The Magic of the Stump Pile

04/06/2023

When we plant trees, we plant the seeds of peace and seeds of hope. We also secure the future for our children.
Wangari Maathai, The Green Belt Movement

“What we have learned over the years is that having uninterrupted time in nature reduced the anxiety, stress and aggressive responses in our school-age children and increased their flexibility, resilience, and self-regulation skills. Nature restored our children’s confidence and self-esteem and promoted social inclusion. Episodes of anger, profanity and physical violence gave way to collaboration, cooperation and more peaceful conflict resolution skills. In this unfinished natural canvas, nature’s healing power brought back to our children the joy of learning and playing,” write Julie Bookwalter and Veronika Vicqueneau, co-directors of UC Irvine’s after school care program. Their discoveries with a particularly challenged group of children echo the findings of a growing number of educators and researchers.

How did their transformation unfold? With open-hearted curiosity, Bookwalter and Vicqueneau followed their students to a beloved stump pile in the woods which the children had been exploring on their own. There, they saw an entirely different kind of play, and so launched a project with the children to bring those elements into the children’s daily lives by transforming their own outdoor space into a more nature-rich setting filled with lots of loose parts for exploration, discovery and construction.

To really take it in, you’ll want to read the whole story, "The Magic of the Stump Pile," an Exchange magazine article recently shared by Community Playthings. Take it one step further and follow up with an Exchange Reflections based on the same article.

For more information about Exchange's magazine, books, and other products pertaining to ECE, go to www.ccie.com.