Rustics Jungle Gyms supplies outdoor play equipment designed and manufactured for the South African environment |
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Welcome to our latest newsletter. We continue to tell you how important it is for children to get outside and get moving - in this issue we feature an abstract from an article in the latest issue of Playground Professionals which endorses this viewpoint. We also share the story of our relationship with The Samara Foundation, which supports the development of Early Childhood Development centres in rural Eastern Cape. We hope you enjoy this edition. Happy Reading! |
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Movement helps kids keep still! Does your child have a behavioural issue or simply a need to move to learn about his body? |
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Teachers and parents are seeing kids who tire more easily than ever, have less strength than they have ever had, and wiggle and squirm more than ever. Their brains are searching out information to feed a developmental need to understand what their bodies are doing. Movement is what teaches children about their bodies - where their bodies end and begin, how to manipulate them, how to move them with control. Movement builds strength and coordination, teaching kids how the various parts of the body work together. All of this movement-based information about their bodies is the foundation necessary for other learning.
Movement builds: - core strength necessary to sit upright in a chair in school
- grip strength needed to manipulate a pencil successfully
- an understanding of force needed to tag a friend gently and colour without breaking the crayon
- focal point needed for reading
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In other words, without movement and lots of full-body physical play, children are skipping vital strength and skill-building which makes their learning journey harder than it needs to be. |
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Impact of reducing certain types of movement |
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Reduced skipping, swinging, sliding, rolling, hanging upside down and somersaulting Children will fail to develop key neural connections that help them sort and manage all of the information they are taking in all day. If this play is skipped, the brain will become overwhelmed by the data and shut down, or space out. How do these children turn their brain back on? Wiggle, spin, rock and move more. Could this be perceived as a behavioural issue? (For more see Classroom Success Needs a Strong Foundation of Physical Play) |
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Reduced jumping, climbing, pushing and pulling Without practice, children’s brains don’t learn how much force it takes to operate in this world, whether it is to tag a friend in a game without hurting him, squish playdough hard enough to form a shape or put pencil to paper and leave a mark. If this play is skipped, the brain will make the body search out this information another way; by slamming into friends or walls, aggressive hugging or wrestling and lots of movement. Could this be perceived as a behavioural issue? |
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Reduced climbing, skipping and crawling Without these types of exercise, children don’t have an opportunity to forge a conversation between the two halves of the brain necessary for creative, complex, and critical thinking. If this play is skipped, frustration arises with challenges in working out solutions to problems. Could the resulting frustration be perceived as a behavioural issue? |
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Reduced full body play on the playground, in the yard, or in PE class Children build core strength and balance when using their bodies in the playground. Without these skills, it is very hard to sit still at a desk, resulting in a lot of wiggling in an attempt to get comfortable or stay upright. Could this be perceived as a behavioural issue? (For more see Physical Literacy, the Linchpin to Classroom Success and Getting Kids Physical) |
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Samara Foundation and Rustics Jungle Gyms create healthy and stimulating environments for Children in rural Eastern Cape |
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Samara foundation NPC works hand-in-hand with rural early childhood development (ECD) centres in the eastern cape to give young children the environment they need to grow into healthy, socially and emotionally well adapted individuals that are ready for school and life. Working with ECD centres in rural communities, Samara Foundation improves their infrastructure, equips them with resources and ensures that teachers get the support and training they need to run a quality ECD programme. One factor of this support is the creation of safe, healthy & stimulating spaces for children - enter Rustics Jungle Gyms. Since the relationship began at the end of 2018, The Samara Foundation has installed 8 of the Rustics Basic and 2 swings jungle gyms in the Alice, Whittlesea and Dordrecht areas and has a pipeline of several more to come. Louisa Feiter, of the Samara Foundation says, “The ECD teachers have all communicated how happy they have been with the jungle gyms and the thrill on the children’s faces when they first play on the jungle gyms says it all. |
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Whatever your playground requirements, we can help At Rustics Jungle Gyms we have been designing, manufacturing and installing wooden and metal jungle gyms since 2006. Our success is based on: - safety - our outdoor play equipment is built to South African National Standard by-laws
- delivering a quality product at a fair price
- building equipment that will last - our quality and built-in resilience to the harsh South African environment give a longer life span
- honesty, integrity and our willingness to go the extra mile to give you what you want
Don't take our word for it.... read our reviews |
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