Bogin Playscape Project

I spoke to the pediatrics class in the OT program this morning, which has become an annual ritual, and an opportunity to get a class of 35 OT students to think and  play like they are 4 years old!!

I run a small exercise/ activity group, with a group of the OT students standing in for the children.  It always seems to make them laugh to play the simple jumping games with a beach ball, but the laughter and fun are crucial to why these activities work so well with kids… This group of students was an especially enthusiastic bunch, and included two students from our “playscapes” course. They filmed the whole thing, so maybe we can post that on the website, too. Of course, there’s the permissions from the students, informed consents; it’s never so simple!! 

We are a small group this week; several students are working on their own, so today there was just myself, Kristin and Barbara at Children’s House. It’s harder to keep a sense of the group when we are not meeting together each week, but the class time is the only time for some of the other site visits and shop time to happen. We also have the alternating schedules of the two colleges, with different weeks for Spring Break, so we won’t actually meet together as a class again till the end of March.

This week there is the appearance of the “Student Page” on the website, which I’m very glad to see. As more and more of the student work gets posted, it should give a whole new view of this project and what we are learning and exploring.

I saw several groups of kids for exercise/ activity groups today, and then met briefly with Deb McLaughlin from Children’s House to discuss the project and what we are doing…Deb has been a wonderful support for us all along, as well as Sarah and all the teachers at Children’s House.

I’m also trying to re-write some of the early pages we posted on the site, taking into account how things have evolved thus far, and trying to consolidate and avoid some of the pages that repeated the same information. It’s work to keep things current!!

We met today at the Holyoke preschool and talked about what everyone is working on this semester. The class is more split up, and we don’t have the full group in one place for each class. This makes it more challenging to make sure everyone is communicating. The student page on the website is set for launching soon, and will bring a different voice to the information we present. It’s certainly true that the more information is up on the website, the more it needs to be organized so that it is not just an avalanche of text that spills out when someone enters and looks around…Kristin had the smart idea to have a “Main Page” that is the entry point, rather than having everyone enter on the blog page that varies from week to week. This made me realize that we needed a summary of the project to be the starting point, so I worked today to revise that statement.

We also saw two groups of children from the Holyoke preschool, and there was even the first try of some video footage of a small activity/ exercise group. We aren’t yet able to post video on the site until we get an additional consent form approved, but at least we are starting!!

Today we met at Children’s House and spent time discussing how each student was getting started and working on different aspects of the project. I realize that it’s time for the students to have more of an active role on the website, and it also could help insure we keep hold of the information we are gathering.

So each student will now start to put their work on the website, and we will try to organize the information better once we get a sense of what is there. I wanted to make sure we get started on this right away, before there’s too much to trace back, and we lose the effort already expended.

Each week is also spent with running small groups for games and exercise. We have now seen the kids at Children’s House three weeks in a row, so there is more of a sense of familiarity for the students as they watch this group of pre-schoolers. Already they can see how several of the children are gaining skills as they practice the games and activities.

Ellen Rainville has taken over the process of getting the internal Review Boards (IRB) from each college to approve our work. This involves a process of getting informed consent from the parents of the children we will be working with. We especially need permission to film and document our work, as well as make sure families are aware of what we are doing when we start to bring new ideas and equipment we have designed to share and try out. I am so grateful to Ellen for taking this on, knowing how busy she is with her other teaching duties.

Thanks Ellen, and thanks also to Megan and Kristin who helped get the IRB process started.

We split the morning again between Children’s House and the Holyoke preschool. This is an opportunity for students to observe some of the pre-schoolers several weeks in a row; my hope is that we can start to see how some of the children’s skills shift and improve as they practice these simple games and exercises. We also hope to start to do some video footage at the Holyoke preschool before long- they have a wonderful space where there’s enough room for a camera to get a view of the action.

As students are starting to work on their individual plans for this semester, I want to find a way to preserve and record what they are exploring. This website has been authored by a single person up to this point, and I look forward to a page where students share what they have learned. I hope the website can become a more helpful resource to others who are looking for ideas to help with their pre-schoolers. We will be working on this in the next few weeks!!

Today we met at Children’s House and tried to have a short class meeting, then went right into small groups with the pre-schoolers. I’m hoping that students will get to know some of the kids here, and be able to see as some of them gain skills with the exercise and activities we bring each week.

We also visited the Holyoke preschool for the first time, and it felt great to be back in a place where I have played a role for the last 12 years. I had missed the teachers and the kids, and was pleased to find the children still remembered me ( I hadn’t worked with the children since last June when the grant program that hired me as a consultant ran out of funds)

We are working out how to make sure each of the students has a plan for this semester’s work, and it likely will be quite different from the class structure last semester. I’m looking forward to more direct work with the children, and getting the students involved in designing, documenting and exploring more independently. One logistical problem that has emerged is that we no longer have our wonderful “home base” at the Holyoke Children’s Museum. The class still needs to meet and talk and process together each week, and it will be important to find a place where that can happen. Children’s House has been incredibly open and welcoming, but the space is so small it can feel like we’re “taking over” when the whole group walks in… so maybe we can a find another spot to meet- more next week on this-

We met this morning at Children’s House in Holyoke; the class has added a new student, so now there are a total of six “collaborators” (from Smith and Springfield College) as we move forward. My goal for this semester is to shift the focus over to real interaction and service for the pre-schools. Now that the first semester has been spent looking at a wide range of issues related to children’s play and motor development, we are ready to try to make a difference. I am also hoping to begin to really build and develop some new designs for equipment, but there are other roles for the students who don’t have enough access to tools and a shop to work on building things. The students will be working from a “menu” of choices and each will develop their own mix of these topics to work on…

1) observation and documentation of play; including video, photography and interviews with children, teachers and parents at Children’s House, the Holyoke preschool and Nonotuck. How does indoor/ outdoor play differ at the different sites?
2) Ongoing consultation to Nonotuck pre-school; to assess the effectiveness of the exercise book completed last semester; revisions to improve it’s success with the staff and children, and eventually share these ideas through the website
3) observation and documentation of play sites in the local community; compile a listing/ reviews of the “best places for pre-school children to play” ; with specifics regarding safety, cost, equipment available (swings, climbers, etc)
4) Equipment reviews; choose a piece of equipment under $40. Purchase it, (we can cover the cost) and write a review of how it worked with children.
5) Visit a company that builds play equipment; write about the history of the equipment and the people who designed it
6) Training video for motor activities; video and editing for the small group activities used at the pre-schools in Holyoke, using step stools, beach ball, etc for use on the website. I need help with this!!!
7) Equipment Design; choose a specific motor activity and design an inexpensive piece of equipment to encourage/ help make this happen. The total materials cost should not exceed $100.
8) Set up a meeting with the licensure/ inspectors who regulate the indoor play equipment in our area; write an article that explains their perspective on safety in local pre-schools
9) Improve the boginplayscapeproject.com website; explore how to make the website more useful for students, teachers, parents;
10) Explore the research completed by management students last semester; ongoing reading of articles and materials collected ; adding to the research by finding new sources and ideas that are available
11) Exploring of specific new ideas for children’s play; the Holyoke Children’s museum recently purchased a new play system using large foam blocks that children can assemble in a large open space. Explore the design, and examine how children play with it. Are there other new ideas out there for interesting low cost play systems??

The morning sessions went well. It felt great to be back seeing pre-school kids again, and we appreciate Children’s House warm welcome!!!

I want to announce that a gift of $410.has been presented to the project. This gift represents the last accounting of the estate of my late brother Mac Murphy, (1950-2009). Mac was a generous soul, and rich in many ways that money can’t begin to explain; he dearly loved children, and we will use these funds for materials and equipment in his memory. I want to sincerely thank my family for their support.

I spoke at the monthly Nonotuck staff meeting today, and was looking for feedback on how the ball stomps are doing, and for a response to the exercise books we left last month. I also wanted to spend some time going over the overall goals of the project, and wanted to hear more about what the teachers were looking for as we move forward.

Nonotuck is a center that already does a tremendous job offering opportunities for kids to move and play both indoors and outdoors. I am grateful to have them part of the project, though I don’t think they need our help as much as some of the other centers… they offer a wonderful opportunity for the students from Smith and Springfield College to see how opportunities for play can vary just in the local area where we live. Nonotuck is a parent cooperative, and the openness and creativity is evident and reflects the values those families bring to the center.

Staff had some great suggestions for projects; there’s a request for a simple “teeter totter” that may be a great starting project for one of the students. There was also a request to scale down the ball stomps so that some of the younger and smaller children can use it…and interest in the “group stomp” idea that would combine 2 or 3 ball stomps to make it a group activity. There was also interest in a collapsible climbing wall for the younger kids, as well as more climbing opportunities in general; these climbing projects are more risky in terms of safety, but worth exploring.

The students will return at the end of January and we will get started!!

Finally we can share video of kids playing with a ball stomp.

http://youtu.be/vsOGpFmegIo
http://youtu.be/RQgvB98vYGU
http://youtu.be/sQnud6ZJJW8
http://youtu.be/7wV4bCfzElM