Children need rich, diverse play opportunities for optimum growth and development. Planet Earth Playscapes is committed to helping people create and maintain beautiful, meaningful, outdoor environments for children.
We do this through workshops and lectures, books, resource lists on our web page, legislation work, and the design, planning and building of play environments. Diverse, inspiring information is gathered from different cultures and different fields of child development to help meld a new way of approaching children’s environments.
In many ways, our culture is moving farther from the natural world in which we as humans are ultimately connected. Planet Earth Playscapes is working to create spaces that bring the natural world back in touch with children . Through exploration and discovery children learn about themselves and the world around them. It is our role as adults to provide opportunities for children to interact with the natural world and other children. We can do this by designing creative outdoor environments that inspire investigation with all the senses and allow children to move, hide, run, jump, construct and create within these spaces.
The human brain, during childhood, is “on” and ready to soak in experience. If given opportunities to experiment and investigate, children form a foundational love for learning that can last their whole lives. They also form deep connections to the Earth and the life that exists around them.
Today, children are growing up in various types of care institutions from infancy through elementary school. These places are like second homes. They are the places where children may first experience other children, new adults and the outside world. Their first experience of autumn. Their first touch of sand and water. Their first taste of mint. Their first smell of a flower. In other words, their introduction to the planet. What outside world awaits when they pass through the classroom doors? One filled with wonder and ever-changing life? Filled with elements that invite and stimulate all of the senses? Or bare backyards filled with plastic objects that remain the same, day after day?
We believe that together, we can create beautiful introductions to life.
Rusty Keeler
September 20, 2000
Our vision statement!