Carved in sand on a slight incline, they made an initial track and then tested and re-tested their creation, perfecting  it as they went. When the ball only made it halfway down the track, one of the boys suggested, “Push it harder this time.” When the ball jumped the track, one declared, “Don’t worry! I know how to fix it!” I listened and watched the boys as they played.  They didn’t need me; they had plenty of their own ideas. Eventually, though, they came running over to ask me to join in their hypothesizing. “Mom, the ball smashed through the sand wall. So what do you think will happen if we make a cement wall with sand, rocks and water?”

Hypothesizing, testing out ideas, making observations and re-testing – all in the name of good fun – keeps children engaged. I always know their minds are engaged when I hear children say, “Let’s see what happens if I do this…” It’s right up there with hearing them say, “I have an idea!”

When they weren’t busy making the track in the sand, or riding their boogie boards in the waves, they were busy collecting rocks. “These are not usual rocks,” they explained. The boys had names for the categories of rocks they found:  “Clear rocks; flat-bottom rocks; multi-rocks” and even some uniquely shaped rocks, such as “The Heart Rock” and “The Maine Rock.”  I heard one boy sigh to himself, “This is a lot of work,” as he added his latest findings to their lines of rocks in the sand. Then he turned to me and professed, “Aren’t these some supremely cool rocks?”

Eventually, we had to go, and they decided to count the rocks.  The total: 112 in all, plus two shells and one piece of beach glass. “Mom, can we bring our collection home?” they asked. “Yes,” I replied.  “I suppose so.” “And can we have some egg cartons so we can organize them?”  “Of course!”

Collecting, sorting, categorizing, and admiring objects – especially those from nature – is another way to capture the minds of young children. The best thing about these beach endeavors is that the boys themselves decided what they were going to do, and then did it. For hours they were engaged and entertained in a beautiful blur of work and play. Were they learning? Absolutely.  Were they laughing and living? You bet.  Sometimes I wish life was always just a day at the beach.

Check out related posts:

A day at the beach – playing with the wind and other wonderful problems and

“I have and idea!”

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.

I’ve also been reading the Story of Stuff: How Our Obsession With Stuff is Trashing the Planet, Our Communities, and Our Health – and a Vision For Change by Annie Leonard. It is a real wake-up call. I try to be environmentally conscious – but by reading this book I’ve realized there is so much more we as a country can – and should – be doing. Leonard reveals, “We have a problem with Stuff. With just 5 percent of the world’s population, we’re consuming 30 percent of the world’s resources and creating 30 percent of the world’s waste. If everyone consumed at U.S. rates, we would need three to five planets!” My only hope is that this horrifying oil disaster will be the rude awakening our country needs.

(It’s not a spill, by the way. A spill is what my son does with his glass of orange juice. It’s a pain to clean up the spill, but we can do it in a few minutes. What is happening in the Gulf of Mexico is a man-made disaster. Definitely not a spill.)

Do the world a favor and forgo all the thousands of Toy Story 3 plastic junk, and all the other aggressively marketed single-purpose toys, and opt for good old fashioned imagination-inducing fabric scraps, empty containers of any type, art supplies, pebbles and the like. Its not easy to break the habit of consumption – believe me, the LEGO situation in my own house is admittedly out of control. We are working on it, though, and my husband has finally agreed that there is such a thing as “too many LEGOs”. Check out this fantastic article Children, Commercialism, and Environmental Sustainability by Tim Kasser, Tom Crompton, and Susan Linn.

Related posts:

Reduce, Reuse and Re-imagine!

Empowered by Play’s Toy of the Year Award: Nature!

When Did Sesame Street Become $esame $treet?

Way Too Many Toys

Announcing TRUCE’s Infant-Toddler Toys, Play &  Media Action Guide!

This blog began in May 0f 2009, and since then, I have been on the computer more than I ever have before. It often strikes me as ironic, that in my efforts to encourage imaginative play, and to help families and children reduce screen-time, I have increased my own screen-time. Yuck. I am trying to do more connecting and sharing of ideas and information through Twitter and Facebook – and doing so has actually helped me cut down on my time online. I was worried about adding them to the Empowered by Play networking plan, in that they might increase my time spent in front of the screen, but thankfully the opposite has proven to be true.

Nature. That’s where you’ll find me, whenever possible. Right in my own yard, usually – where the bird feeders, breezes, flowers and general green-ness help me relax. This weekend in the backyard, I even spied two spirited fox kits playing and wrestling while their mom watched nearby. Very cool. It reminded me of Bill Crain’s piece about the need for play being innate. Clearly, for these young fox kits, it is. And for my kids, too. In fact, my son just came up and asked me to play – so I’ll be signing off.

Here’s to playing outside, finding snakes, swinging in the breeze and picking ripe strawberries!

Well, yesterday I heard from a mom who lives in the mid-Atlantic region. They were hit with a big snow storm earlier this week. As she and her children were ready to enjoy their snow day, she received an email from her children’s school – a “Snow Day Learning Packet”!  Yikes!

As this mom writes: It is a “Snow Day Learning Packet” with a list of suggested online activities for the kids, with a list of 30 -THIRTY!!!- recommended websites for the students to visit. As I read the email, I wanted to jump up and block the computer screen to protect my kids from the school and yell back, “It’s a snow day! Leave my kids alone and let them play! Let them have a day or two of playing in the snow, sledding, making a snow fort, just finding out what it’s like to tromp around in the snow, having fun and making memories, without having to think about school.”

I agree wholeheartedly with this mom’s reaction to the school’s email – she wanted to protect her kids from the message sent.  For me the email is insulting, and implies that families can not come up with their own ideas for how to spend this unexpected free time. It is an encroachment on family life (even though it may be well-intentioned) and will make some parents second-guess the value of how they were planning on spending the day. Playing board games, baking muffins, tromping outside, reading a book, taking a nap – these are all worthwhile pursuits on a snow day! The fact that the school focused on websites, and getting the students to go online just adds to the insult of it all. Just say no to “Snow Day Learning Packets!” and say yes to child-directed and parent endorsed downtime.

Now, let me get back to my sons and our snugly snow day!