Some of the best approaches to childhood education allow for many hours of unstructured play. Children love to copy and enact through pretend play what they see adults doing in their daily lives. To them, it is a fun game, but few adults would consider their own jobs a pleasurable experience. Few have the tools necessary to follow their own dreams and callings and end up choosing from among a limited number of paths toward the ever elusive goal of financial security. In our times, many of these pathways are drying up, and we look both to ancient traditions and to new and appropriate technologies at the cutting edge of global sustainability to equip ourselves and our children for a more creative, convivial existence.
All Kids Edible Playgardens is founded on the theory that children do not only want to practice adulthood through play, but to actually do things that are meaningful within their communities. They want to contribute, to do real things. By designing and implementing their own garden playgrounds, they will not only gain valuable skills in math, marketing, fundraising, project planning, horticulture, multimedia storytelling, nutrition, ecology, physics, engineering, renewable energy, animal husbandry and landscape regeneration, but will also reconnect themselves to the natural cycles necessary for existence on this planet. And perhaps this will give rise to more opportunities in gainful and mindful employment, slowly shaking off our dependence on the current, over-lording system. But most of all, they will be able to participate in community life now, lived as it ought to be lived, and not merely as a future goal. Viva la Vida!
As a companion to facilitating the free, creative expression of each child's dream playscape design, we offer tools to better assess the needs and potential of existing landscapes (or hardscapes, as the case may be) in the form of short lessons that include hands-on, multi-sensory activities. The aim of these lessons is to relay a literacy for reading landscapes as whole, integrated, living systems, and to enable the natural energies that pass through to be used to best advantage. Stay tuned for new installments!
Getting Started
Curriculum Outline
Wind Energy: Force and Direction
Wind Energy: Regions and Seasons
Wind Energy: Keeping Track
Wind Energy: Design For Protection
Wind Energy: Harnessing Its Power
Wind Stirring Machine
