Back by popular demand, more insights from the textbook, Introductory Physiology and Hygiene, by H. W. Conn, Ph.D., published by Silver, Burdett and Company, in 1908.

Apparently the Tour de France riders never learned as children that they should sit straight, ride slowly, and stop before they are too tired. However, they did learn about the importance of ‘out-of-door’ exercise.

The handwriting over the chapter title reads “Begin” most likely marking the start of a lesson or assignment. Almost all the chapters have this, and the end of the chapter on ‘How to strengthen the muscles’ has the handwriting, “End of 1st quarter.”

Don’t miss Twelve Everyday Health Rules from the same book which was picked up by the NIH MedlinePlus Magazine spring/summer 2010 edition for their ‘Then & Now” feature.

Related posts

• What can pro cyclists teach us about pain?
• Childhood Obesity By The (Big) Numbers
• The Magic of Red Helmets

©2010 Kinetics. All Rights Reserved.

“The river is woven into our history. It graces our landscape. And in a modern urban environment, it is a reminder of our connection to the natural world, to ideas larger than us, and to our past and future.” – Patrick Smith, TEDxPotomac Organizer

The inaugural TEDxPotomac drew its name and inspiration from the Potomac River. Ideas surged and ebbed and flowed and branched.

The word cloud above highlights actions and ideas passionately conveyed by speakers and participants throughout the day. Some concepts that resonated:

• Humans have a basic need to collaborate. [Berit Oskey]
• We need context to give meaning. Find something in your world and discover its name and learn something about it. [Bob Corrigan @bobcorrigan @eolpm]
• The difference between first and second place: Do one more thing one more time. [Josh Sundquist @joshsundquist]
• Engage people. Share results. Ask for feedback. Listen. Repeat. [Craig Newmark @craignewmark]
• Redesign your expectations of what is possible. [Yoko K @yokokami]
• Data is power. Information is power. [Shannon Hader]
• Foster accountability over scapegoating, dispersion of power over concentration of power, transparency over anonymity. [Frances Moore Lappé  @FMLappe]
• Live your life in pursuit of what makes you want to jump out of bed in the morning. [Warren Brown @cakelovewarren]
• Excellence touches people deeply [Steve Moore @readysetdc]
• Civility is a big deal. Be nice. [Craig Newmark @craignewmark]

And from the final talk of the day highlighting the theme of rivers and water:
Water is life. We are all environmentalists. Water connects us all across the globe. [Alexandra Cousteau @acousteau]

Thanks to the organizers, speakers, sponsors, and other participants for sharing their time, energy, and passion.

TEDxPotomac Resources

• TEDxPotomac site
• TEDxPotomac on Twitter @tedxpotomac    #tedxpotomac
• http://twitter.com/tedxpotomac/attendees-2010
• TEDxPotomac on Flickr
• TEDx site (x = independently organized TED event)
• Main TED site

TEDxPotomac buzz

• Craig Newmark: Will 2010 be the new 1517?
• Think Tank Creative Event Recap: TEDxPotomac
• Threespot TEDxPotomac Booth-o-rama gallery
• ReadysetDC – Attending TEDxPotomac
• Shared Purpose: Beyond Politics: Can we find a shared purpose?
• politicsunder30.org – TEDxPotomac Recap!

Related posts
The Magic of Red Helmets
New Year’s Resolutions: The Magnetic Poetry of TEDx MidAtlantic
Twelve Everyday Health Rules–From 1908

Image generated by Wordle  http://www.wordle.net/

©2010 Kinetics. All Rights Reserved.

I collect vintage health / wellness / fitness / physiology textbooks. While flipping through some of the books recently, I came across this wonderful set of everyday health rules. The list is from the first book in the series, Introductory Physiology and Hygiene, by H. W. Conn, Ph.D., published by Silver, Burdett and Company, in 1908. Most of the rules may be even more applicable today than they were over a century ago.  Enjoy!

And don’t miss the wonderful  ‘A 1930 Medical Record’ from Bob Coffield’s Health Care Law Blog.

Related posts:

• 7 simple tips to grow active, playful kids
• Are humans designed to be endurance runners?
• The Magic of Red Helmets

©2010 Kinetics. All Rights Reserved.

‘Cell phones’ courtesy of JR Paris on Flickr

Seven hours and 38 minutes. It’s how much time you may spend sleeping each night or working each day. It’s also how much time kids ages 8-18 spend on average each day consuming media, such as watching TV, listening to music, and using a computer, according to a new Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF) study.

The study, Generation M²: Media in the Lives of 8- to 18-Year-Olds, reveals astounding numbers that surprised the researchers and created their own media mayhem. Some of the mind-boggling numbers include:

• Of the 7 hours and 38 minutes (7:38) 8-18 year-olds spend on average using entertainment media across a typical day, much of that time is spent ‘media multitasking’ (using more than one medium at a time). The result is that youth pack a total of 10 hours and 45 minutes (10:45) worth of media content into those 7½ hours.
• Black and Hispanic children consume nearly 4½ hours more total media daily (13 hours of total media exposure for Hispanics and for Blacks, and about 8½ for Whites).  Black children spend nearly 6 hours and Hispanics just under 5½ hours watching TV, compared to roughly 3½ hours a day for White youth. Differences by race/ethnicity remain even after controlling for other factors such as age, parents’ education, and single vs. two-parent homes.
• Youth ownership of cell phones increased from 39% to 66% over the past 5 years. Ownership of iPods and other MP3 players soared from 18% to 76%.
• This group spends more time listening to music, playing games, and watching TV on their cell phones (a total of :49 daily) than they spend talking on them (:33). (Texting was not measured.)
• Media use increases substantially when children hit the 11-14 year-old age group, to a total media exposure of almost 12 hours per day (vs. about 8 hours for 8-10 year-olds).

“Try waking a teenager in the morning, and the odds are good that you’ll find a cell phone tucked under their pillow–the last thing they touch before falling asleep and the first thing they reach for upon waking.” – Victoria J. Rideout, Ulla G. Foehr and Donald F. Roberts, Generation M²: Media in the Lives of 8- to 18-Year-Olds.

What are the health consequences?
There is already growing concern that this generation of children may be the first in two centuries to have a shorter life expectancy than their parents, fueled by the childhood obesity epidemic. Will even more years be trimmed off due to the increase in media use? Television viewing was found to be associated with an increased risk of death in a recent national study of 8,800 adults in Australia (Television viewing time and mortality). Is this M² generation destined to live many less hours; with many more of those precious hours spent staring at screens?

The study focused on what kids are spending their time doing: watching TV, playing video games, sitting at computers. But the key issue pertaining to their health and well-being may very well be what they are NOT doing during those 7+ hours each day that they are engaged with a screen.

• They are not having face to face conversations with family members and friends.
• They are not climbing, jumping, or running.
• They are not fully engaging their senses in our 3-dimensional world.

What do we do now?
Technology is here and it’s here to stay. These numbers will increase: the only questions are how fast and how much. The huge increase in cell phone ownership emphasizes the ‘anywhere, anytime’ aspect of media penetration. Sure, it can mean more texting of LOL and OMG in bedrooms and buses across the country. But it also provides an opportunity to reach and educate youth that otherwise might slip through the cracks.

As I’ve discussed previously with respect to the mHealth Summit, mobile technology offers an exciting platform by which to develop new tools and messaging strategies that don’t require a high level of literacy, and to develop programs to increase literacy and knowledge in a targeted, non-stigmatizing, non-threatening manner. The report Pockets of Potential: Using Mobile Technologies to Promote Children’s Learning (PDF) from The Joan Ganz Cooney Center at Sesame Workshop, illustrates how innovative, strategic thinking will help us redefine teaching and learning by harnessing the power of mobile technologies.

“Because I said so!”
This new KFF report clearly highlights the need for parents to…be parents. The data are crystal clear – rules and guidelines work wonders. In the study, only about one third of the youth reported having rules about how much time they can spend watching TV, playing video games, and using the computer. The report shows that when parents do set limits, children spend less time with media: those with any media rules consume nearly 3 hours less media per day than those with no rules.

There are numerous resources available to help parents, including the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute’s We Can! Program. Start with a family screen time log, work with your kids to set parameters, set a good example, and press the ‘Off’ button on the TV remote. Teachers may wish to look at Every Waking Minute? Examining Personal Media Habits, from The New York Times blog, The Learning Network.

Exchange screen time for green time.
Kids can’t stare at a screen and their hands aren’t available to text or play video games when they are climbing trees, swinging from monkey bars, building a snowman, splashing in a pool, scaling a rock wall, or digging in a garden. Head outside–whether it’s a backyard or a national park–where there is some combination of sand, rocks, water, mud, and even some odd noises. The hands will start exploring, and soon it will be the senses that are multitasking.

©2010 Kinetics. All Rights Reserved.

'Snow play' courtesy of darkmatter at Flickr

Looking for a great gift idea to foster outdoor play? Odds are high you’ll find it here. Incredible folks from the play blogosphere have been busy in their workshops putting together amazing lists that will make you wish they would draw your name for a Secret Santa gift exchange.

Here is my top ten list of simple gift ideas, followed by a roundup of outstanding suggestions for creative, easy and innovative gifts from others.

1. An old wooden box, shiny tray or big glass bowl to display and store found treasures.
2. Seeds to plant a pizza garden (tomatoes, peppers, basil, oregano).
3. A dog from the Humane Society who loves to go outside and play.
4. A compass, a GPS, a box of trinkets for geocaching, and/or a great set of maps.
5. Bright colored mittens that form perfect snowballs, galoshes that splash, funny ear muffs, sandals that allow mud to squish through your toes.
6. Retro toys such as a hula hoop, slip n slide, or saucer sled, and a big red ball.
7. A donation to a charity that encourages outdoor play for those who wouldn’t otherwise have the opportunity (see Charity Navigator).
8. Sun block, a first aid kit, a bike tire patch kit, a flashlight, a water bottle, a Swiss Army knife.
9. Homemade hot chocolate mix to warm everyone from the inside out after playing in the cold and a big pitcher that screams out for fresh lemonade for the dog days of summer.
10. A big plush towel and a great smelling bar of soap to clean off the sand, mud, dirt, and muck.

Great gift ideas from folks who ‘play well with others’:

Mara Kaplan at Let Kids Play!! has been featuring 50 Toys in 50 Days. I especially like her list of 10 active outdoor toys for children with and without special needs which features the Hyper Dash and PlasmaCar.

The crew at Active Kids Club.com has put together a list of Top 10 #playoutdoors holiday gifts ideas in response to my challenge via Twitter. They ‘rocked’ with amazing ideas that include a DIY snowman kit and bird watching kit.

Debi at Go Explore Nature includes a bug container and nature journal in her list of 10 Holiday Gift Ideas for Little Nature Explorers.

Michele at Fun Orange County Parks asks in her list, Top Ten Outdoor Presents for Southern California Family and Friends, “…how can you wrap up play days and deliver them to your family or friends? Experiences are what it’s all about when it comes to the following gift ideas.” She  lists a wonderful array of memberships, including the America the Beautiful – National Parks and Federal Recreational Lands Annual Pass ($80).

Bethe at the Grass Stain Guru has written a beautiful letter to Santa. Her wish list includes, “A rainbow in the sky over a glorious rain puddle and good kite-flying weather this spring.” Amen sister!

Ben McKinley at Play Outdoors is Making my (Green) List and Checking it Twice. His list includes the gift of fresh local produce, which is a perfect solution to provide healthy calories to fuel all the play.

Arcady at Playscapes offers a list of Playground Books for Christmas. In addition to the  list in the sidebar, there is a stunning visual feast of retro playground books “full of interesting playground contraptions being built by men with mustaches and tested by kids with puffy hair and polyester trousers.”

Creative Play Plus has a wonderful list of DIY Creative Christmas Gifts that include homemade play dough and playsilks that can be dyed with Kool-Aid. How kool is that!

Free Range Kids guru Lenore Skenazy sums it all up in her blog post title, The Greatest Gift Of The Season: A Free-Range Childhood.  Nothing could be better for children of all ages.

Warmest wishes for a happy and healthy holiday season.

Related posts

• 7 simple tips to grow active, playful kids
• America’s National Parks: 14 Resources for a Most Excellent Adventure
• 100+ Top Play Resources

©2010 Kinetics. All Rights Reserved.

Cyber Ghost courtesy of Foto Pamp on Flickr

Health 2.0 STAT was just that – STAT. A Health 2.0 Meetup organized by David Blackburn of Aquilent and billed as ‘Rapid Fire Presentations from Health 2.0 Leaders,’ seven of us spoke for five minutes each on a range of topics. The health realm we spanned was digital, virtual, plugged in, meta-tagged, and, well, stat.

During the panel discussion, we were asked a zinger of a question by moderator David Hale from the National Library of Medicine. David drew from Clay Shirky’s concept of cognitive surplus. The amount of time Americans collectively spend watching commercials on TV each weekend is 100 million hours – enough time to recreate Wikipedia, as of 2008. And so David asked each of us what we would have every person in the United States do if they had a surplus hour over a weekend.

I proclaimed that everyone should unplug and go outside. Experience all their senses. Be in the present.

Wait a minute. Shouldn’t I have said something about infectious diseases or preventable chronic illnesses or world peace?

Engage your five senses. Touch. Smell. Move. Live in four dimensions rather than the two dimensions of the computer screen. Engage with others in the real world, in the present.

I thought I would be booed and tweckled. But an amazing thing happened. There was applause, and “a collective ‘hooray’ and a couple ‘amens’” (much thanks to Mary Kay Alegre for documenting this).

Is unplugging really a key to good health? Is this really a good way to channel an extra hour of our collective time?  Yes.

Keyboard helper courtesy of M.H.ick9s on Flickr

The more we learn about the health impact of online time, the more important it may be to encourage individuals to go offline.

Dr. Aric Sigman, noted psychologist and biologist, cautioned in a recent interview with Online Educa Berlin:

“Social networking appears to be actively displacing the time people spend socially interacting with real (non-virtual) friends and even with people in their own house – members of their own family. Furthermore, this displacement is most noticeable in younger and younger children who are now experiencing less social interaction and have fewer social connections during key stages of their physiological, emotional and social development. At the same time, a large number of medical and physiology studies are finding a strong link between this lack of non-virtual social interaction and connection and biological changes in the immune system and genes, along with higher rates of illness, disease and premature death. So, obviously Facebook does not directly cause these changes but social networking is merely a new distraction away from real face-to-face social interaction and this lack of interaction is the health risk, not the act of social networking. If people only spent a short amount of time each day online, there wouldn’t be any need for this discussion.”

For stunning visual evidence of the impact of screen time, take a stroll through the online photography exhibit, A Disenchanted Playroom.

If you were given an extra hour during your weekend, what would you do with it?

Many thanks to David Blackburn for founding the DC/MD/VA Health 2.0 Meetup group (Twitter: @DCHealth2_0) which has now been recognized as a local chapter of Health 2.0, and to sponsors Aquilent and Palladian Partners.

Fellow panelists and their topics included:

• Tim Clarke, Jr., NMHM Deputy Director (Communications) – Web 2.0 at the National Museum of Health and Medicine, a Division of the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology
• Lindsey Hoggle, RD, MS, PMP, Health Project Partners, LLC – Can Health 2.0 Drive Health 2%?
• Mark Scrimshire, Senior Web Strategist, CareFirst Blue Cross Blue Shield – HealthCamp: Built on Health 2.0 and Web 2.0
• Michael Paley, PhD, Executive Vice President, Aptima – Using Virtual World Technologies for Application in Disaster Preparedness Training
• Chris Lindsley, Web Editor, UMMC – University of Maryland Medical Center Adoption of Web 2.0
• Ram Singh, CEO, informediq – Using mobile devices to provide better healthcare

Related posts

• The mHealth Summit: Local & Global Converge
• What I did during my summer vacation: HealthCamp
• Americans Jump Online for Exercise Information

©2010 Kinetics. All Rights Reserved.

Trail Ridge Road, Rocky Mountain National Park

“The beauty and charm of the wilderness are his for the asking, for the edges of the wilderness lie close beside the beaten roads of the present travel.” Theodore Roosevelt

When I was growing up in Colorado our family would routinely load up the station wagon and head off to a National Park. We explored Glacier, Arches, Yellowstone, Grand Canyon, Zion, Bryce, Mesa Verde, Dinosaur, Grand Teton and Rocky Mountain National Park (our ‘neighborhood’ park). As a college graduation gift my mom took me to Denali. Several years later friends and I headed off to Volcano National Park for a reunion. This past year we loaded up the car for a multisport visit to Acadia.

Our national parks cover over 80 million acres and offer the perfect blend of inspiration and perspiration. There are 12,250 miles of unpaved trails, 8,500 miles of roads and 26,830 campsites. My parents shared their love of  spacious skies and purple mountains majesty and now when I visit national parks I often encounter smells and sounds that bring back fond childhood memories of family outings.

“Life is a great adventure…accept it in such a spirit.”  Theodore Roosevelt

In celebration of America’s National Parks: America’s Best Idea, here are 14 great national park resources to help you plan a most excellent outdoor adventure with your family and friends.

1. National Park Service (NPS) Main Website The perfect place to get acquainted with the parks.
2. Find a National Park Search by name, location, activity (biking, boating, climbing, swimming) and topic (caves, civil war, fossils, glaciers, volcanoes).
3. Park Reservations Make reservations for cabins, tents and ranger-guided tours as well as for various permits. Federal and private campsite reservations can also be made via ReserveAmerica.
4. Fuel Cost Calculator Planning to load up the family car and take a road trip to a National Park? Calculate the estimated fuel cost of your trip, courtesy of AAA.
5. National Parks Weather Search a national park, state park, or recreation area by name or search by location.  Visit a specific national park website or the National Weather Service to get local weather updates and travel advisories (road closures due to blizzards or lava flows).
6. NPS Interactive Map Center (IMC) Base maps and park brochure maps for geographic reference and navigation to and within parks.   Maps are also available from the National Park Service Maps site.
7. National Parks Geology 3D and photographic tours that feature park geology and natural history from the U.S. Geological Survey.
8. National Parks Service Jobs Permanent, temporary and seasonal positions.
9. NPS Volunteer Opportunities Search for positions throughout the National Parks (use ‘National Park’ for the keywords).
10. Junior Ranger Program Complete a series of activities during a park visit, share answers with a park ranger, and receive an official Junior Ranger badge and certificate. Or become a Web Ranger through the online program for kids of all ages.
11. ‘Share the Experience’ Photo Contest Official federal recreation lands photo contest. For inspiration, view the NPS historic photo collection.
12. News and Commentary A multimedia blend of news, feature content, debate, and discussion tied to America’s national parks.
13. Tips for Visiting National Parks Information from the Sierra Club on fees, lodging, gear, activities and avoiding crowds.
14. National Parks by the Numbers NPS stats, workbooks to estimate the economic impact of NPS visitor spending, and acreage reports. Also see NPS Quick Facts.

“It is an incalculable added pleasure to any one’s sum of happiness if he or she grows to know, even slightly and imperfectly, how to read and enjoy the wonder-book of nature.”  Theodore Roosevelt

Other Resources

Dad fishing near Rocky Mountain National Park

Theodore Roosevelt quotes from the NPS
National Parks Foundation
On Twitter:
National Parks News @NPCA
U.S. Forest Service @forestservice
National Park Foundation @GoParks

©2010 Kinetics. All Rights Reserved.

Kids playing in the Crowne Fountain, Minenium Park, Chicago. Photo courtesy of Kymberly Janisch at Flickr.

Here are seven simple tips (one for every day of the week) to foster happy, healthy kids. A special shout-out to listeners of Radio Disney Philly who caught my interview on the Backyard Show – these are especially for you!

• Lead. By example. You are a role model for your kids. If they see you plop on the couch, they will be inclined to recline as well. If they see you dance around the house, play tug-of-war with the dog, and dig about in the garden, they will be inclined to dance, tug and dig.
• Think. Outside the box. Give a child an expensive gift and they promptly rip it open and…start playing with the gift paper and box. Skip expensive toys and break out the pans, wooden utensils, brooms, and pails. It’s often said the best toys are 10% creation and 90% imagination.
• Watch & Listen. What do your children enjoy doing? What activities do they talk about doing? (Ask them.) Encourage those activities and build on them.
• Share. What are your favorite childhood memories of play? Share them with your family and then break out the Slip ‘n Slide or hula-hoop, or break out the chalk for a game of hopscotch (great for balance for kids and adults).
• Sculpt. By providing your children with opportunities to move and create, you are sculpting their brains. Play fosters new neural connections and prunes existing ones. As kids sculpt play-doh and sand castles, they sculpt their futures.
• Meet. Safety is one of the major reasons parents are hesitant to let their children play outside. Organize a play-date that really is about play.
• Create. Opportunities. Don’t over-schedule your children or yourself. Leave open little windows of time – even if only for ten minutes – just to goof off and move around. Any activity is much, much better than nothing.

Resources especially for parents
These are just a few of the numerous available resources (several of these are also on the 100+ Top Play Resources list).  Feel free to add more of your favorites below.

• Active Kids Club
• Childhood Obesity (American College of Sports Medicine) (pdf)
  
• Free-Range Kids
• Geocaching
• Green Hour (National Wildlife Federation)
• Let Kids Play!!
• Let’s Go Outside! (U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service)
• Media-Smart Youth: Eat, Think, and Be Active (National Institutes of Health)
• Peaceable Playgrounds
• Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans (DHHS)
• Playborhood
• Play Everything
• Play Outdoors: The Campfire
• Safe Routes (National Center for Safe Routes to School)
• We Can! (Ways to Enhance Children’s Activity & Nutrition, National Institutes of Health)
• Wild Zones

Related posts on play:

• The definition of play (courtesy of Tiger Woods)
• Michael O’Shea, Parade Fitness Editor, on Play
• Nanci Hellmich from USA Today on Retro Play
• Tired of the treadmill? Get out and play instead

©2010 Kinetics. All Rights Reserved.

‘Basketball’ courtesy of Hakan Dahlstrom on Flickr

“For years when I got in an exercise rut and got bored or tired of my workouts I would always take time off from my normal workouts and play basketball. I would get a ball and go shoot like when I was a kid. I would find myself playing, sweating, and not counting the minutes.”

Those are the words of Michael O’Shea, Ph.D., Fellow of the American College of Sports Medicine (FACSM). Mike is Fitness Editor for Parade Magazine, and author of the magazine’s extremely popular Get Fit Now column.

Mike is a tireless advocate for physical activity for individuals of all ages and stages, and he recently interviewed me about the importance of play. We had a great chat and he shared his memories of play, as well as his current play activities.

“I play with my two youngest, ages five and seven. We go to the pool, go on long walks, climb trees, and go to the playground. My 5-year-old daughter and I take her rabbit for walks. She even has a leash for her rabbit, and my job is to look out for big dogs that might hurt LuLu.”

In his column on play, Make Fitness Fun, Mike reminds us, “Don’t let kids have all the fun this summer. Getting in shape doesn’t always have to feel like work. If you’re doing something you enjoy, you’ll feel more energized and engaged.”  Great words from someone who leads by example.

To get ideas on play programs, activities, events, and resources, see 100+ Top Play Resources.

©2010 Kinetics. All Rights Reserved.

'Just Rome' courtesy of Pensiero at Flickr

There’s growing recognition that play is not just, well, child’s play. Mounting evidence shows play has a crucial role in cognitive, physiological, behavioral and social development and adaptation at all ages and stages of life.

In essence, we need to take play seriously. Play has been recognized as a right of every child by the United Nations High Commission for Human Rights. It is also the right of teens, adults and seniors. As we learn more about the benefits of play, it’s apparent it belongs in living rooms and boardrooms, and in sand lots and parking lots – any place there’s room to move. Play sculpts our brains, our bodies, our relationships, and our future.

Below is a wide ranging – but by no means exhaustive – list of play resources that includes organizations, resources, guidelines and reports, current news stories, books, audio and video, e-newsletters, blogs, twitter hashtags, programs, locations, and events.

Many of these sites offer extensive resource lists and news feeds of their own that integrate the fields of education, urban design, transportation, the environment, physical activity, sports, nutrition, and obesity. While the list focuses on more recent resources that mainly center on play, there are many, many outstanding resources I’ve overlooked. Please feel free to add them in the comment section…on your way out the door to play.

Play: Organizations (alphabetical)

• Alliance for Childhood
• Alliance for Childhood (UK) New!
• Association of Children’s Museums
• Boundless Playgrounds
• Children and Nature Alliance (Canada)
• Children and Nature Network (C&NN)
• Common Good: The Value of Play
• Fair Play For Children (U.K.)
• Free Play Network (U.K.)
• Imagination Playground
• International Playground Equipment Manufacturers Association (IPEMA)
• International Play Association (IPA)
• KaBOOM!
• National Institute for Play
• National Program for Playground Safety
• National Recreation and Park Association (NRPA)
• Partnership for Play Every Day
• PlayBoard (Northern Ireland)
• Play England
• Play For Peace
• Play Matters! New!
• Play Shaper New!
• Play Wales
• Playwork Partnerships
• Project For Public Spaces
• Shane’s Inspiration
• The Association for the Study of Play (TASP)
• U.S. Play Coalition New!

Play: Resources (alphabetical)

• Active Healthy Kids Canada
• Active Living Resource Center (ALRC)
• Adventure Playgrounds
• American Journal of Play
• Atlanta Taskforce on Play New!
• Eat Smart. Play Hard. USDA
• Kids Outdoors (U.K.)
• Lemelson Center for the Study of Invention and Innovation: Invention at Play
• Let’s Go Outside! U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service
• London Play
• National Association for Sport and Physical Education (NASPE)
• National Center for Bicycling & Walking (NCBW)
• National Coalition for Promoting Physical Activity (NCPPA)
• Natural Learning Initiative
• Outdoors: The Ultimate Playground (Toronto, Canada)
• Playground Magazine
• PlayPumps International
• Playworks (formerly Sports4Kids)
• Safe Routes
• Streetplay
• Trust for Public Lands
• Voice of Play
• Wild Zones
• YMCA of the USA

Play: Guidelines & Reports (most recent first)

• The Loss of Children’s Play: A Public Health Issue. Alliance for Childhood, Policy Brief 1, November, 2009. (pdf) New!
• Restoring Play and Playful Learning to U.S. Kindergartens. Alliance for Childhood, Policy Brief 2, November, 2009. (pdf) New!
• Children’s Nature Deficit: What We Know – and Don’t Know. Cheryl Charles, Richard Louv, Children and Nature Network, September, 2009. (pdf) New!
• The Playwork Primer, Penny Wilson, in conjunction with The Alliance for Childhood. April, 2009. (pdf) New!
• F as in Fat 2009. How obesity policies are failing in America. Trust for America’s Health, July, 2009.
• The built environment: Designing communities to promote physical activity in children. Pediatrics. Vol. 123 No. 6 June 2009, pgs 1591-1598. (Policy statement by the American Academy of Pediatrics)
• What is playwork? Fact sheet No. 14. Frazer Brown, June, 2009. The Children’s Play Information Service. (pdf)
• Creating & retrofitting play environments: best practice guidelines. PlayCore, Inc. and Natural Learning Initiative, 2009.
• Crisis in the kindergarten: why children need to play in school. Alliance for Childhood, March 2009. (pdf)
• Managing Risk in Play Provision: Implementation guide. Guide commissioned by Play England. David Ball, Tim Gill and Bernard Spiegal, The Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) and the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS), December 2008.  (pdf) New!
• The Play Strategy. Department for Children, Schools and Families, U.K., December, 2008.  New!
• 2008 Physical activity guidelines for Americans. U.S. Dept. of Health & Human Services, Oct 2008.
• Time out: Is recess in danger? Patte Barth, The Center for Public Education, August 2008.
• Design for Play – A guide to creating successful play spaces. Guide commissioned by Play England. Aileen Shackell, Nicola Butler, Phil Doyle, David Ball, The Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) and the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS), August 2008. New!
• The VERB campaign. Not about health, all about fun: marketing physical activity to children. American Journal of Preventive Medicine. Vol 34, Issue 6, Supplement, June 2008.
• Call to activity: getting kids moving in the great outdoors. President’s Council on Physical Fitness & Sports, DHHS, February, 2008. (pdf)
• Recess Rules. Why the undervalued playtime may be America’s best investment for healthy kids and healthy schools. Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, 2007. (pdf)
• Building “Generation Play”: Addressing the crisis of inactivity among America’s children. A report by Stanford University, February, 2007. Stanford Prevention Research Center, Stanford University School of Medicine. (pdf)
• The importance of play in promoting healthy child development and maintaining strong parent-child bonds. Pediatrics vol 119, No. 1, Jan 2007. Clinical report from the American Academy of Pediatrics. (pdf)
• The trouble with 21st Century Kids. A special report by SPI Play in association with Peter Smith and Rachel Biggins. Richard Emmott Marketing Ltd, 2006. (pdf) New!
• A Guide to the ADA accessibility guidelines for play areas. U.S. Access Board, Oct 2005.

Play: Current News Stories (most recent first)

• In summer, kids need real play time. Nanci Hellmich, USA Today, June 24, 2009.
• 10 reasons play can make you healthy, happy, and more productive. Nancy Shute, U.S. News and World Report, March 9, 2009.
• Deskercise: Staying jazzed and focused at school. Allison Aubrey, NPR, Morning Edition, February 26, 2009.
• The serious need for play. Melinda Wenner, Scientific American, January 2009.
• The new playground: bye, jungle gym. Kathleen Kingsbury, Time, Jan. 28, 2009.
• Old-fashioned play builds serious skills. Alex Spiegel, NPR, Morning Edition, February 21, 2008.
• Taking play seriously. Robin Marantz Henig, The New York Times (magazine), Feb 17, 2008.
• No outdoor play ‘hurts children.’ BBC News, September 10, 2007.
• Putting the skinned knees back into playtime. Alex Williams, The New York Times, May 20, 2007.
• A classroom of monkey bars and slides. Jane E. Brody, The New York Times, April 3, 2007.

Play: Books (alphabetical order)

• The ambiguity of play. Brian Sutton-Smith, Harvard University Press, 2001.
• Children at play: an American history . Howard Chudacoff, NYU Press, 2007.
• The dangerous book for boys. Conn Iggulden and Hal Iggulden, William Morrow, 2007.
• The daring book for girls. Andrea J. Buchanan and Miriam Peskowitz, William Morrow, 2007.
• Exuberant animal: the power of health, play and joyful movement. Frank Forencich, AuthorHouse, 2006.
• The genesis of animal play: testing the limits. Gordon Burghardt, The MIT Press, 2005.
• The genius of play: Celebrating the spirit of childhood. Sally Jenkinson, Hawthorn Press Ltd, 2001. New!
• Homo Ludens – A study of the play element in culture. Johan Huizinga, Beacon Press, 1971.
• Last child in the woods: saving our children from nature-deficit disorder. Richard Louv, Algonquin Books, 2008.
• Play = learning: how play motivates and enhances children’s cognitive and social-emotional growth. Dorothy G. Singer, Roberta Michnick Golinkoff, Kathy Hirsh-Pasek (eds). Oxford University Press, 2006.
• Play as if your life depends on it: functional exercise and living for Homo sapiens. Frank Forencich, Go Animal, 2003.
• Play. How it shapes the brain, opens the imagination, and invigorates the soul. Stuart Brown, with Christopher Vaughan. Avery, New York, 2009.
• Playing and learning outdoors: Making provision for high quality experiences in the outdoor environment. Jan White, Routledge, 2007. New!
• Play reconsidered: sociological perspectives on human expression. Thomas S. Henricks, University of Illinois Press, 2006.
• The power of play. David Elkind, Da Capo Press, 2007.
• Under the sky: Playing, working and enjoying adventures in the open air – a handbook for parents, carers and teachers. Sally Schweizer, Rudolf Steiner Press, April 2009. New!

Play: Audio & videos (Most recent first)

• Jill Vialet, Living in Communities: Now Press Play. TEDx SF, November, 2009.  New!
• Videos from The Summit on the Value of Play, June 2009.  New!
• The science of play. Radiolab, WNYC, May 30, 2008.
• Stuart Brown: Play is more than fun. TED talk, May 2008 from the 2008 Serious Play conference.
• Tim Brown: Creativity and play. TED talk, May 2008 from the 2008 Serious Play conference.
• Playgrounds for the elderly. ABC news, March 18, 2008.
• Where do the children play? Documentary, Michigan Television, 2008.
• Gever Tulley: 5 dangerous things for kids. TED talk, March 2007.
• Adventure playgrounds’ a dying breed in the U.S. Kristin Wiederholt, NPR, Day to Day, March 9, 2006.

Playful popular videos

• Dolphin play bubble rings, chiajungchi New!
• Piano Staircase, Thefuntheory.com New!
• Polar bears and dogs playing, FirstScience TV New!
• Sesame Street: Outdoors with Jason Mraz New!
• The Elk Dance, QuietBuck (originally from David Neils) New!
  
• Where Do The Children Play, muppetmeatloaf New!
• Your ball needs you, Let’s Move New!
  

Play: e-Newsletters (alphabetical order)

• Centerlines (National Center for Bicycling & Walking)
• Green Hour (National Wildlife Federation)
• National Coalition for Promoting Physical Activity (NCPPA) News
• NCPPA Activity Advocate
• Parks and Recreation Weekly News Brief (NRPA)
• P.E.4LIFE Newsletter
• Prevention Research Center Notes (University of South Carolina)

Play: Blogs (alphabetical)

• Active Kids Club
• Creative Play Plus
• Eco Child’s Play New!
• Experimental Play New!
• Free-Range Kids
• The Grass Stain Guru
• Green Hour (NWF)
• KaBOOM! Blog
• Let Kids Play!!
• Let the children play New!
• Parklover New!
• Peaceful Playgrounds
• Peekabooplay
• PhD in Parenting (see Carnival of Play posts)
• Play Activities New!
• Playborhood
• Play Everything
• Playground Chronicles New!
• PlayGroundology New!
• Play Outdoors: The Campfire
• Play Parks Central: Play, Pretend, Play
• Playscapes
• Playward
• Your Wild Child
• What’s out there? New!

Play: Twitter http://twitter.com/
Hashtags  #play  #playoutdoors  #parks
(These streams are a great way to find play-centric individuals and organizations to follow)

Play: Programs (alphabetical order)

• Boston Schoolyard Initiative
• Empower Me New!
• Green Hour, National Wildlife Federation
• Let’s Just Play, Nickelodeon
• Let’s Move! New!
• New York City Playgrounds Program, The Trust for Public Land
• National Recess Week, Cartoon Network
• Out2Play
• Project Adventure, Peaceable Playgrounds
• The Fun Fed New!
• We Can! Ways to Enhance Children’s Activity & Nutrition, National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, National Institutes of Health
• YMCA Healthy Kids Day

Play: Locations

• City Museum (Saint Louis, MO)
• KaBoom! Find a play space in the U.S.
• NJ Playgrounds New!
• North San Diego County Playgrounds New!
• Playground Chronicles: Greater Halifax, Nova Scotia playground spaces New!
• Playground finder: Australia
• Strong National Museum of Play (Rochester, NY)
• Swings and Roundabouts: playground reviews in Victoria and Vancouver, Canada New!

Play: Events (alphabetical order)

• Come Out and Play Festival (NYC)
• London Play: Street Play
• World Wide Day of Play, Nickelodeon
• Sunday Streets: San Francisco
• Take a Child Outside Week

Related posts on play

• The definition of play (courtesy of Tiger Woods)
• Nanci Hellmich from USA Today on Retro Play
• Tired of the treadmill? Get out and play instead

Note: I have bookmarked all these resources on the social bookmarking site Del.icio.us at http://delicious.com/ctorgan/

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