Rusty’s blog!
First Stop: Newfoundland
On way home from Newfoundland to Ithaca, sitting in the Halifax, Nova Scotia airport. Just had a great trip to St John's, Newfoundland to give a keynote talk all about the natural playscape movement. Folks there are EXCITED! Talking about the natural playscape...
Newfoundland Drinking Songs!
The night before my early morning keynote as I'm tweaking my slideshow in my hotel room I get a call to come up to the party in room 416 - "there's a guitar, drinks, and lots of singing! come on up! do you have any spoons you can bring?" My goal was to take it easy,...
Enter: New Zealand!
OK. Here we go. Flying into New Zealand. Ithaca to Philadelphia to Los Angeles. (6 hours) Los Angeles to Auckland, New Zealand. (12 hours!) Surprisingly, it wasn't that bad. Got some sleep. Watched 3 movies. Sipped champagne! Then Auckland to Whangerei (pronounced...
Open Spaces Preschool!
OK. Check out this place. One of the great preschools of the world. The kids are indoors - outdoors, whichever they choose. great BIG sand play (wait until you see the MUD PLAY - stay tuned till next week, friends), chickens, pigs, cows, a pet DEER for heavens's sake!...
Kids in The Wild Woods
We’re halfway into our New Zealand - Australia journey, kicking back for a day in Christchurch, NZ - the biggest city on New Zealand’s south island. After spending our first week on the north island, yesterday we took a 3-hour ferry ride to the south island. All was...
Marvelous MUD
Last day in New Zealand. Heading out to Sydney early tomorrow morning. Today we finished building the foundation of a sweet little waterfall water feature at the Linwood Playcentre. Yesterday we layed boulders, gravel and hardware cloth wire mesh to create a base for...
Swarm Build
Willow huts. Herb gardens. Sand pits. Sunflower houses. Tree tunnels. Stepping stones. You probably have a million ideas for ways to spice up your outdoor play space with new natural features. But how are you going to get all that work done?
Thailand Tire-Nature Playground
Winter time here. Grey skies. Ice and snow on the ground. Wood fire keeping things toasty inside. Sledding and skiing as daily fun-time activities. Not bad! Now of course in the southern hemisphere it's sunny hot summer and I still have a winter's worth of summery...
Snow Day
Winter fun at The Seed Center - a home-based childcare center in Ithaca, NY owned by Jacquelyn and Aaron Buchel. Their program is wonderful and they have a beautiful environment for the children, inside and outside. I have been enjoying visiting to photograph the...
Early Spring Playscape: snow, mud, brown, bulbs!
Here is another wonderful home-based preschool center in Ithaca, NY that I love visiting throughout the seasons: Corner of the Sky, run by my friend Valerie http://cornerofthesky.org/ As the snow continued to recede children found spring bulbs, protected...
Ice, Salt, Color; FUN
Another fun visit to the Seed Center in Ithaca, NY. Inspired by Bev Bos, Jacquelyn put out frozen ICE BLOCKS in bins and gave the kids salt and food coloring. The salt melts the ice in fascinating patterns and the color, well, colors it! Fun stuff on a warm summer's...
Water. You Know What to Do.
Summer is over, but that doesn't mean you can't dip in the water a little bit longer. Here is a fun sequence of my awesome niece ZORA enjoying the shallow water at Buttermilk Falls State park in Ithaca, NY. She lives in the big city of Washington, DC, but give her a...
International MUD DAY
Woo hoo! International Mud Day at the new Hands-on-Nature ANARCHY ZONE at the Ithaca Children's Garden. YEAH!!!! Mud pools, mud slides, mud pies, mud cloth, mud mountains. We got 60 cubic yards of screened topsoil delivered and the Ithaca fire department...
Playscape Log Gathering, Community Built Style!
Here's one way to do it. During a natural playscape build at Faith Childcare and Nursery School in Rochester, NY we had a big space designated as "log climbing area". Great. But then we needed to get some logs to fill it. We...
Creativity in the Anarchy Zone mud pit
You could simply call this "play", or you could also call this "building, engineering, balancing, experimenting, splashing, and focusing"– all in the Mud at the Ithaca Children's Garden's Hands-on-Nature ANARCHY ZONE. Mud Constructions at the hands-on-nature ANARCHY...
East Tennessee SWARM BUILD
Here we are: another volunteer community "Swarm Build" — this one at the East Tennessee State University Child Study Center in Johnson City, TN. Fun! We timed it to fit in with the ETSU Early Childhood conference and offered conference-goers a chance to step...
Brooklyn Swarm Build TIMELAPSE!
Hee hee - fun times in the big city. Here a group of spirited volunteers got together to plant themselves a hillslide. Nice! Shoveling, pickaxing, gathering free woodchips from a local cemetery, light carpentry and heavy comradery added up to a fun day of...
Vintage Adventure Playground Film
OK, my absolute new love is ADVENTURE PLAYGROUNDS. You know about these, right? Started after WWII - children playing with loose parts, rubble, scrap building materials to build their own play and playgrounds. The phenomenon caught on first in Europe and is still...
Anarchy Zone: one, TV: zero.
Here's a glimpse at some of the funky fort building happening at the Hands-on-Nature Anarchy Zone at the Ithaca Children's Garden. Notice the negotiation between the girl in white and her mom to stay (inside the den) a half hour longer. At around 1:40 of the video the...
Adventure School Group – in session!
Friends and I have been dreaming of starting an adventure school and this week we began the first Tuesday of the Adventure School Group’s 2012-13 school year. Yay! Inspired by forest schools and nature kindergartens...
Adventure School meets The Anarchy Zone!
So if you remember, I’ve been working with local friends to create a day-a-week traveling “forest school” for our preschool-age kids — "Adventure School" . Each week we pick a different family’s land to visit where the children can explore, play, create, construct,...
East Atlanta Playscape DESIGN!
hey y'all - check out our fun new design for The Highlander School in Atlanta, started by the amazing Rukia Rogers! We'll be doing a volunteer construction day in 2 weeks - if you're in the neighborhood stop by. The more the merrier! (and yes: those are SHEEP you see...
Portland Playscape Park Project
Wow! Check out this great new video about a great new project we are working on in the city of Portland, OR. My playscape partner Leon Smith is leading it and working with loads of kids on the design doing field trips, brainstorming, drawings, model building and...
MUD! it’s ok, mamas and papas….
So we all know kids love mud and puddles and jumping in mud and puddles. And yes, we parents know it too - but do we like it? Not always! And now schools and childcare centers are intentionally allowing and encouraging children to explore the mud and mess? Oh my...
Rainy Day with BUILDER BOARDS
Too much fun! Another Tuesday and another Adventure School gathering. But this time it was a dark and rainy day. So what do we do? Well, first we all tromp through the woods in the downpour to visit a neighbor's farm with sheep, horses, and a donkey of course!...
my little JJ, away!
I just dropped my little 18-month old son JJ off at "childcare" for the first time. My heart is overflowing with emotions. We had been keeping his care "in the family" so to speak, so far splitting childcare time between myself, my wife, and my parents who live...
Building a Mini Playscape “River”
Last month I had the fun pleasure of building a mini "River" with volunteers during a great natural playscape community build at The Butterfly House on the campus of the Virginia Theological Seminary in Alexandria, VA. I thought y'all might be interested in the...
Ice Laboratory
Hello fellow earthplayers! Are you having a fun winter? (or summer, for those of you soaking in the sun “down under”) Here in Ithaca NY it’s been cold! Really cold. Almost pushing the limits of our favorite saying, “no bad weather, just bad clothing”. But not...
The Smoldering Fire of Progress….
So there I was, heading to the Hands-on-Nature Anarchy Zone at the Ithaca Children’s Garden. It was winter play camp week during the winter break and I was coming to hang with the kids and see what sort of fun things were happening. I arrived mid-morning and was...
Anarchy on the Katie Show
So there I was, hanging out with my 2 year old son JJ on his favorite railroad tracks down by the river. We’d been throwing rocks in the water, crossing the railroad bridge hand in hand, and gleefully running down the tracks hollering for the train. I felt a buzz from...
Alex’s Playwork Notebook: Playing in the Cracks, USA
By: Alex Cote -- For more from Alex, check out her blog, PlayBound. “These rocks were never intended for climbing but some of the kids can and I convinced the rest of the staff that it was okay.” “One of the kids started a store this morning and there were no other...
Alex’s Playwork Notebook: How to Use Play Types to Increase Play Opportunities
For more from Alex, check out her blog, PlayBound. The best play spaces for kids are often accidental and undesigned (or, at least, not designed for play). Think of vacant lots full of makeshift baseball bases, forests with kid-built lean-tos, even public squares that...
Do-it-yourself
Playscape projects
20 Ways…
Free Design tips!This free guide is loaded with ideas and inspirations to help you take your outdoor play space to the next level!
Water. You Know What to Do.
Summer is over, but that doesn't mean you can't dip in the water a little bit longer. Here is a fun sequence of my awesome niece ZORA enjoying the shallow water at Buttermilk Falls State park in Ithaca, NY. She lives in the big city of Washington, DC, but give her a...
Playscape Log Gathering, Community Built Style!
Here's one way to do it. During a natural playscape build at Faith Childcare and Nursery School in Rochester, NY we had a big space designated as "log climbing area". Great. But then we needed to get some logs to fill it. We...
Brooklyn Swarm Build TIMELAPSE!
Hee hee - fun times in the big city. Here a group of spirited volunteers got together to plant themselves a hillslide. Nice! Shoveling, pickaxing, gathering free woodchips from a local cemetery, light carpentry and heavy comradery added up to a fun day of...
East Atlanta Playscape DESIGN!
hey y'all - check out our fun new design for The Highlander School in Atlanta, started by the amazing Rukia Rogers! We'll be doing a volunteer construction day in 2 weeks - if you're in the neighborhood stop by. The more the merrier! (and yes: those are SHEEP you see...
It’s Willow Hut Building Time!
That's right folks: early spring is the perfect time to plant the willow hut you've been dreaming about. If you live in the northern hemisphere this means now! Hooray! Ready to build? Here is the How to Build a Willow Hut piece from my book Natural Playscapes. :...
Building a Mini Playscape “River”
Last month I had the fun pleasure of building a mini "River" with volunteers during a great natural playscape community build at The Butterfly House on the campus of the Virginia Theological Seminary in Alexandria, VA. I thought y'all might be interested in the...
Sunflower House
This project is about planting sunflowers in a square, circle, or any other shape you'd like. You can use plants other than sunflowers like corn, jeruselum artichoke, or bamboo. Use plants that work well for your region. You can look at the American Horticultural...
Living Willow Hut
Willow structures have been grown for centuries all over the world. They are remarkably easy and rewarding plants. The trick is to plant the willow branches (ask your local nursery if they have any willow branches they would be willing donate) in late WINTER so that...
Mow a Meadow Maze
This project may be the easiest of all. The biggest step: do nothing. Let your lawn grow and grow and grow. With your very own lawnmower as a creative tool, you can carve out a maze, playhouse, village, or zigzaggy paths. You may even want to...
