It’s okay to play, in fact it is essential.
So The Helen Schuler Nature Centre has started a new interactive play program “The Nature of Play,” to reach out to all ages.
“ It’s for the very young to grandparents,” said Helen Schuler Nature Centre manager Coreen Putman.
The program featuring a variety of interactive displays designed to encourage mental, motion and object play.
Putman observed the exhibit opened a week ago and has met with enthusiastic response since opening last week.
“It is designed to prioritize the importance of play and how to prioritize play,” Putnam continued, adding it is a culmination of work from community organization Lethbridge Play, which includes 20 community organizations which began in 2018.
“ The Nature of Play” features a variety of interactive play stations including a mini rock climbing wall designed to inspire new ideas about how to incorporate play into our lives. A table full of stones, twigs and other objects found in nature provides opportunity for motion play. There will also be outside activities for when the centre isn’t open.
The stations will be changed up regularly through the six month run of the exhibit, which is open during Helen Schuler’s regular hours.
“ There is a body of research out now, that tells us what we have always known— that play is really good for us,” Putman said, adding the themes of the exhibits will be switched up monthly.
“September will be about insects and October will be about creating mini-habitats,” she said.
The exhibition is available seven days a week through August, from 10 a.m. – 6 p.m.
Visit the Nature Centre’s website https://nature.lethbridge.ca/exhibits/main-gallery for more information on the exhibit and to discover a wide range of resources designed to inspire you to add more play to your days.
— by Richard Amery, L.A. Beat Editor
