It looks really beautiful and the kids leap and reach up to try and grab it.” Herrington shares one example, “Students used the tape that marks hiking trails as dangling streamers that sway in the breeze. The team had to get creative, repurposing affordable materials to increase opportunities for play. They have worked with Métis herbalist Lori Snyder to learn more about incorporating Indigenous plants into the play spaces, and they teamed up with lumber artist Eric Scragg to recycle a giant tree stump into a natural wood climber for one site. This has made getting nature and natural loose parts into these places more difficult,” observes Herrington.Īn outdoor play space at one of the YMCA Child Care Centre that was transformed through the PRO-ECO project.Īfter spending time at each site and analyzing how children play in the existing areas, the students come up with ideas specific to each centre. Since these complexes are typically made of concrete and glass, we see a great deal of hard, inert surfaces in the outdoor play spaces at these centres. “Increasingly in Vancouver, child care centres are part of mixed-use complexes that also house condos and retail facilities.
The budget is tight - $6,000 per site, with some of that provided by BC Cancer to incorporate sun safety into the interventions. She and a team of her students have been doing the ‘dirty’ work of remaking the outdoor play spaces. That is where UBC’s School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture professor Susan Herrington comes in. The final component of the project is the actual physical space itself. “It has empowered our staff to spend longer periods of time outdoors, become more creative in planning outdoor activities for the children and become more confident in communicating the children’s risky and outdoor play stories to their families.” Getting creative with play space ‘makeovers’ “The staff education and training that is embedded within the project has brought renewed excitement and enthusiasm for outdoor play and exploration to our early childhood educators,” comments Sarah Gallop, the YMCA’s Manager of Early Childhood Development. They are examining several different components - from the attitudes and beliefs of the educators and administrators, to the outdoor play policies at each site, to provincial policies governing child care facilities. Brussoni’s team has been working alongside the YMCA of Greater Vancouver on all aspects of this project, right from the initial design. It really helps with their ‘big feelings.’ We all benefit from being in nature.”ĭr. “When we spend more time outside moving our bodies, looking at the trees and the sky, the girls sleep better and they are less moody. “Expanding the study will give us really important information so, at the end of it, we can come up with recommendations or guidelines that other child care centres can follow.”
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Brussoni, who is also a BC Children’s Hospital researcher. What we are doing with PRO-ECO is focusing on how we can change the behaviours and practices of early childhood educators and families, to support more outdoor play in their centres, especially in the context of the pandemic,” says Dr. “We already know from many other studies that more outdoor play is better. It was supported by the Lawson Foundation.
#LOVE AND OTHER DETOURS TRIAL#
The first phase, which started last year with a trial at eight YMCA daycare sites around Greater Vancouver, is ongoing. It’s called PRO-ECO, “Promoting Early Childhood Outside,” and the team has been given a $1.3 million grant from the federal government’s Early Learning and Child Care Innovation Program to launch the second phase of the study. Mariana Brussoni, an associate professor in UBC’s department of pediatrics and the school of population and public health, and director of UBC’s Human Early Learning Partnership. The research project is spearheaded by Dr. COVID-19 shines spotlight on the importance of outdoor play So, Deborah was excited when she learned that her younger daughter’s daycare was going to be part of a research project looking at ways to increase outdoor play in early learning and child-care centres. “It really helps with their ‘big feelings.’ We all benefit from being in nature.” “When we spend more time outside moving our bodies, looking at the trees and the sky, the girls sleep better and they are less moody,” explains Deborah. Now, Gwen and Katie are back in daycare and school, but the family still gets outside as much as possible. Every day, there was a two-hour walk through the neighbourhood forest, with occasional detours to the nearby park.
#LOVE AND OTHER DETOURS FULL#
At the beginning of COVID-19, when her two young girls were at home full time while she and her husband were juggling work, their afternoon routine quickly moved outside. Outdoor time has always been a priority for Deborah Bakker and her family, and even more so during the pandemic.