Nature Play Workshop
NATURE PLAY LEADERSHIP
Nature Play Leadership • PLAY • NATURE BASED PLAY • RISK AND PLAY
Free PLAY is… • Freely chosen • Personally directed • Intrinsically motivated (Bob Hughes, 2012)
Nature Based Play Free (unstructured) play in natural environments
• Natural habitats • Variable – Flexible environment – ‘Loose parts’ within the environment
• Geographical forms as part of the ‘play frame’
Decline in children’s outdoor play • • • • • • •
Parental fears (stranger danger) Presence of Roads (restricting movement) Traffic and personal injury Diminishing play spaces Demographics of family life Advances in Technology Over parenting, over scheduling… Rivkin (2006) Baxter (2009) Gray (2010)
Benefits of Nature Play… Physical
Spiritual
Emotional
Cognitive
Social
Planning for play spaces in nature – consider opportunities for: • Secret Spaces and Sacred Spaces • Small Worlds (and places of their own) • Animals, Native Plants and other living things • Adventure and Risk Taking
• Fantasy (make believe) • Multiple and Varied Pathways
Building with natural materials
Getting up close and personal
Physical Challenges
Corn Mazes
Huts and Forts
Small sacred places
In Nature Play: Kids need to learn to perceive potential risk, encounter risk, and have experience managing risk
Risk & Play Risk assessment, judgment and capacity can only be developed by engaging with real challenges.
What is risk? The product of the probability and the impact (positive or negative) of a possible future event. Is ‘risk’ different from ‘hazard’?
Risk or Hazard? Talk with a partner and come up with a situation of risk in outdoor play and a potential situation of hazard in outdoor play.
Benefits of Risk in Play • • • • • •
Gain experience for adulthood Physical activity benefits Stress management opportunities Social skills gained Resiliency and persistence Awareness of personal health and safety (Risk and Play Lit Review, 2008) )
Risk-taking behavior and perceptions of risk • Children seek out ‘risk-taking’ opportunities • Children say they enjoy ‘dangerous’ locations • Influences in environment encourages positive types of risk-taking behavior that children need for development (Waters & Begley, 2007) • Children enjoy physical risk – something they have not tried before or the feeling of being close to ‘out of control’
How do we balance our need to protect them from danger, yet allow them to make mistakes?
Risk Management in Play Provision • Assessing Risk (appropriateness) – adhering to your organizations rules and regulations • Fear of litigation (standardizing playgrounds) • Risk averse culture?
“…people are no longer capable of dealing with everyday risk, and extreme and often unnecessary forms of intervention mean that children are loosing any sense of freedom.” -Gill • And do we not want to prepare our children to be able to live and work in an unpredictable world?
“Bubble-wrapped generation”
Mary Ann Rintoul [email protected]
Nature is not a place we visit …. It is our HOME
Nature Play Leadership • PLAY • NATURE BASED PLAY • RISK AND PLAY
Free PLAY is… • Freely chosen • Personally directed • Intrinsically motivated (Bob Hughes, 2012)
Nature Based Play Free (unstructured) play in natural environments
• Natural habitats • Variable – Flexible environment – ‘Loose parts’ within the environment
• Geographical forms as part of the ‘play frame’
Decline in children’s outdoor play • • • • • • •
Parental fears (stranger danger) Presence of Roads (restricting movement) Traffic and personal injury Diminishing play spaces Demographics of family life Advances in Technology Over parenting, over scheduling… Rivkin (2006) Baxter (2009) Gray (2010)
Benefits of Nature Play… Physical
Spiritual
Emotional
Cognitive
Social
Planning for play spaces in nature – consider opportunities for: • Secret Spaces and Sacred Spaces • Small Worlds (and places of their own) • Animals, Native Plants and other living things • Adventure and Risk Taking
• Fantasy (make believe) • Multiple and Varied Pathways
Building with natural materials
Getting up close and personal
Physical Challenges
Corn Mazes
Huts and Forts
Small sacred places
In Nature Play: Kids need to learn to perceive potential risk, encounter risk, and have experience managing risk
Risk & Play Risk assessment, judgment and capacity can only be developed by engaging with real challenges.
What is risk? The product of the probability and the impact (positive or negative) of a possible future event. Is ‘risk’ different from ‘hazard’?
Risk or Hazard? Talk with a partner and come up with a situation of risk in outdoor play and a potential situation of hazard in outdoor play.
Benefits of Risk in Play • • • • • •
Gain experience for adulthood Physical activity benefits Stress management opportunities Social skills gained Resiliency and persistence Awareness of personal health and safety (Risk and Play Lit Review, 2008) )
Risk-taking behavior and perceptions of risk • Children seek out ‘risk-taking’ opportunities • Children say they enjoy ‘dangerous’ locations • Influences in environment encourages positive types of risk-taking behavior that children need for development (Waters & Begley, 2007) • Children enjoy physical risk – something they have not tried before or the feeling of being close to ‘out of control’
How do we balance our need to protect them from danger, yet allow them to make mistakes?
Risk Management in Play Provision • Assessing Risk (appropriateness) – adhering to your organizations rules and regulations • Fear of litigation (standardizing playgrounds) • Risk averse culture?
“…people are no longer capable of dealing with everyday risk, and extreme and often unnecessary forms of intervention mean that children are loosing any sense of freedom.” -Gill • And do we not want to prepare our children to be able to live and work in an unpredictable world?
“Bubble-wrapped generation”
Mary Ann Rintoul [email protected]
Nature is not a place we visit …. It is our HOME
