Built playgrounds are boring!

It started when I was on a church committee that wanted to re-do our playground. We are landlocked by urban development and spaces that cannot be developed as a permanent play space because they provide income from seasonal parking for football- that most sacred of games. This is a tiny space, mind you. The whole area is only about 24' x 15' wtih significant safety hazards and outdated residential equipment that was essentially taking up over 60% of the playable space. (More on that in an upcoming post). Since the space backs up to our nursery and toddler rooms, it was determined that this would be designed as a play space for ages 0 - 5. First the committee said, we have a little bit of money we want to spend. "We thought we should buy a climber." I cringed. Then I sighed.

If this is your line of thinking, or if you are trying to persuade others why other alternatives should be included, here are some reasons why a climber may not be the first thing you want to spend your money on:

1) They only foster one kind of play, at the expense of others

Playgrounds may be the most dangerous place you take your kids. Some believe this is because they only lend themselves to one way play. You climb up, then you climb out, then you fall off. After the brain and body has utilized the equipment the intended way a few times it gets bored and tries to give itself new challenge. This is when the equipment gets used, say by the third visit, in ways outside of what the manufactures intended it for. This is how my own son broke his arm- climbing on the outside of the tube slide to battle his friend, who then pushed him off.
Also play structures work on the development of gross motor play, but only a small subset of that, but do little to foster fine motor skills, emotional development, or imaginative play. On most play structures kids can not easily skip, there is little to push or pull, they can not lift loads across the playspace. Kids can not perceive differences in heavy or light or different kinds of sensations. There is very little pinching, handwriting, threading. It is harder to invite a friend to tea on the top of the slide, or to include very many friends in the top of your tower. And since the essence of imaginative play is loose parts- those bits that can be structured and restructured into infinite creatures, emotions, role-play, costumes, vehicles, counters, or alphabets- it is disappointing when there are few to be found besides wood chips. These areas also are usually designed for a very specific targeted age range and are inappropriate or even dangerous for other siblings who may find themselves playing at the same location.

2) They demand very expensive materials for filler and shading

If you decide that you are going to build a playground, the conversation will then turn to necessary fill requirements to make the space safe. Very quickly you will realize that your budget has been consumed annihilated to go towards rather boring materials such as pea gravel, poured rubber, rubber tiles, artificial turf, or maybe wood chips, the later must be refilled annually to maintain safe fall heights. (Many areas on existing playgrounds have inadequate depth of filler to meet fall height and safety guidelines!) You may have started out wishing to have other things in your playspace: elements for art, music, bikes, cooking, or construction and find that at the end you have nothing left in budget or space except for making these giant, too often gaudy, rainbow colored industrial structures.

Additionally when most large playgrounds are built, one of the first things that is inevitably done is that trees are removed. Now you have no natural shade and natural play elements are removed. The exposed playground equipment gets hot! This makes the space more limited to certain hours or seasons for comfortable play to occur. Many pediatric and dermatological associations are also beginning to worry about the consequences of excessive sun exposure in young children. So shade sails, which often cover a very small part of the space, must be ordered.

3) They don't usually lend themselves to imitating nature in structure or function

With few exceptions, most playgrounds do not imitate or leave room for nature. How lovely though when there is a "nest" to climb into, a cave to go through, or a forest to lie in. In most playgrounds it is hard to find much which imitates  biological, chemical, or physical processes. There is not usually available water. Where are the life-cycles, evapotransporation, or melting? Does the space foster biodiversity or are the humans the only ones allowed? Are there rocks to turn over, layers to unearth, decomposition to witness?

The children hope so.

Strawberry fields forever

Just a few weeks ago I worked with my son's pre-school and kindergarten to design and install some new kid friendly garden spaces. My favorite element, though, was the strawberry tower.

This was a little bit expensive for one tower, but the good news is that the plants are perennials,  so with a bit of care hopefully the plants will produce strawberries for years to come.

Some notes about strawberries
There are two primary eating kinds: 1) June bearing and 2)Everbearing. June bearing produce one crop (in Oklahoma) for a short window during May to June (or end of April this year!). Everbearing produce continuously throughout May and June with other small crops possible in summer and fall. For a school group that will not meet during the summer, I would recommend either an early or mid-season June bearing. Groups that will meet through summer should consider everbearing varieties. Strawberries need full sun and frequent water at the roots but should never be left in standing water. Ozark beauty, All star, and Early glow might be two varieties to try here because they are resistant to many diseases. And Albion and Seascape are everbearing varieties noted for doing well in containers.


The recommended time to put out transplants here is February 1 to March 20th, or some areas can get away with establishing plants in fall before frost. However, we put ours in April 10th and they are quite happy! Choose plants that are shiny, not powdery (indicates fresh pesticides or possible fungus), vigorous, and without many brown leaves or bug damage. Make sure to check the undersides of the leaves to make sure you are not bringing home any visitors! Plants from small local nurseries will probably have received better care than those from large retail stores. Mail order might be another great possibility to find a particular variety. Also at the very least look for plants that have some white flowers, however your students will be delighted faster if you pick some with small white berries already growing! Bloom to berry is 18-45 days!

The materials used:

• 4 plastic garden pots that stacked: $14.99, $12.99, $10.99, $8.99
• 3 40lb. bags (we actually only used 2.5) of cheap garden potting soil: $9.00
• 1 flat of strawberries: $18
• About the equivalent of 2 bags of compost (Our city is fantastic in providing a city-wide compost program so we can get compost for free if you scoop it yourself)
• bird netting: $8 

----------------
Total cost: $82.96

*This project could be drastically cheapened by using used pots or pots acquired at places like garage or estate sales. (Make sure to wash used pots in a bleach water solution first to avoid contaminating your plants). Strawberries are also very prolific growers and every few years need to be thinned, so check around if anyone has any to give away!

 We also had kid wheelbarrows and shovels available.

The process
The project was done after school and we had about 10 students and three adults helping with the project. The kids eagerly helped scoop compost and soil into each pot. We filled each about 2/3 full to start. Then they used their shovels to mix the pots.

Next we stacked and nested the pots. I found some terra cotta pots for the same prices, but had purposely chosen these plastic ones, just in case one were to fall on a kid.

Finally we added our plants about 5 -8 inches apart on each level. It is a little tricky to get them wedged between the pots. In this case shake most of the dirt off and then tuck them into holes on the edges. It is important to set your strawberries in the dirt at about 1 inch below the stem line. This keeps them from rotting or drying out.

Fill holes with remaining dirt/compost mixture. We then added a few spoonfuls of Strawberries AliveTM organic fertilizer to each individual plant. I happened to already have some at home so I did not charge the school for this cost. You could also add compost and a liquid organic fertilizer like a fish emulsion blend monthly. They are heavy feeders so you will have to feed often.

Care
Drip irrigation or hand can watering works best and do not let soil dry out. Because these are in raised pots they will probably need daily watering and perhaps twice a day in the heat of the summer. When berries begin turning red, cover with a bird net. Put straw on the berries before heat of summer and again for winter. Ladybugs (see upcoming article!) and insecticidal soaps can be used to deter aphids and spider mites. This elevated method may give some protection from roly-pollies and snails. Planting marigolds nearby will also attract beneficial insects.

Tube time to tree time

After several weeks of traveling, sick kids, and a stressed husband in the middle of his comprehensive exams for his doctorate, I'm finally back!

My five year old son LOVES all things electronic. Be it video games, T.V., or computer games he is constantly begging- badgering- berating me to have more more more time to do these activities. One he particularly likes lately is Sonic Underground (which he discovered for himself). It is nearly impossible to turn it off without serious drama, even when it seems to me like I have offered much more appealing things like going outside to play in the mud or play with bows and arrows. Conversations about why it is not so good for his brain are just exasperating and forcing him to go outside just makes him frustrated. I don't want to set up that dichotomy of having to go outside because my mom makes me versus doing this cool media because he likes it. I also want to honor his interests. So we started to have a conversation the other day about what it is about video games he likes exactly.

Me: I was wondering what is it that you like so much about playing video games? It's not one of my favorite things, but I know it is something you like a lot.

C: Well it IS one of mine.

Me: Do you like being able to act out and be part of the story? Being able to knock out the bad guys? How fast it moves? Being able to do tricks you can't do in real life?

C: Yeah, I like all of that. I like going fast.

Me: Well did you know that the video game started out with someone's drawings? It didn't move at all.

C: Really?

Me: It took someone a long time to draw them over and over again to make something that we call animation. They had to be a really good artist- just like you. And they had to do a lot of sketches-just like you drawing in your nature journal. They had to practice a lot and pay attention to the details too.

(We then spent some cool time on youtube looking for some flip book animations.) Here was our favorite:

You Tube video: Flipbook Animation: Sonic the Hedgehog (Full Version) by bloodyrenegadex

(In this day in age kids have the privilege of seeing life in fast motion. We are so spoiled with all the National geographic type images and videos. We never have to wait or plan to see anything. With all these marvelous end products it is so easy for all of us to forget about the process and the painstaking work that might be involved in acquiring such photography and images. As naturalists and interpreters we constantly feel like we are trying to teach a fast world to look slowly. And we worry that our message will be obsolete to this generation who seem to have already jumped ahead to the next thing before we even open our mouths. So I thought fast...what could I do to help him see a process and how can we use nature to show a product and mimic the fun of animation over time? Time-Lapse Photography!)

Me: I know that sometimes I have seen photographers do a trick. Just like the animation tricks our eyes to see many pictures become one, they can make something that usually happens a little bit slowly like a flower opening or a tree growing appear to happen more quickly so that we can watch the whole process. This is called time-lapse photography.

Cris: That sounds really cool mom. 

Here are some amazing nature videos that we found in our discussion of time lapse photography:

 

You Tube video: Flowers in Growth (Time Lapse)

You Tube Video: Thunderstorm time lapse

You Tube Video: Time lapse dandelion flower to seed head

And now Cris and I are doing a project where we are taking pictures of trees in our yard over many days to see how they change over time. We have a tulip tree that is particuarly interesting. As it is spring and everything is bursting into bloom this is an awesome time to do this project!

Look around, what can you and your students turn into an animation/time-lapse project?

Winter wear

It seems a bit absurd to talk about winter clothing, given this bizarre warm weather we've been having here in Oklahoma. It almost seems like we are skipping winter entirely. Even my wimpy California self is starting to miss it. But should it ever decide to reappear you can refer back to this post for some tips on dressing children appropriately for winter elements.

Nothing is quite as adorable as toddlers dressed up like Michalean Ompa Loompas trying to waddle through the door. But are you smothering them? How much is too much?

What should they wear?

• Inner layer of pants and shirt made of wicking (preferably non-cotton layer)
• Next layer of pants and shirt made of wool or synthetics
• Light outer coat
• Thin outer coat (bulk doesn't always equal warmth. Your child will be more comfortable if they have a coat they can play very actively in and that has fasteners that are easiest to take off. This layer will come off quickly in many situations.
• 2-3 layers of non-cotton socks
• Boots that are water and cold resistant- not rain boots!
• Mittens, hats that cover ears. 
• Scarves optional

Check here for a great video on how to dress kids for winter from the Canadian organization Active Kids Club

NOTE: As they run about, children's body temperatures will rise quickly. Most likely they will end up with less layers than you. Encourage them to take off layers as they run to avoid getting sweaty- which could make them cold.

Advice on reducing the expense of winter clothes:

• Choose function over style. All those extra designs etc. are cute but may add substantially to overall cost.
• For coldest conditions choose snow suits over snow pants because they are warmer overall and more able to be adjusted in size.
• Choose unisex colors (or remind your kids that colors are not gender specific) so they can be shared between kids.
• Choose items with drawstrings and adjustable straps so they will last over several seasons.
• Check consignment, thrift, and local and online resale companies.
• Use synthetic pajamas as a first layer.
• If snow boots are not available, plastic bags can be used for short time periods around rain boots, if the child is wearing extra socks, to keep moisture out. Check frequently to make sure child's toes are not becoming too cold.

Ensuring you have adequate warm clothes at your site:

• Consider including necessary clothing items in grant requests.
• Ask parents to donate old winter clothes
• Share a class set between other classrooms of the same grade ***(Note if you are sharing outer clothing layers between students make sure to take these steps to insure germs and lice are not spread...1) Wash all items in hot water cycle of 130 degrees F 2) Dry on hot cycle for 20 min OR put items in sealed plastic bags for two weeks. 1)
• Ask local businesses to sponsor mitten, hat, scarf, or boot trees over toy trees during the holidays

• If you have a parent who sews, consider enlisting them as part of a grant or PTA funding to make durable class set of clothes. 
• Instruct parents to send extra under layers in case kids get wet or sweaty.

 1 Kids Health. "Head Lice." Retrieved from http://kidshealth.org/parent/infections/common/head_lice.html# on January 30, 2012.