Most intriguingly, Let the Children Play provides a glimpse into the play-based experiments ongoing now all over the world, from rural China, Singapore, and Scotland to North Texas and Oklahoma, as well as the promising results of these bold new approaches.
Dr Alexia Barrable was born in Greece and had a wild childhood climbing trees and rescuing tortoises. After moving to the UK in her early teens, she went on to study at Oxford and Cambridge, where she qualified as a teacher. Alexia has a PhD in psychology in education and conducts research on the human–nature relationship. She is passionate about spreading the word of the benefits of, and opportunities offered by, nature-based learning.
Alex’s latest book Independent Thinking on Nature-Based Learning Improving learning and well-being by teaching with nature in mind is an engaging and insightful take on how educators can deliver more outdoor- and nature-oriented learning opportunities for the benefit of their pupils’ mental and physical well-being. https://www.crownhouse.co.uk/independent-thinking-on-nature-based-learning
So much rich info and story in this epidode! We hope you enjoy it!
Puddle Patter Episode 17 – Tom Bedard from Stramash Outdoors on Vimeo.
Episode 17 – Tom Bedard – Today’s Puddle Patter is with the delightful Tom Bedard from one of our favourite blogs http://tomsensori.blogspot.com/ Sand and Water Tables – a blog for early childhood teachers looking for ways to expand and enrich play and learning in and around their sand and water tables with easy-to-make, low-cost apparatus. It may also be of interest for anyone who appreciates children’s messy play.
You’re going to love this episode
Episode 16 – Part 2 of our interview with Juliet Robertson – Paths – In a change to the usual Puddle Patter format, today Juliet Robertson from Creative Star Learning creativestarlearning.co.uk/ – Author of Messy Maths and long term friend of Stramash flips the format and interviews Fort William Team Leader Cameron & Comms manager Jess from Stramash.
Chatting about the journey of the ‘Field of Dreams’ – Stramash Fort William and the wider organisation via the development of the site over the years. Land management, mud, running an outdoor nursery, sustainability and so much more is all in there as Juliet discusses Wee Green Spaces and shares the photo’s she’s taken of Fort William nursery over the years.
Puddle Patter Episode 15 – Juliet, Cameron & Jess from Stramash Outdoors on Vimeo.
Episode 15 – Juliet Robertson – In a change to the usual Puddle Patter format, today Juliet Robertson from Creative Star Learning creativestarlearning.co.uk/ – Author of Messy Maths and long term friend of Stramash flips the format and interviews Fort William Team Leader Cameron & Comms manager Jess from Stramash.
Chatting about the journey of the ‘Field of Dreams’ – Stramash Fort William and the wider organisation via the development of the site over the years. Land management, mud, running an outdoor nursery, sustainability and so much more is all in there as Juliet discusses Wee Green Spaces and shares the photo’s she’s taken of Fort William nursery over the years.
We didn’t cry…
Honest.
Always such a pleasure to chat with Juliet – enjoy this Part one with Part 2 all about paths coming soon!
Episode 14 with Angela Hanscom – This week Cameron chats to Angela Hanscom creator of Timbernook!
TimberNook began as an experiment in pediatric occupational therapist Angela Hanscom’s own backyard. She was hoping to make a difference in her local community. Now, her experiment has become an amazing journey that is making a difference for children in communities across the world. Hear all about the history of Timbernook, Angela’s observations and experience working with children outdoors and how outdoor settings like ours are so rich and developmentally important for children.
Episode 13 – Kathryn Solly
We are back with a cracker of an episode for you! In this episode Cameron chats to Kathryn Solly, the author of one of our favourite books – Risk, Challenge and Adventure in the Early Years: A practical guide to exploring and extending learning outdoors
Kathryn chats to Cameron about the benefits and opportunities of risky play, exploration, child development and creating an enabling and supportive environment and ethos (for children and their adult caregivers alike) when exploring outdoor & risky play with children. Absolutely filled with personal anecdotes and wisdom, Kathryn was so generous with her time and knowledge – especially as she’s so busy with her next book! Definitely an episode not to be missed whether you’re an experienced outdoor practitioner, parent considering outdoor nursery or looking to expand your provision and take children outdoors.
Episode 12 – Anna Ephgrave This week Cameron chats to someone who needs no introduction in Early Years circles, creator of ‘ITMP’ In the moment planning – Anna Ephgrave.
In this episode Anna speaks candidly (and with her signature humour) about her influences, her journey to developing ITMP the research that went in to writing her books, some fascinating family history and her experience with the settings where she developed in the moment planning, as well as those who have taken it forward as a result of her books and training. Talking about the benefits of learning outdoors, the role of nurseries in early child care and development, interactions and observations- this episode is jam packed with insight and inspiration including how to handle Inspection time when you’re deviating from ‘the norm’.
Episode 11 – Something a little different this week on Puddle Patter. A round table discussion with our dear friends from the Erasmus project that Stramash was fortunate enough to be involved with for the last 2.5 years.
Featuring:
Martin Besford (Highway Farm England)
Dovile Urbanaviciene (Misko Darzelis Lithuania)
Unnar Henrys (Stekkjaras – Leikskoli Iceland)
Kate Hunter & Cameron Sprague (Stramash Scotland)
The friends reflect on the project, their experiences and what they learned and gained from being a part of it.
Episode 10 – Rusty Keeler – Play, childhood, early years design space specialist
Join us for this week’s Puddle Patter where Cameron & Rusty discuss how adventure play spaces encourage freeplay & child directed play, supporting them to develop resiliency, creativity and collaboration.
Rusty was such a wonderful guest, chatting about his journey of creating play spaces for kids; evolving from playground equipment via nature space play design, to now creating blended nature & adventure play spaces. Digging into how his social justice values drive him in his work to make more spaces for play within our societies and environments.
Episode 9 – This week on Puddle Patter we are privileged to be chatting to David Sobel: Play based nature educator & author. This episode is perhaps one to listen to rather than watch as we unfortunately struggled with rural internet on both ends so the video quality isn’t as great as we’d like, however the content more than makes up for it!
Make a brew and listen on as Cameron chats with one of the key thought leaders of the outdoor, nature play movement.
Episode 8 – Tassy Thompson – inspirational award winning play space designer! PHD Landscape and sustainability researcher Tassy originally from Fort William and now living in Norway chats to Cameron about her background as an artist and creative practitioner, play and the landscape of learning in this weeks episode.
Episode 7 – In this episode Cameron chats to Peter Gray, developmental psychologist, author of the book Free to learn and speaker on the brilliant Ted talk ‘The decline of play’
As a research professor of evolutionary psychology & neuroscience Peter share’s his wisdom on: Why play is a critical evolutionary human behaviour. Why do children play. What happens when they don’t play.
You can read more of Peter’s thoughts, research and findings over on his blog here
Episode 6 – Cameron chats to self confessed rebel rouser Teacher Tom! Discussing Tom’s entry into the world of early years via his daughters co-operative school ‘She graduated and i just never did!’, when we underestimate children, the absurdity of ‘school readiness, community, when literacy meets learning by smashing stuff up, reflective practice – this is a jam packed episode of gems.
Inspiring and full of heart we are so grateful that Tom was so generous with his time and signature energy and wisdom. Tom’s latest e-course can be found here if this episode inspires you to train with Tom https://courses.teachertomsworld.com/courses/the-technology-of-speaking-with-children-so-they-can-think
Episode 5 – Alastair Davidson, currently a lecturer with UHI in Childhood Practice and Forest Kindergarten and previously a Stramash Team Leader – managing 2 of our outdoor nurseries in North East Scotland.
As friends and co-workers for many years Cameron & Alastair chat (at times a little too comfortably haha) about place based learning – a particular area of interest to them both with interesting insight to The Scots Gaelic language. Cameron & Alastair also discuss the similarities in their journey to working outdoors with early years and the magic, opportunity and challenges they’ve encountered in the process.
Episode 4 : This week Cameron chats to the ever impassioned Sue Palmer from Upstart Scotland https://www.upstart.scot/ Recorded during the week where we heard that testing would continue as planned, for children returning to school after the latest pandemic lockdown, this was always going to be a lively conversation! Strap in folks, it’s a great episode.
Episode 3 with Chris from Fossoplay – Resilience, being part of the outdoor nursery movement, what changes they notice in the children and what they’ve learned about their environments and themselves along the way
Episode 2 with Roberta – Outdoor nursery from a parents perspective
Episode 1 with Pauline Scott – Attachment, holistic shared child centred practice, the nursery and early years industry and culture
