Daniel makes stuff, and, in his spare time, writes about things like movies, kid culture, and geek stuff.
Exploring the Forest: Wild Places in Childhood (PDF)

Some really wonderful stuff in here.

Even if you’re familiar with much of the “children in nature” literature, preschool teacher Anna Golden brings it all together so very nicely with this narrative account of her class’s exploration of the nearby woods. A completely enjoyable read, all throughout.

Don’t forget to check out the references at the end – there’s some fantastic writing there, with Rich Louv, Robin Moore and Roger Hart’s works about children in nature; Louise Chawla, Elizabeth Goodenough and David Sobel’s explorations of the meaning of places in childhood; and lastly, writing about the Reggio Emilia philosophy of education. I’d recommend every one of them.

Feb 03, 2010 :: Tagged under: , , , :: #

Pokemon for the Real World

As Jason Kottke describes The Phylomon Project:

Kids can remember hundreds of Pokémon characters but very few animals. The solution? The Phylomon Project is an open source initiative aiming to make Pokemon-type cards for actual animals.

Looks like fun, and a refreshing way to capitalise on children’s love of trading cards.

I have minor quibbles in the idea that we need to co-opt every popular meta-story or brand out there in the media world that kids enjoy, and somehow turn it into a “good-for-you” sort of thing, but there’s no doubt that there’s some solid reasoning behind using trading cards as a way for kids to engage in nature. There’s just something in them – perhaps epitomised in Pokémon – that makes cards a great outlet for children’s collection, categorisation and meta-labelling, and it seems a perfect way to explore the natural world as well. (Interestingly, Pokémon itself stemmed from its creator’s love of insect collecting as a child – so I suppose you could say the Phylomon project is only returning Pokémon back to its roots.)

Now they just need to come up with a catchy way for me to play and pit my “Vulpes vulpes” up against your “Procyon lotor.”

UPDATE: The Xeko website and “eco-adventure” game is already up and running, and basically utilises the same “Playing Cards for Animals” concept.

Jan 23, 2010 :: Tagged under: , , , :: #

Kindergarten Outdoors, Rain or Shine

Stories like this, of an outdoor kindergarten near Saratoga Springs, N.Y., always make me smile:

Fat, cold droplets splashed from the sky as the students struggled into their uniforms: rain pants, boots, mittens and hats. Once buttoned and bundled, they scattered toward favorite spaces: a crab apple tree made for climbing, a cluster of bushes forming a secret nook under a willow tree, a sandbox growing muddier by the minute.

They planted garlic bulbs, discovered a worm. The rain continued to fall. It was 8:30 a.m. on a recent Wednesday, and the Waldorf School’s “forest kindergarten” was officially in session.

Forest kindergartens, outdoor nurseries, nature schools… whatever you call them, they’ve been around a long time, and they’re really quite common in much of the world. In fact, Kindergarten itself has its roots in Friedrich Fröbel’s original kindergarten – or “children’s garden” – which was conducted outdoors, amongst nature.

As Richard Louv’s message of “nature deficit” childhoods becomes a more engrained part of our cultural knowledge, and as we begin to see the effects of the over-standardization of education, I think (and hope) we’ll see many more programs like this take root.

Nov 30, 2009 :: Tagged under: , , , , :: #

Venturing Into the Land of the Wild Things

NPR spends some time talking with author Dave Eggers, who co-wrote the film adaptation of “Where the Wild Things Are.” I think I’ve covered the film and its history pretty well, but saw this bit and had to include it.

Eggers tells Melissa Block that his attraction to the Wild Things project sprung from his love of the Maurice Sendak children’s book upon which the movie is based. He was particularly drawn to Sendak’s vision of free-form childhood:

“I spent most of my time growing up … in the woods making forts, breaking stuff and playing in the mud,” he says. “I think most kids, but boys especially, need to sometimes pick up a stick and hit other trees with it.”

Eggers contrasts that aspect of his youth with the depictions of childhood commonly seen in modern Hollywood movies: “You see a much more indoor version of childhood,” he says. “It’s safe and sanitary.”

There’s so much truth in that.

Oct 18, 2009 :: Tagged under: , , , , :: #

Happiness: It's All About Experiences

I love this piece from Montessori teacher Anja Geelen, entitled “Happiness, it is all about experiences.”

Experiences, on the other hand, continue to provide happiness through memories long after the event occurred. An experience that gives richness to your life will create a feeling of happiness that will last for months or even years to come. For whatever you can afford, you’ll maximise your happiness, and the happiness of others around you, if you spend it on a life experience, experts say.

She also considers the importance of wisdom in self-development – and wisdom can only come through experience, as Barry Schwartz says. For parents this is especially poignant.

Driving your child from soccer practice to ballet dancing, from piano lessons to language lessons, may make your child more knowledgeable or skillful or even brilliant, it will not make your child more wise. While children do need to become knowledgeable and skillful to be successful later in life, they also need unscheduled free time to have a childhood of play and exploration where they can have experiences that will give them wisdom and enrichment.

This kind of perspective is one that you can never get enough of.

Jun 11, 2009 :: Tagged under: , , , :: #

Playing on Playgrounds Yields Better Math Students

A recent study, whose efforts initially emerged out of the Boston Schoolyard Initiative (an public-private partnership in the mid-1990s to restore Boston’s playgrouds), considered an important question: whether renovated playgrounds had an impact on student achievement.

From Boston University’s campus newsletter, BU Today:

“I really wasn’t expecting to find anything,” says Russell Lopez, a School of Public Health assistant professor of Environmental Health, citing the relatively small sample of schools. “I thought, even if there is a real effect, there are so few schools involved that it doesn’t have a lot of statistical power.”

When Lopez studied the 2003 results of the fourth-grade English language MCAS (Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System), standardized tests that almost all public school students must take, he saw no discernible differences between children at the 70 schools with new playgrounds and children at schools with old playgrounds.

But when he looked at math scores, he saw a very different picture. In schools where fourth graders had new playgrounds, 25 percent more kids passed the math MCAS. And that remained true after he and his team controlled for factors such as demographics and the number of students receiving free or reduced-price lunches.

The researchers suggest several reasons for the association between better schoolyards and improved test scores. It may be that students at schools with upgraded playgrounds get more physical activity, which may make them more willing and able to learn once they’re back at their desks. It could also be the result of more parental involvement in the schools. Or, Lopez says, “It could be that students and teachers feel better about going to schools that are not dreary, jail-like settings and that look more inviting. That might set up people to want to learn.”

While Lopez acknowledges the limitations of his ecological study, I think we’d do well as a society to consider education from a more ecologically-aware, holistic vantage point. Lopez gets this, too:

Lopez believes his findings are particularly important at a time when the slumping economy is forcing schools across the nation to tighten their belts. “I worry that the first thing that gets cut is the outdoor space,” he says. “There are a lot of people who think that it’s not important, that all kids need is reading, writing, and arithmetic. And I think what this shows is that getting kids to learn is a broader experience. How places look and how they’re used are as important as what goes on in the classroom.”

Apr 25, 2009 :: Tagged under: , , , , :: #