The Parish School is fortunate to have one of only five site-based adventure playgrounds in the United States and the only one based at a school. Adventure playgrounds are environments where children create their own worlds and build their own play space with a variety of tools and scrap material. With all of this stuff organized and built by children - with so much freedom, space, tools and child-directed activity, aren't these playgrounds rife with injury? To answer this question, Jill Wood, Director of Adventure Play at The Parish School, teamed with Morgan Leichter Saxby, PhD candidate in Playwork at Leeds Beckett University and Co-Founder of Pop-Up Adventure Play for a comparative study...

Math and reading seem to be the two areas of academics that society focuses on the most. They also happen to be two areas in which children who have language disorders and executive functioning difficulties frequently struggle. It’s easy to see how a difficulty understanding language can impact a child’s ability to read – reading requires the ability to comprehend written language. However, determining how difficulties with language can impact a child’s mathematical ability is much less obvious.

Play is a child’s natural state. It is through play that a child works through their emotions and learns language, fine and gross motor skills, social language and academic concepts. Research shows that children absorb even more when engaged in play with an adult. However, playing may feel unnatural and like hard work for parents. With these tips, even the most serious adult will be able to find their inner child!

Over the years, schools have taught students to follow directions, get along with others, work hard and be professional. All are still necessary skills. But to hold information-age jobs, students also need the ability to think deeply and critically, solve problems, work in collaborative environments, communicate clearly in various media (email, phone, social media, face-to-face), learn ever-changing technologies, and deal with a constant flood of information. That’s where 21st century skills come in...