For Your Binder

Is your child getting enough bacteria?  #play #outside #nature

FUN FACT! Mother Nature installed the “play drive” for the same reason she installed that other drive – the drive to reproduce: BOTH are critical for the species to continue. (In fact, play makes you into the kind of person someone would want to reproduce WITH.)  #play #teaching #learning

Part I in a series by Peter Gray.   He says his goal for the series is to examine teaching from the ground up. He starts here by defining teaching and presents evidence that teaching occurs in at least some non-human animals. An examination of teaching in other species may lead to insights that will be useful for understanding teaching in our species. #teaching #learning #DAP #play

Limiting playgrounds to manufactured equipment short-changes children of rich, playful, outdoor experiences!  #play #outside #nature #movement

Read more about the growing movement to reconnect children & nature and how to battle nature deficit disorder. The future of children in nature has profound implications not only for the conservation of land but also for the direction of the environmental movement. #outside #nature #play

This is a fantastic SPOT ON 7 minute Ted Talk video with Balanced and Barefoot author, Angela Hanscom, that concisely sums up WHY children need to move and HOW to go about making sure they do! But don't just watch it and agree with it, DO IT! #play #outside #movement #recess #risk #resilience #teaching #learning #nature

Children all over the world organize these “special places.” #dens #forts #nature #outside #play

Can you just see it? A young Einstein, wild hair flying, throwing his mother’s quilt over a couple of chairs and crawling underneath!?!?!  #nature #play #forts #dens #looseparts #outside

Make two mud pies and call me in the morning! #mud #play #dirt #outside #nature 

The ambiguous, variable, and paradoxical nature of the play concept is so widely accepted, that most play theorists consider the search for a universal definition to be pure folly. #play #theorists 

Note: while no date is provided in the article, I originally read it in 2015 if that provides any context.

Nature preschools, forest kindergartens, outdoor pre-K, call 'em what you want, they've grown in number almost 500% since 2012! #nature #play #outside #forestschools

Spoiler alert - nature based preschool is a positive thing! What we need now are researchers who can test this hypothesis in ways that look beyond test scores! #play #outside #teaching #learning #forestschools #nature