ARTICLES
Link: Attracting Hummingbirds
https://porch.com/advice/fun-family-activity-attracting-hummingbirds
Learning Naturally: The Benefits of Outdoor Teaching
Kate Kutzner
This paper provides justification and resources for incorporating outdoor learning environments into teaching practice for educators in the Okanagan.
katekutznergripfinaldraft.docx | |
File Size: | 28 kb |
File Type: | docx |
Plant Yourself on the Ground and Let Your Roots Grow: Human Development through Intimate Outdoor Experiences
Vienna Carruthers
This article discusses the concept of "sit spots" and their role in child health. Benefits of a sit spot are both mental, spiritual and intellectual. Children can take a break from their lives in a place that is familiar and comforting, but also be engaged in a multifaceted outdoor environment.
Does your child have a "sit spot" outside? Why not?
Does your child have a "sit spot" outside? Why not?
plant_yourself_in_the_ground_-_human_development_through_outdoor_experiences.pdf | |
File Size: | 2073 kb |
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Children’s Outdoor Play: Exploring Parental Concerns About Children’s Safety and the Changing Nature of Childhood (1997)
Valentine, G and McKendrick, J.
This paper uses the evidence of research conducted in North-West England to explore the extent to which parents consider that there are adequate public facilities and play opportunities in their neighbourhoods for their children; and it considers whether children’s experiences of outdoor play is changing, by comparing contemporary children’s play with both previous academic studies of children’s independent use of space and with parents’ accounts of their own childhoods. The findings presented suggest that the vast majority of parents are dissatisfied with the public provision of play facilities in their neighbourhood. Temporal and spatial changes also appear to have occurred in patterns of children’s outdoor play over the last three decades. Fewer children are playing outdoors and the location of most outdoor play is now closed centred on the home rather than the street. There appears to be no link between play patterns and play provision; children are no more likely to play outdoors, or play further away from home if there are adequate opportunities provided within their neighbourhood. Rather, the evidence of this paper is that the most significant influence on children’s access to independent play is not the level of public provision of play facilities but parental anxieties about children’s safety and the changing nature of childhood.
childrens_outdoor_play.pdf | |
File Size: | 2117 kb |
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Children's Outdoor Play & Learning Environments: Returning to Nature (1998)
White, R. and Stoecklin, V.
It is unfortunate that children can't design their outdoor play environments. Research on children's preferences shows that if children had the design skills to do so, their creations would be completely different from the areas called playgrounds that most adults design for them. Outdoor spaces designed by children would not only be fully naturalized with plants, trees, flowers, water, dirt, sand, mud, animals and insects, but also would be rich with a wide variety of playopportunities of every imaginable type. If children could design their outdoor play spaces, they would be rich developmentally appropriate learning environments where children would want to stay all day.
childrens_outdoor_play_and_learning_environments_-_returning_to_nature.pdf | |
File Size: | 17 kb |
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Views of Nature and Self-Discipline: Evidence From Inner City Children (2002)
Taylor, A.; Kuo, F. and Sullivan, W.
Children growing up in the inner city are at risk of academic underachievement, juvenile delinquency, teenage pregnancy, and other important negative outcomes. Avoiding these outcomes requires self-discipline. Self-discipline, in turn, may draw on directed attention, a limited resource that can be renewed through contact with nature. This study examined the relationship between near-home nature and three forms of self-discipline in 169 inner city girls and boys randomly assigned to 12 architecturally identical high-rise buildings with varying levels of nearby nature. Parent ratings of the naturalness of the view from home were used to predict children’s performance on tests of concentration, impulse inhibition, and delay of gratification. Regressions indicated that, on average, the more natural a girl’s view from home, the better her performance at each of these forms of self-discipline. For girls, view accounted for 20% of the variance in scores on the combined self discipline index. For boys, who typically spend less time playing in and around their homes, view from home showed no relationship to performance on any measure. These findings suggest that, for girls, green space immediately outside the home can help them lead more effective, self-disciplined lives. For boys, perhaps more distant green spaces are equally important.
views_of_nature_and_self-discipline_-_evidence_from_inner_city_children_2002.pdf | |
File Size: | 331 kb |
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