Join the Let's Go Outside Revolution

Over at my beautiful, kindred, spirited friend Marghanita’s blog I wrote a guest post about the enchantment of childhood and finding your inner core of love.  Marghanita is one of those very special people who continue to inspire me on my journey of unplugging children and reconnecting them with nature.  With the help of the Little Humbugs, Marghanita has a vision of allowing children freedom to play, explore and discover outside and bringing back nature into their lives. 

I admire Marghanita immensely for initiating the Let’s Go Outside Revolution.  A movement urgently needed to encourage parents to get back to the fundamentals of raising their children from the heart and inspiring them to embrace the outdoors.  Please support Marghanita and the Let’s Go Outside Revolution by visiting their website and joining the Revolution on Facebook.

- Anja

Screen-free week 2011

At Tawa Montessori Preschool we have a great community of parents who are passionate about the environment our preschoolers live in. This year we are taking part in a screen free week, to be held from the 9th to the 13th of May, organised by one of our parents, Andrea Bubendorfer.

A wealth of research has been carried out on the effects of TV on young children, such as summarised by the American Academy of Pediatrics and by Campaign for a Commercial Free Childhood who run international screen free week (coinciding with our school holidays).

We all know that direct experiences are real and meaningful, multisensory and interactive, and that's something we want for our children. So the children in our class came home with cards to put their ideas forward of things we can do instead of watching TV. They know they can run, jump, hide, play with balls, play games, read books. We plan to organise a set of afternoon activities, we're lucky to live close to parks, libraries, bush reserves, the beach. Maybe we'll even take along some rubbish bags & clean up an area as we go. Our children were so proud of themselves recently for cleaning up neighboroughing Kowhai Park (thanks to the two mums who organised this!).

But it's not always possible for children to spend their time at leisure, life goes on with plenty of things that must be done. Although it's easy to forget when they are hungry, tired and cranky, our kids are incredibly capable. At preschool they routinely harvest vegetables, collect eggs and prepare food... These kids even make their own bread and recycle their own paper - I expect they achieve more than I do!

Preschoolers also learn a lot by mimicry and love to be included, so rather than just the absence of entertainment, I'd like to invite all the parents to think about screen free week while they cook dinner. Perhaps your preschooler could peel a carrot or wash broccoli alongside you. Their sense of achievement as they have contributed meaningfully is better than the highest praise.

In the first week of term, I'll put out a handout on a few ideas that preschoolers love, to keep them busy during busy times. Any ideas or input from the preschool community will be gratefully received.

- Andrea Bubendorfer