Play in the UK

As I have alluded to in a previous post, there is a major disconnect happening between children and the outdoors.  The Nature Play Corps Program is only a pilot program for the effort to resist this disconnect.  While we are not the first to be working on getting kids into nature, there are few before us in the US.

The United Kingdom is far ahead in the use of play as a tool to engage kids in nature and in learning.  One charity in the center of that activity is the Eden Project in Cornwall, UK.  Eden is a constructed rainforest in the middle of the clay soil and cold climate of Cornwall.  The rainforest "biomes" are surrounded by more lush gardens and scattered play areas.  Eden is not just a place for kids to play-- it engages adults alike with cultural events, etc.

One project happening at Eden is the "Mud between your toes" project, which is specifically focused on the child-nature disconnect.  Read a great report about the problems with the disconnect and the benefits of nature play.  Mud between your toes also partners in a program called Muddy Shorts (sorry, not a website yet!), which focuses on creating nature play opportunities that are equally accessible to children of all physical capabilities.  Really cool example: a raft building program that also has a floating wheelchair!

I learned about these really cool projects because this week we hosted Philip Waters, Play Program Coordinator at the Eden Project, as our guest facilitator.  Besides learning plenty of new English phrases, Phil showed us so much more about understanding play work.

Phil taking footage of us building tiny Guardit communities.