Recess Anxieties Addressed by Peaceful Playgrounds

You would think that recess would be the least of a parent's worries when it comes to their children's school career. There's a great deal of free information on the blog Peaceful Playground that would indicate that parents, children and educators need to be concerned about recess and their playground. In a more personal way, I was reminded by my niece recently about parental concern over recess.


At a recent family gathering, she told the story of how, on her daughter's first day of kindergarten, she called her husband from her office and ask him to drive by the school at recess to make sure their only child was okay. When he questioned the neccessity and wisdom of spying on the local elementary playground, she voiced her fear, "What if she is all alone and has no friends?"


A brawny Wyoming oil field worker, he called back from the cab of his large red diesel knocking pick-up and whispered, "She is swinging with two little girls. She's laughing."


"Well, do they look nice?"


"Okay, I'm going back to work," was the only response she got. We all laughed, but recess fear, dangers and discomforts are very real for children and their parents.


Andrea and Melinda Bossenmeyer are the authors of the blog Peaceful Playgrounds and twitter at RecessDoctor. This is not a blog spawned from the anxiety of a parent of an only child, as my niece was experiencing. Andrea, an educator and marketer, blogs on nutrition, health, and childhood obesity. Dr. Melinda Bossenmeyer blogs on education, physical education, recess, physical activity, and playgrounds. She is the President and developer of the Peaceful Playgrounds Program and past elementary school principal. She spent 27 years as an educator and is the author of six published books on playgrounds and numerous articles on recess, playgrounds and play. She has presented over 100 conference sessions.


Andrea and Melinda have been blogging for over two years and their site is wonderful free resource loaded with information for parents and educators in their areas of expertise, IE., health and nutrition, and physical education, recess and playgrounds. In addition, to the free, well-written and supportive content on the site they publish a monthly on-line newsletter.


Check out their blog. It's great free information. You can follow them on Twitter. Just for fun they tweeted today a link to a group of photos of playground equipment from the 70s. Take a look. It could lighten up your day with some memories of the playgrounds of your childhood; http://su.pr/2DeR78

Copyright 2009 Creekside Education & Susie Williams

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