On April 19th, 2015, close to 100 families participated in the Nature Play Event at the Earth Fair in Balboa Park. Throughout the day children of all ages got creative with nature materials, building forts, teepee, and structures. It was an amazing event with an amazing turn out. We will be back in 2016!
What is Nature Play?
Children have been collecting, sorting, manipulating and creating with loose parts for generations. However, we no longer live in a society where we can roam the woods freely, climb on trees in vacant lots, or build forts in the forest. These experiences are rare in today’s childhood. Rather, learning is done in the classroom and little time is given for outdoor unstructured play and discovery. The goal of Nature Play is to grant every child the experience of playing with natural materials. Children are invited to engage in unstructured outdoor play with the collection of natural local materials including bamboo poles, sticks, tree cookies, pine cones, shells and palm fronds. As well as cardboard boxes, sheets, netting and twine. Nature Play encourages children to build anything from teepees, tunnels, fairy houses, art sculptures and other “play” structures. The only limit is the imagination.
