For one thing, you have have a flexible structure for them to work within. Setting the parameters, and giving choices within them, goes a long way in keeping everyone actively engaged. Second, you find materials and experiences that are open-ended and usually quite simple. Think natural materials such as water, sand and wooden blocks; and art materials such as  finger paints, paper, crayons, markers and clay. Nothing fancy or gimmicky here,  and definitely no batteries required.  Of course, what a 4 year-old and 13 year-old chose to do with blocks, sand, clay or finger paints will vary. Their methods, attention span and ability to coordinate their play with others will look very different, but isn’t that the beauty of open-ended materials? In these instances, the child is in charge of deciding the how and the what; the grown ups are there just to provide the materials, the time and the space.

“Quiet Time” in the afternoons gave us all a chance to relax, take a deep breath and entertain ourselves individually. Within the “Quiet Time” framework older campers read novels and wrote in their journals; younger campers read or looked at books and drew pictures; and our youngest campers took their afternoon nap. And singing was something we did daily together – with lots of songs that have become family favorites – including call and response songs which everyone (including the youngest non-readers) can enjoy. Our oldest camper even taught the rest of us a new song – now a favorite – which we will add to our growing songbook.

But there is one more crucial ingredient – interesting adults.  This year, we had a rotating list of aunts and uncle who came and shared their interests, time and talents with the kids. One of my brothers, a former art teacher, made paper with the campers. Another brother is a talented musician, and he joined us with his guitar for some of our singing sessions. My sister came one day and shared her talents in the kitchen to help our campers make lunch and snack for that day.  Launching rockets, starting a campfire, pitching a tent, telling a funny story, performing a skit…so many interesting grown ups spending time with the campers…sharing laughter and love and making memories.

So, how do you keep kids engaged? Open-ended and simple materials. Flexible structure. Quality time spent with interesting  and caring adults.  These make for a fantastic summer camp experience. And you know what…pretty great for school, too. I remember times in my second and third grade classroom at Mission Hill School – when things were feeling stressful and unproductive, and our insightful principal Deb Meier would say to me, “What about making the classroom feel more like summer camp?”  That question would help me tweak my routine, materials and attitude in a way that could get us back on track – and making it fun for all ages.

See a related post: KEVA planks – creating fun for everyone

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.

You see, back in May, Science Daily reported: “Exposure to specific bacteria in the environment, already believed to have antidepressant qualities, could increase learning behavior, according to research presented at the 110th General Meeting of the American Society for Microbiology in San Diego.” Read the whole story here.

The researches found the effects were temporary, which means repeated exposure is good. Their research helps the growing  movement of outdoor classrooms, school yard gardens and bringing kids (and all of us) back outside. Personally, I know that when I am stressed, time outdoors always helps. I’ve known babies who would stop crying and fussing when they were brought outdoors.  I can relate because I am the same way. As a teacher, I always knew that time outside in nature was good for kids – especially as television, video games and the internet were keeping them more and more inside. I wrote more about nature and education in this article, “We Need More Sticks and Grass! We Need More Beauty!” .

Now, having evidence that being outside in nature can actually increase learning behavior – this is the icing on the cake. “This research suggests that M. vaccae may play a role in anxiety and learning in mammals,” says Matthews. “It is interesting to speculate that creating learning environments in schools that include time in the outdoors where M. vaccae is present may decrease anxiety and improve the ability to learn new tasks.”

Looking for more evidence that time spent outdoors is good for our children? Here’s more.  There’s a terrific new book just published by Teachers College Press. It is called  Playing for Keeps: Life and Learning on a Public School Playground, by Deborah Meier, Brenda S. Engel and Beth Taylor. The book comes at just the right time, when parents and teachers are looking for ways to convince principals and policy makers that recess is a necessary and valuable part of the school day. The book is written about the early years at the Mission Hill School in Boston, a school that I am proud to have helped start and then teach at for eleven years. The authors are all incredibly talented teachers and mentors, who helped me learn how to closely observe children and the deep importance of active learning. It is from these women that I learned much of what I know about being a good teacher.

From the introduction, “We invite readers to appreciate the life of the imagination on the playground, to see the energy children bring to exploring their social and physical surrounds, and to share with us the children’s delight in active learning.”

If your children are outside – playing, living, laughing, learning and getting dirty – these two new bodies of evidence help confirm what you already know. If your children are inside more than you like, and you are advocating for recess, struggling to bring  a garden to your school yard or working to bring more outdoor recreation spaces into your community, now you have two new powerful weapons in your arsenal. Excellent.

Play is good for learning how to trust oneself – which is part of learning how and when to trust the world. Repetition, doing things over and over is essential for learning; but only happens enough when it’s also fun – playful. Play is essential for developing one’s imagination – thinking outside the box is at the heart of play. And empathy – stepping into the shoes of others – is central to both childhood and adult pretend play. In fact, one can see all the Habits of Mind when watching young children at play.

At Mission Hill we will not give up play; and not just for the little ones. The spirit of play is central to good learning at all ages – in and out of school. Play and work are not polar opposites – they go hand in hand. Good workmanship thrives in a setting in which children’s standards grow out of their own initiative; their own task setting; in short, from play. It takes those same four qualities underlined above to produce a masterpiece. We don’t intend to let the pressure for early test success destroy what counts in the long run. It’s good for your kids, for our school, for America, and maybe even the whole wide world.

Last night I had the privilege and pleasure of helping to honor the very first Deborah W. Meier Hero in Education award presented by FairTest http://www.fairtest.org/at the Urban Academy at the Julia Richman Edcation Complex in New York City. This time, the award went to Debbie herself. Thank you, Debbie, for touching so many lives in such a powerful way. And thanks, in particular, for bringing out my inner troublemaker.