Podcast: Play in new window
Do you remember climbing a tree as a kid? Running through the bush in the dark, feeling leaves and twigs crunch beneath your feet, your torch out of battery? Did you leap up to grab at the monkey bars even though your arms were too short to make it?
It seems that in a few generations, everything about childhood has changed – except kids themselves. The risks of play, letting kids go it alone, and unsupervised activity of any kind are more publicised than ever. Things that were free fun are now controlled, monetized experienced. Toys that once were bears and dolls are Disney designed icons to be collected and discarded.
How are the changes to play impacting kids? How are they changing the stories kids grow up to tell? And could the changes have a long term impact on health or the environment?
This week on All the Best – stories that explore the commercialisation of play, from mass-made toys to ‘tree-based eco adventures’.
Thanks to the Kids in Nature Network for having our producers along at Nature Play Week.
Features Executive Producers: Jess O’Callaghan and Heidi Pett
Presenters: Pip Rasmussen and Michael Brydon
Image Credit: David Baker