining themselves in a specific scenario, seeing, tasting, smelling exactly what that’s like, being happy and successful.
Scientists and strategists often describe how sitting with a problem, thinking through its complexities and possible scenarios to solve the challenge.
What’s also interesting to me is that all of these scenarios for visualization could also be described as slightly more focused daydreaming.
Daydreaming, which is considered a type of play, is often dismissed as a waste of time. But it has been shown to be extremely useful for both children and adults in problem-solving, understanding mathematical or biological concepts, or just coming up with new ideas, whether it’s understanding energy or butterfly wings. It’s also good training for more focused practices like visualization, meditation, or focused brainstorming practiced in many professions.
My advice is to take some time this weekend and daydream on a topic of interest or a problem you’ve been having, or move up a step in complexity and try visualization or brainstorming on it.
There’s really no one way to daydream or visualize, although there are lots of suggested techniques out there.
What do you find yourself daydreaming about? Do you have a goal, dream, passion? Think about what that might look like? What are you doing, how are you doing it?
Do you have a problem or challenge that has been creeping into your mind without your consent? Instead of pushing it away, let it come in and think about it? Why is it bothering you? What are some ways to fix it?
Wishing you all a happy Friday, and a visualization-filled weekend.
Related articles
- The Power of Daydreaming: Why You Should Let Your Mind Wander (marksdailyapple.com)
- Did You Daydream Today? (healinginwriting.wordpress.com)
- Two Easy Brainstorming Techniques (verynovel.wordpress.com)
- 14 More Ideas for Daydreaming (tropicaltheartist.wordpress.com)
- It pays to be a daydream believer in a fast-moving age (express.co.uk)
Play time vital for learning
As we head back into the academic school year, a lot of people are focused on education and making sure students get the best possible opportunity to learn and thrive. Here’s one easy way to support that: give them space and time for play!
Numerous academic studies [sources stored in a weird place, will update soon] on school-aged kids have demonstrated that recess time is valuable for learning and aids in the overall learning process. But I think it can be more powerful to hear how valuable it is from someone who actually lives with the results of life with more or less recess; the teachers.
From the Sydney Morning Herald, educator Susanne North writes about the values of recess from an education viewpoint:
Apart from being a fun activity, it is widely recognised that play is one of the most important ways in which brain development occurs in children.
Sadly, in some schools valuable recess and lunch time has been reduced in favour of more rigorous academic pursuit within the classroom. In other schools, running or ball games have been banned due to a perceived high injury risk factor.
As many families now choose structured and adult-directed play activities after school or on weekends, the school playground becomes one of a few outlets where children can engage in free outdoor play with their peers. More than 28 hours a week, often spent solitarily, are devoted to computers, mobile phones, television and other electronic devices. Considering that as much as 25 per cent of time spent at school is playground time, we need to rethink the benefits of play at school.
Conversely, a lack of play can result in challenging behaviour and negative performances in the classroom, according to an American educational psychologist, Anthony Pellegrini.
Also, playgrounds that lack play stimuli become spaces where children often wander around aimlessly, become frustrated and bully other children. Not many schools can afford expensive playground equipment, but the good news is that this is not needed anyway.
Professor Anita Bundy, from the Faculty of Health Sciences at Sydney University, has launched a large-scale study involving 12 primary schools in NSW, introducing simple, recycled play resources during recess, with outstanding results. This included crates, car tyres, foam pool noodles, plastic barrels, tarpaulins, foam cubes and other open-ended materials that lend themselves to creative, imaginary play.
Not only do children become physically more active, they also hone important social skills, build resilience and are encouraged to think creatively.
Read more: Play time vital for children | Sydney Morning Herald
The entire Op-Ed is very strongly written and makes a great case for play, and it’s great to hear it from the teacher’s standpoint, so please read it and share. And be sure to support play time in school, whether it’s by voting, volunteering, donating red rubber balls, or whatever you can do.
Related articles
- School Recess Time Disappearing (todaysmama.com)
- Recess Is Making A Comeback In Urban Schools (bigthink.com)
- Packers help build playground (fox11online.com)
Outdoor Play Poster
From the nonprofit organization Voice of Play and their host organization, the IPEMA (International Play Equipment Manufacturing Assocation):
This poster is appropriate for any player, whether you are 2 or 92.
What other reasons can you think of to play outside? Leave them in the comments below.
Unique Monday commute
If you’re looking for a way to mix up your commute, this might just be the ticket. From Inhabitat:
A video has been posted on YouTube of a Russian man riding what appears to be a fully working bicycle… apart from the fact it could probably fit in the rider’s pocket. It’s a good thing he’s wearing a helmet, as he doesn’t look particularly stable – the man’s feet appear to be five times bigger than the pedals!
I’ve actually seen a couple of unicycle commuters, but never a mini-bike. During the first gas price increase of recent years a couple of high school girls tried riding their horses to school, but the school wasn’t set up to stable the horses during school hours (lame!). What other fun ways have you seen people try to get to work or school?
Related articles
- 18 Reasons You Should Bike To Work (businessinsider.com)
Montessori Google Doodle
Have you noticed Google’s doodle for today yet? It is in honor of Maria Montessori, founder of the Montessori style of learning, which focuses on open-ended, free-form learning, which involves a lot of play. From PC Magazine:
Google on Friday honored Italian physician and educator Maria Montessori with a homepage doodle celebrating her 142nd birth anniversary.
The drawing features some of the tools that form the basis of Montessori’s educational methods, which emphasize hands-on, individualized learning within mixed age groups in a child-friendly setting.
After working in insane asylums with mentally handicapped children, in 1904 she began re-engineering the field of children’s education. She believed that all children have an inner drive to learn, and that children learn best when in a safe, hands-on learning environment.
Montessori also found that children help teach each other when put into groups with other kids of their own age range. She believed that teachers should pay close attention to students, not the other way around.
Her early efforts were so successful that she amassed a large following of parents and teachers who wanted to learn her methods. She later gained support from Thomas Edison, Helen Keller, and Alexander Graham Bell, who founded the Montessori Educational Association, headquartered in Washington D.C.
Read the full article.
Thanks Google for showcasing a great woman who was a pioneer in creating more playful and therefore better learning environments for kids.
Hope everyone has a great looong weekend before school starts up for a lot of people (appropriate timing to honor Montessori, eh?), filled with lots of learning, exploration, and playful environments.
Related articles
- Maria Montessori, the Italian physician and educator, gets Google Doodle (siliconrepublic.com)
- Montessori Education Celebrated With Google Doodle (seroundtable.com)
- Maria Montessori, a bold life breaking gender boundaries (csmonitor.com)
- Maria Montessori: 10 things you need to know about the pioneering Italian doctor (mirror.co.uk)
Fear, Traffic Largest Inhibitors of Outdoor Play in UK
This makes me sad to see that fear is stopping a lot of kids from playing outdoors in the U.K. From the national organization Play England:
Traffic and a fear of strangers are preventing children from playing outdoors, new research released for Playday 2012 has found. Almost half (49%) of parents report that fear of strangers stops their children from playing out, while 46% say traffic and almost a third (31%) highlight fear of accident and injury as barriers to outdoor play.
The findings of the survey have been released today as an estimated half-a-million children and families nationwide celebrate Playday- the national day for play in the UK, held this year on Wednesday 1st August. Around 500 community events are taking place across the UK to celebrate 25 years of the campaign, which raises awareness about children’s right to play and the importance of play for children’s health, wellbeing and happiness.
The Playday 2012 theme isGet out and play! The campaign, which is co-ordinated by Play England (part of the National Children’s Bureau), Play Wales, Play Scotland and PlayBoard Northern Ireland has gone from strength-to-strength since its conception in London in 1987, when the first events were held to raise awareness about the effects of cuts to local play services.
Cath Prisk, Director of Play England, said: “Simply playing outside should be a normal, everyday event for all children. If we want to foster the next generation of Olympians and sports stars, then we need children with confidence, who love being active and are confident in tackling challenges. If parents are too afraid to let their children play out – because of fear of strangers, traffic or their children having accidents – then we as a society need to address this fear. Whether that’s a community living in a cul-de-sac agreeing children will be playing out every day, a street applying to the council to close the road for play regularly, or residents volunteering to help local play projects reach more children, we can all do our bit to make sure every day is a Playday.”
Mike Greenaway, Director of Play Wales, said: ‘… As a society we have developed an irrational fear that our children are unsafe outside. Compound this with the domination of cars and their drivers, and the world outside the front door doesn’t look particularly attractive for anyone who wants to play there … and children regularly tell us that outside is where they want to play. Children value time, quality places and freedom to play in their own way; we need to support them, recognise that for their wellbeing, they need to play outside and that it’s safer than we think.’
Read the full release.
I am glad, however, that the U.K. seems to be taking play more seriously than the U.S.; just the fact that they have a Play Day (August 1), is pretty cool. And the Quote from Mike Greenaway is as accurate for the U.S. as it is for the U.K.: serious crime has actually been decreasing since the early 1990s.
Thankfully where I grew up was pretty rural, so as long as we were within whistle-shot (my mom would blow a whistle rather than yell), we could roam as far and wide as we wanted. What rules did your parents have about playing outside? What rules do you have for kids you are in charge of (kids, nieces and nephews, neighbor kids, grandkids, etc.)? Leave a note in the comment below.
Related articles
- Safety fears ‘stop outdoor play’ (bbc.co.uk)
- Fear over ‘stranger danger’ stops children playing outside (telegraph.co.uk)
- Safety fears ‘prevent outdoor play’ (belfasttelegraph.co.uk)
- Playing out – reclaiming the streets (outdoornation.org.uk)
Mental Flowers 