When I was a little girl, I went to a daycare close to my house. The daycare was adjacent to the woods, and everyday my friends and I would play among the trees and the rocks. A few hundred yards in, there was a big rock which we called "storsten" or "big-rock." It took a little bit of mastery to climb up on the rock, and you could definitely get hurt if you'd fall down. One day the rock would be a rocket-ship, another day a big boat or a house. The teachers would come over once in a while, but they generally didn't stay and monitor us. We would be outside for hours every day regardless of the weather, free to play and roam about. I made friends in daycare that I'm close with until this day .
I wonder about today's preschools in the U.S. Generally, I think they are way too structured. I don't think the reason the U.S is so far behind most industrialized nations when it comes to school achievement has much to do with the way the subjects are instructed. I think one of the major factors is that most kids don't get to play and move about freely in the outdoors. The basis of abstract thinking is built during play, and free play is a necessity for proper neurological development (particularly in boys who are pre-wired for rough-and-tumble). Not a single toy made by fisher price is superior to a stick and some mud.
So what am I trying to achieve by writing this, and who cares? I don't know. I don't necessarily think that my own boys suffer from living in a city. However, I think they are missing out, even though Liam goes to a great school and he gets some of that nature-exposure there. Yesterday, he and another boy had dug up a bunch of worms which they were playing with. Also, we often visit great natural parks around here.
I miss the woods, and our next house has to be close to nature.
