Playworks Blog

The final three day weekend of the summer is here. It's time to get outdoors, relax, enjoy friends and neighbors and sneak in some final summer games. Teach Kick the Can to the children and bring back this childhood game. 

After a summer of playing at camps or home, it’s time for children to prepare for school. How can we ensure children continue to have playful days? Try these tips to help make every school day playful.

It’s Back to School time! The local markets put up their school displays. The school supply lists have arrived in the mail.

Gratitude. That’s what we feel for the many supporters that have helped Playworks reach into underserved communities and bring play and physical activity to the local schools. We’ve been so fortunate to have so many supporters, individuals who really care, make it possible for children to have the opportunity to play every day. 
 
Earlier this month, at least 39,271 members of 24 Hour Fitness clubs stepped, ran, pumped and jumped in to raise more than $77,000 to support Playworks during a special three week “Help Save Play” promotion at the clubs.

This week the National Conference on Volunteerism and Service is being hosted in NYC by the Points of Light Foundation and the Corporation for National and Community Service.  Service is an important part of Playworks’ direct service program – next year 160 of our 270 schools will be staffed by AmeriCorps members (we’re accepting applications for coaches

These next couple of weeks will mark the end of the 2009-10 school year. And while most of us will remember summer as a time of long days filled with outdoor play, a 2007 study found that nowadays kids were more likely to be sedentary during summer vacation than during the school year.

But this summer, 24 Hour Fitness is partnering with Playworks to make a difference.

A friend of mine made the observation the other day that almost all the criticisms of our approach begin with some version of “When I was young…” I think she’s right.  People fondly remember play and recess  – the halcyon days of youth, unencumbered by pressures and constraints of adulthood.   I’m not knocking nostalgia wholesale, but our memories don’t tend to be all that accurate, reflecting specific incidents more often than the general state of things, as columnist Steve Duin so ably points out in his column on recess and Play

Wow, Dr. Phil has noticed us! His blog today, “Playtime is Over?” asks some good questions and while he expresses some skepticism and doubt about the role of recess coaches, he ultimately (albeit unwittingly) does a great job of making an argument for Playworks.
 
Dr. Phil writes: In my childhood, when we played kick ball at recess, we used an old Buick in front of Old Lady Jerkin’s house as our home plate. There were no gigs of memory, no schedule and no field.

Each year, Playworks introduces its program to potential expansion cities through a weeklong “Recess Roll-Out.” Selected schools in the city each get a Playworks coach for the week to demonstrate how the program can impact the students, staff and culture at the school.
 
This week, we’re in Little Rock, Arkansas.