In Playborhood: Turn Your Neighborhood Into a Place for Play, you'll find inspiring stories of innovative communities throughout the US and Canada that have successfully created vibrant neighborhood play lives for their children. You'll also get a comprehensive set of step-by-step solutions to change your family and neighborhood cultures, so that your kids can spend less time in front of screens and in adult-supervised activities, and more time engaging in joyful neighborhood play.

A fascinating, eclectic analysis of the changing geographies of play in contemporary society.

Sark invites the journal writer to compose his/her own creative companion through gentle instructions and playful directions toward artistic freedom. Your "inside child" will peek out to want, wish, find pleasure, and amaze you. "We need your creative spirit in action," says SARK, "because there is only one of you. . . . So share your dreams and let them get really big."

The Book That Launched an International Movement Fans of The Anxious Generation will adore Last Child in the Woods, Richard Louv's groundbreaking New York Times bestseller. “An absolute must-read for parents.” —The Boston Globe “It rivals Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring.” —The Cincinnati Enquirer “I like to play indoors better ’cause that’s where all the electrical outlets are,” reports a fourth grader. But it’s not only computers, television, and video games that are keeping kids inside. It’s also their parents’ fears of traffic, strangers, Lyme disease, and West Nile virus; their schools’ emphasis on more and more homework; their structured schedules; and their lack of access to natural areas. Local governments, neighborhood associations, and even organizations devoted to the outdoors are placing legal and regulatory constraints on many wild spaces, sometimes making natural play a crime. As children’s connections to nature diminish and the social, psychological, and spiritual implications become apparent, new research shows that nature can offer powerful therapy for such maladies as depression, obesity, and attention deficit disorder. Environment-based education dramatically improves standardized test scores and grade-point averages and develops skills in problem solving, critical thinking, and decision making. Anecdotal evidence strongly suggests that childhood experiences in nature stimulate creativity. In Last Child in the Woods, Louv talks with parents, children, teachers, scientists, religious leaders, child-development researchers, and environmentalists who recognize the threat and offer solutions. Louv shows us an alternative future, one in which parents help their kids experience the natural world more deeply—and find the joy of family connectedness in the process. Included in this edition: A Field Guide with 100 Practical Actions We Can Take Discussion Points for Book Groups, Classrooms, and Communities Additional Notes by the Author New and Updated Research from the U.S. and Abroad

'A Dangerous Place to Play'... Raw, fast paced ....and funny. For the first time - the true story of young Aussie kids who ventured to war-torn Vietnam to entertain American and Australian troops serving in that bloody conflict. In 1971 the Sydney-based rock group, Xanadu signed on for a three-month stint entertaining U.S. and Australian service personnel fighting in the Republic of South Vietnam. Little did the members of Xanadu know they would spend seven long and dangerous months in the war zone. With no training it was a matter of, 'learn to survive'....and quickly! The oldest of the group was 20, their youngest member, just 16. This is their story.

Manufactured play equipment or loose parts? : examining the relationship between play materials and young children's creative play / Reyhaneh Mozaffar, Napier University -- Becoming naturish: ways of coming to know nature in the primary school / Cathy Francis, University of Aberdeen -- A view from China : reflecting on the participation of children and young people in urban planning / Yupeng Ren, Yantai University.

The first part of this two-part book on play in public education, contains chapters authored by 23 educators, most of whom had been colleagues or students of Professor Margaret B. McFarland to whose memory the book is dedicated, addresses the need to integrate child development research with classroom practice in order to provide developmentally appropriate play and learning opportunities. Topics addressed in this section include: the importance of play in child development; the role of children's play for three age groups; and the role of play in a second grade classroom. The second section examines the early childhood curriculum and the use of play as a vehicle of children's learning. Chapters in this section address: (1) the efficacy of activity-based learning in mathematics, multicultural education, and literature; (2) a checklist procedure for determining the capacity of students in a primary class to use play in the learning process; (3) intervention techniques that help young children adjust to school; (4) a play intervention case study; and (5) the broad implications of play in public education and in early childhood teacher education programs. Most chapters in the book contain a list of references relevant to the topic discussed. A 16- item bibliography of resources relating to play in public education is provided, and a brief description of the professional affiliations of the contributors is appended. (BC)