A Great Way to Play

I wasn’t surprised yesterday to read in Newsweek that creativity in the United States is on the decline (The Creativity Crisis).   Innovation, flexible thinking and problem solving have all been disappearing from our lives, so it is no wonder our creativity is down. It was heartening then to hear a fantastic story on WBUR about something GOOD that is happening:  a new kind of “natural playground” which has just opened in Boston (A New Kind of Playground). This new playground features stepping stones, sand, water and other natural materials, including blocks made from trees that were on the site of the playground. The teachers have noticed a new kind of play happening with their students, where children are interacting with these materials in creative ways that just don’t happen on typically equipped playgrounds.

Natural playgrounds are a solution that speaks to problem-solving deficit disorder, a term coined by Diane Levin in 2003 and has written about (such as in So Sexy, So Soon); and also for nature-deficit disorder, which Richard Louv writes about in Last Child in the Woods. It seems a little sad, perhaps, that we’ve gotten to this place where we actually need designed spaces for kids to play with natural materials.  But there you have it: this is just what we need. Otherwise, for too many of our children, it just isn’t happening. Natural playgrounds remind me of the song “Water, Sand, Blocks and Clay” by Brady Rymer which I used to sing with my 5, 6 and 7 year olds,

“I will make a mountain tall and I will build a castle wall,

I will make a forest green and I will make a flowing stream,

’cause I got everything I want and everything I’ll ever need,

and I will play all day with my water, sand, blocks and clay…”

A great song to sing and a great way to play.

For a related story about nature play on playgrounds, see my previous post about the new book Playing for Keeps:Life and Learning on a Public School Playground by Deborah Meier, Beth Taylor and Brenda Engel.