ExchangeEveryDay Past Issues

Forward this issue to a friend

In the newest, hot off the press Exchange book, Natural Playscapes: Creating Outdoor Play Environments for the Soul, Rusty Keeler makes this observation:

"Children form an up close and personal relationship with the world and they experience the outdoors in a different way than we adults do. While it is true that they are literally closer to the ground than we are, our vantage points differ in deeper and more important ways. Children are tuned in to the magic of life in ways that too many of us have tuned out. They are firmly living in the present moment and can focus on small, intimate places that we adults take for granted. Have you ever paid a visit to your old childhood stomping ground only to be surprised by the small scale of everything? 'These couple of trees were the Huge Forest? That pumpkin-sized rock was the Giant Boulder? This trickling run-off ditch was The River?' It's an interesting point to consider; especially when we are creating new outdoor environments for children. Features do not have to be on an adult scale. If you are three-feet tall, standing on top of a gentle three-foot hill changes your entire perspective. To a child, it really is a mountain. A small cluster of dwarf fruit trees is enough to give a child the experience of being in a 'forest', and a trickle of water through a carved log is a creek. It's the small things in a child's environment that create the biggest interest and excitement: a splashing puddle, a delicate butterfly, or a lawn dotted with golden dandelions..."

---

ExchangeEveryDay

Delivered five days a week containing news, success stories, solutions, trend reports, and much more.