LittleLegends.biz

WebUrbanist has an interesting post on urban adventure playgrounds. The following certainly struck a chord.

In a sense, you and I have always played in “adventure playgrounds.” We created a fort in the kitchen cabinets, jumped from couch to couch across oceans; we snuck out through a hole in the fence to a new world. We climbed trees and hid in bushes. We played in the mud and the rain. We chased each other, made secret worlds with our own language. We created spaces with whatever we could find around us. Some of us played in abandoned buildings, or barns, or vacant lots between buildings, used what we found and made up stories of our lives to be. We looked everywhere to find our space.

One of the links took me to a charity I’d not heard of before called London Play. Their mission is

To enhance the development and education of children in the Greater London area by developing and supporting the provision of children’s play, primarily by:
• improving the quality, diversity and accessibility of play opportunities in London;
• raising awareness of the importance of play in the development of London’s children;
• promoting co-operation and co-ordination amongst the play sector in London;
• developing a network of local play support agencies in every London borough.

Why? Well …

“Sadly, and increasingly, children are unable or not allowed to go out to play, and engage freely in play activities that a generation ago would have been taken for granted.

There is a serious danger of serious and long lasting damage to a whole generation of children by denying them opportunities to explore, experiment, and experience the wide, wonderful world around them. Being ‘wrapped in cotton wool’, children are deprived of the most natural part of childhood – playing and taking risks. It is only by direct personal experience that children learn to assess and overcome danger and hazardous situations, and gain varied and flexible responses to the different situations they find themselves in.”

I couldn’t agree more. I’ve just sent off the form to register Little Legends’ support, and we’ll be adding London Play certified playgrounds from tomorrow onwards. It’s great to know I’ll be able to keep one resolution!

I stumbled across Kids Republic last night. As Billy T says, it’s a

“a children’s bookstore that transports its pint sized customers into a delightful fairytale world full of color and fantasy – complete with massive story telling screens and play areas.”

It looks fantastic, and no doubt is a great way of making reading seem cooler. But I wonder whether it actually encourages children to read (as opposed to playing in a space where there are books)? There’s a stick-in-the-mud part of me that however glam the bookshop, if a child doesn’t find a book that grips them, they won’t find reading fun. (Bah humbug)

On Christmas Day, we watched You’ve Got Mail with indigestion. Meg Ryan’s character runs “The Shop Around the Corner”, a bookshop for kids. It’s the traditional outfit that has survived because the staff know the books, have read them, and can talk to children about what’s great. They say things like

“When you read a book as a child, it becomes a part of your identity in a way that no other reading in your whole life does.”

There’s a shop near me in Hammersmith called The Brook Green Bookshop that has a similar feel and ethos. It was started by former Macmillan sales director Michael Halden and his wife Loma Slater in spring 2003. And as Local Bookshops say,

“Tucked away in a leafy haven between Kensington and Hammersmith in West London, this unique bookshop specialises in children’s and teenagers’ titles … Their publishing backgrounds give them the knowledge and experience to select only the very best from every publishers’ lists no matter what subject. In just three short years the shop has become a magnet for literary life around this vibrant community and now attracts book launches and signing sessions by celebrity authors.”

It’s not quite as glam as Kids Republic, but you can’t help but feel confident they’ll make reading fun, albeit in the old-fashioned way of giving good, knowledgeable advice about which books are fun.

Mum thought this was funny, and Dad thought it was public information advert.

When I was growing up, Val Doonican was a key part of Christmas. Not a great part, but a key part none the less. He always seemed to be on TV just before Raiders of the Lost Ark, or Morecambe and Wise. Is there an equivalent of Big Val nowadays?

Happy Christmas everyone, and best wishes for the New Year!