Green (Living) Review: children and environment

Showing posts with label children and environment. Show all posts

"Junk playgrounds" show the value of free play for kids (Video)

Erin Davis Recent studies have shown that playing out of doors is crucial for children who are developing motor, problem-solving and observation skills, in addition to developing an understanding and relationship with nature (a.k.a. "eco-literacy"). Kids need more time to play -- but not necessarily in today's trend for organized, scheduled activities, as kids need to have moments of unstructured time to explore that helps develop their creativity and self-confidence.

To counter this glut of over-scheduled activities that don't require much thinking on the child's part, there's been some fascinating developments: one is the tinkeringmovement, facilitated by easy-to-use DIY components like the Raspberry Pi. Another striking example of this emerging "free play" movement is an adventure playground in Plas Madoc in Wales, UK, where kids are allowed to run free, take risks, build things, and do what kids do best: play.

Seen over at The Guardian and looking a bit more like a trashed up place than a playground, The Land (as this adventure playground is called), was started in 2012 by local resident, parent and playground manager, Claire Griffiths. Kids have access to tools, materials and can start fires, of course under supervision of adult "playworkers" who are there to give help and guidance if needed. The point is to use what is at hand to give kids a chance to play, says Griffiths:

No walls, no classrooms: London's first forest nursery school lets kids learn in the woods

LONDON — In the heart of north London lies the ancient Queens Wood, a green forest hidden away in a metropolis of more than 8 million residents. The sounds of the city seem to fade away as a group of children plays in a mud kitchen, pretending to prepare food and saw wood.

These aren't toddlers on a play date — it's an unusual outdoor nursery school, the first of its kind in London, following a trend in Scandinavia, Germany and Scotland. It allows local children to learn, and let their imagination run free, completely surrounded by nature.

"I knew it would be a really great environment for him and great for him to have focused time outdoors with teachers who are trained in forest school ideology." said Zoe Slotover, as she dropped off her 2-year-old son Hector.

The "Into the Woods" nursery was opened in April by primary school teacher Emma Shaw for children from two-and-a-half to five years in age. She said the natural environment works wonders.

"Children learn through movement and from doing things," she said. "So everything is practical and hands on outside, so the learning comes a lot more naturally as we don't have to set up opportunities for them to problem solve and risk take because they are all here and they can set their own challenges, which boosts their self-esteem."

Each morning a group of children gather at the Queens Wood camp, which the nursery team prepares each morning before the children arrive. A circle of logs provides a place to gather for snacks, stories and songs. The mud kitchen provides an opportunity to make a proper mess and have a sensory experience, a rope swing provides some excitement and a challenge, and several tents are set up for naps and washing up.

School gardens matter

by Michael Smith (Veshengro)

Put together kids, soil, and seeds, and you have a magical combination. Besides bringing the reality of real food, tending a school garden expands the classroom. How much more fun is it to calculate angles or the volume of soil needed when there's a direct correlation to the project? These are the types of lessons children remember. A student-tended garden gives them something to look forward to every time they work with it, as well as the satisfaction of a homegrown harvest.

It is such a shame, however, that Heath & Safety regulations, or at least the interpretation of them, have gone so mad that manufacturers of garden tools for children and especially for schools, and primary schools (elementary schools) at that, have to put stickers on their tools that they should not be used (no, not just not without supervision, but not at all) by children under ten. How are young children are to learn how to garden and to grow food if they are not permitted to use the appropriate tool?

Governments talk a lot about school gardens and the needs of children to learn to grow food in order for them, the children that is, to understand what real food is and where it comes from; as far as vegetables are concerned namely the soil, but when it comes down to it they block this from happening any which way they can.

Children today, but not only children, have little to no idea that a carrot comes out of the ground or a potato, and that leaf vegetables also are grown in soil and that that soil has to be fertile, has to be tilled, and the plants have to be protected from predators and that they need feeding and watering.

Let's not even talk about the origin of the hamburger that they eat or the sausage. They are totally unable to link that to a cow or a pig. As far as most of them are concerned they are made in a factory and that's it.

Then again, as far as McDonald's hamburgers and whatever else are concerned the base material has about as much to do with a cow as does cotton with polyester, if we want to set a crass example. But that is hardly the point.

Children need to learn how to grow food in order for them to understand where the food, real food, that they are meant to eat for good health, comes from and how it comes about. This can only happen if they are allowed to get their hands dirty and work the soil, literally, and that with the right tools.

Our modern children in the last couple of decades have become separated from real life and from the soil, even those who live in the countryside that the majority have no idea as to the growing of plants of any kind, whether flowers, trees or and especially food and they are totally stunned that real food has dirt on it, unlike the washed stuff they see in a supermarket.

Without children being permitted, however, at school and elsewhere, to get involved in gardening, directly and physically, including the use of the, as said, appropriate real tools. Yes, secateurs are sharp and can cut but if they are not sharp they cutting is more dangerous than if they are and the same is true for a knife. And yes, a garden spade and a garden fork can be misused as a weapon but that is no reason why children should not learn how to use them.

Children and the natural world

by Michael Smith (Veshengro)

Recently we reported about the fact that many youngsters in Britain have no idea where there food comes from and other issues of the countryside.

One can but wonder how much else they do not know as regards the natural world and products from Nature.

How many, one can but wonder, know or not know that paper, card and cardboard, is made from wood pulp, that is to say that from trees and if they know how many actually know – for far too many adults do not know either – that this wood pulp does not come from tropical rainforests. In fact most paper is made from the pulp of softwood trees such as pine and spruce, and grown specifically for the making of paper, card and cardboard.

How many also do not know that wooden spoons, spatulas, plants, pallets, and furniture once were trees or part thereof? Many, no doubt, believe that that is all made in a factory. They have never, more than likely, unlike most of us did as children, made a catapult (slingshot) from a forked tree branch or a walking stick from a sapling. Sad, this is; very sad indeed.

We are creating, in the UK especially, but more than likely also in the USA, generations of children and young people who have no idea of the Nature and the produce and products that come from Nature, whether from the woods or the farms.

Vegetables with dirt attached are also entirely alien to many of them and they cannot understand that that is how they come, in real life, and therefore they will want nothing to do with them. That vegetables generally, unless grown in hydroponic systems, as so many are today, grow in dirt, better known as soil, and thus have dirt on them that needs washing off is something they just do not know because of their detachment from the natural world.

But it is not entirely their fault. In fact it is not the children's fault at all. It is the fault of society that is trying to mollycoddle kids and keep them away from anything that could be remotely dangerous. So, no climbing of trees, no building dens and playing in the woods, and not even gardening as the tools can be weapons.

Not surprising, therefore, that today's kids, or a great many of them, are so very removed and remote from the natural world. In addition to that, unlike when we were children, they are also not allowed to see the realities of Nature; of birth and death in the wild, whether animal, insect or tree and of eating and being eaten.

That the burger they eat – though probably not at McDonald's – was once a steer and that it had to die for it is something they are totally unaware of. And also that the paper they use or the wooden ruler was once a tree is alien to them. But again, it is not their fault but it is due to the fact that the adult world refused to teach them reality.

Today's children and young people suffer from what has become known as Nature Deficiency Disorder and this being disconnected from Nature is also the cause for many of the problems in and with our children and young people today. It is also, probably, the underlying cause for much of the violence exhibited by kids today.

We must throw away the rule book and allow children to go bush again and experience, also for themselves, the natural world and play with the materials of Nature, including whittling catapults and walking sticks. And yes, that does include the use of a knife, a sharp knife.

Children Teaching Grown-Ups a Lesson or Two About Green Issues

Children are resorting to “green pester power”, pushing their parents to act more sustainably – and their efforts are paying off, according to a new report published on the 20th September 2011.

by Michael Smith (Veshengro)

Half of parents say they struggle to answer their children’s questions about green issues – more than half for instance, incorrectly put the blame for climate change on carbon monoxide.

But six in ten say their children are persuading them to be greener, with recycling, conserving water and leaving the car at home among the things their offspring are asking them to do most often…and when they’re pressured, 95 per cent of them change their behavior as a result.

The study is published by The Co-operative, to mark the official launch of its Green Schools Revolution (GSR) educational program, which forms part of its groundbreaking Ethical Plan. The program will meet the needs of information-hungry children, who rate green issues a close third in terms of learning priorities just behind Maths and English.

More than four in five parents believe their children learn more about the environment at school than they did – two in five say they were taught nothing about the issues at all.

The Co-operative Group says it has been “overwhelmed” by the pre-registration demand for the program’s range of teaching materials from more than 2,500 primary and secondary schools across the UK, caring for over one million children.

Paul Monaghan, Head of Sustainability at the Co-operative Group said: “We are lucky that our youngsters have such a tremendous appetite to learn more about green issues and make a difference.

“Through our Green Schools Revolution program, we hope to do our bit to help the thousands of switched on teachers who want to ensure the next generation are better equipped for the challenge of building a more sustainable world. However, parents aren’t off the hook – clearly they need extra homework and the programme will put children in a good position to teach them.”

Farmer and television presenter, Jimmy Doherty has been launching the program with the help of schoolchildren at a London primary school. He said: “As a parent, a farmer, and an enthusiastic advocate of sustainable living, I think it is vitally important to educate our children about green issues from an early age. I’ve been passionate about the environment since I was a teenager, but back then there was little information around to inspire others to change, so I’m delighted to see that The Co-operative is launching its Green Schools Revolution program, which offers so much to encourage children to consider their environmental impact as second nature.”

All GSR schools across the country will have access to a wide range of free cross-curricular classroom resources and activities through www.greenschools.coop, giving young people and teachers the tools to inspire change in their schools, homes and local communities.

The Co-operative is offering schools free fun and educational visits to its own wind farm to see renewable energy in action and to seven Co-operative Farms to see firsthand how food grows and how to cook it. Schools will be able to take advantage of free high visibility jackets to help set up “walking buses” for pupils, helping both schools and parents to take practical action to cut their carbon emissions.

One of the most urgent issues must be, however, to educate children and adults alike not just about climate change and such like but to bring them back closer the Nature.

Our disconnection from Nature in the civilized countries, and true even for those that live in the countryside, is what is causing much of the problems we are having.

We no longer have an affinity with Nature and therefore we do not understand what consequences our actions have on the environment and everything else.

Modern man has become to detached from Nature as a whole, and that already for quite a considerable time, especially those that live predominately in towns and cities, that no consideration is being given as to what happens to all the toxic materials that we use, abuse and then dispose off, often in not an appropriate manner.

While anything and everything that will bring understanding to the people in general, children and adults alike, as to what is happening to Nature and the Planet an understanding needs to be developed as to the fact that the smallest action against Mother Nature can have a profound impact.

Thus we need to educate children (and adults) away from consumerism and the “I want, I want, I want” attitude and of wanting always new, towards a new way which is actually the old way. Namely that of making do with what we have and actually enjoying what we have instead of never being satisfied with what we have.