{"id":51,"date":"2019-03-30T16:05:02","date_gmt":"2019-03-30T16:05:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/spiralenergy.climateactionchildhood.net\/?p=51"},"modified":"2019-03-30T16:06:18","modified_gmt":"2019-03-30T16:06:18","slug":"visiting-springbank","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spiralenergy.climateactionchildhood.net\/index.php\/2019\/03\/30\/visiting-springbank\/","title":{"rendered":"Visiting Springbank"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By John Drew<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today\nI visited Springbank centre and had the opportunity to join the preschoolers\nwith their walk to the cemetery.  I felt very welcomed by everyone and made\nto feel very comfortable even though it was my first fully involved visit to\nthe preschool room.  I have been visiting the St. John centre regularly\nand it was very interesting to observe how the divergent outdoor spatial\ndynamics of these two sites impact the experiences of both the children and\neducators.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

St.\nJohn centre is nestled in a new and quickly developing suburban enclave. \nThe road traffic is minimal and the school in which it is located backs into a\nsmall forest.  At St. John, the forest is the primary destination for\noutdoor visits and it is easily accessible.  At Springbank, the outdoor\ndestination is of course the cemetery on the other side of the busy main\nstretch of Springbank Road. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As we\nbegan our walk to the cemetery, the contrast between the Springbank\u2019s urban\nsurroundings and St. John\u2019s suburban environment became most apparent. \nWhen we crossed the street and walked along the north side of Springbank Road I\nexperienced the tension of navigating the preschoolers, hand in hand, safely\nalong the street to our destination.  The looming London skyline, visible\nfrom our eastbound vantage point, further reinforced the impression of urban\nclamour.  In contrast, for the children and educators, the walk was a more\nroutine encounter with a familiar environment, one to which alert but not\nintimidated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the\ncemetery the dynamics changed considerably.  Once we arrived at this\nfairly contained environment (a large portion of park-like field adjacent to\nthe grave sites) the children were able to run and play throughout this fielded\narea.  This experience marked another difference from the forest\nexperience at St. John.  The trees and the rough, uneven ground of the St.\nJohn forest prevent the preschoolers from doing much running.  We are also\nconcerned with losing sight of children if they venture much beyond the group\nas you can easily lose sight of them among the trees.  In the cemetery\nfield, there are no such issues with sightlines and the preschoolers are able\nto venture out so long as they respect the boundaries.  This openness was\nespecially impressed upon me when some of the kids asked me to play tag with\nthem.  As I ran with the preschoolers on the field (and maneuvering around\na few of the isolated trees) I realized that the only time I\u2019ve run with the\nchildren is on the way back from the forest (when we are safely on school\ngrounds). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

 Of\ncourse, the cemetery was formally known in the preschool room as the \u201cdeer\npark\u201d because of the many deer sightings and encounters.  I was informed that\nno deer had been sighted in six weeks and today we were no luckier in spotting\ndeer, but the experience was no less eventful.  Perhaps I will be apart of\ndeer encounters in the future.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By John Drew Today I visited Springbank centre and had the opportunity to join the preschoolers with their walk to the cemetery.  I felt very welcomed by everyone and made to feel very comfortable even though it was my first fully involved visit to the preschool room.  I have been visiting the St. John centre … Continue reading “Visiting Springbank”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-51","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/spiralenergy.climateactionchildhood.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/spiralenergy.climateactionchildhood.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/spiralenergy.climateactionchildhood.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spiralenergy.climateactionchildhood.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spiralenergy.climateactionchildhood.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=51"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/spiralenergy.climateactionchildhood.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":55,"href":"https:\/\/spiralenergy.climateactionchildhood.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51\/revisions\/55"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/spiralenergy.climateactionchildhood.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=51"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spiralenergy.climateactionchildhood.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=51"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spiralenergy.climateactionchildhood.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=51"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}