Smith Memorial Playground

It's a new day and so far it's a great one! My Saturday has been filled with learning through play and by following the lead of Life.  We spent the morning at the amazing play space, Smith Memorial Playground in Fairmount Park.  Most everything about this place speaks to play- letting children explore at their own pace. The human-made play structures are set in nature- tall trees, green grass, logs for balancing, hills for rolling.  The staff are passionate, enthusiasts of play- being silly with one another and the families visiting for the day.  

The woman who was seated at the top the infamous wooden slide, told me and the kiddos about a baby bird preparing to leave the nest just above our heads.  She also pointed out a tree with a blue robin's egg within view.  On our next trip down the slide, we mentioned that we thought the egg was gone since we couldn’t find it. She followed us down to check- indeed the blue egg was right where she expected, in the next tree over!!  She stayed to tell the boys about the eggs that hatched last week from the now-empty nest we checked first.  She was excited to share the findings and clearly happy to work at this place for the last three years.  In my experience, the people who work here understand that children learn by following what interests them about the space, by playing.   

Smith provides a community space full of opportunities to run, jump, climb, carry water, dig in the mud, construct with natural materials, balance, swing, yell, imagine, take risks, and more.  The two children with whom I visited Smith today hadn't been there in quite some time.  Around every corner they found something new that had "changed," when in fact only they had grown.  It was such a pleasure to witness the joy they found by looking at things with fresh eyes.