I attended the advance screening of the Neighbourhood Backyards Documentary.
Neighbourhood Backyards follows the real-world experiment of giving kids a local communal space and getting out of the way – and asks what happens to our communities when kids, not adults, are given the freedom to lead.
This hour-long documentary solves a problem for me.
I’m looking to create a loose-parts playground for my grandson and the other children/grandchildren on our street. When I speak to other local parents/grandparents, the concept of unstructured play throws them a bit. Even though they nod along, I can see they don’t really get it. Now they can ‘see’ it.
That’s the power of this film.
You see kids choose play over screens. You see kids sort problems without adults. You see adults change their opinion towards the perceived problems of giving kids autonomy over their decisions. You see how kids respond to the freedom to make their own choices.
Check it out here.
https://www.australianinstituteofplay.org/neighbourhoodbackyarddoco
Like me, if you want to start your own smaller-scale version, start here.
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