At today's workshop at Compass Point Children's Centre, parents spent some time thinking about their own childhood 'patch' and their freedom to roam and play - which they all had. When asked about what they had gained from this experience they produced this list in around 7 minutes:

Resourcefulness
Sense of self
Pushing limits
Resilience - self-reliance
Road-sense
Common sense
Fun
Sense of freedom
Friendships, including mixed ages
Learning to look after each other
Awareness of dangers - who not to speak to (street-wise-ness?)
Being outside - experiencing weather
Adventure
Interacting with local environment (city or countryside)
Interactions with people in community
Being physically active
Learning to organise yourselves as a group
Belonging to a group/gang
Feeling of being trusted/responsible
Sense of community
Awareness of other people (outward-looking)
Being in the moment
Experiencing 'real life'
Using imagination
Creativity
Sense of 'your place/patch'
Connecting with nature

They could have gone on longer.....and that's just the benefits for the child! All agreed that their own children were missing out on a lot of this and that the main reasons were traffic-dominated streets and the fact that outdoor independent play is no longer 'normal'. Playing Out feels like a drop in the ocean faced with these obstacles - but the list above should be enough to convince anyone that we need to start trying to turn the tide!

A blog piece from Alice:

A post from a member of our Facebook group, reflecting on how far to let her 6-year-old wander when playing out on the street, has got me thinking about limit-setting. It's a pertinant question for parents wanting to start allowing their children a bit more freedom and one with no clear-cut answers. But it's also very much part of what playing out in the general sense is about - some would say it's the difference between good liberal parenting and neglect! When we run workshops with adults, 'learning boundaries' repeatedly comes up as one of the many benefits of their own experience of independent play as children (I'll list the others here some other time - but sure you know them already). Sometimes this meant that they learnt to abide by or push the boundaries set by their parents or other adults and sometimes that they had to learn to set their own boundaries - although even those who were 'out all day' still knew to come back home when it got dark, or in time for tea. So, whose job is it to set those boundaries? The parent? The child? Does it detract from the child's learning to have boundaries set too tightly?

There's a 4-year age gap between my kids, so I've had to set individual boundaries for each of them and try to relax them according to each of their needs/abilities, whilst also factoring in external/physical boundaries (e.g. main roads, crossings) and cultural norms and expectations AND allowing them a certain amount of leeway to make their own decisions - phew, not easy! I'm sure parenting never used to be this complicated, but that's another blog topic for another day. There are times when I've allowed them to do something slightly beyond 'the norm' (e.g. My 10-year old taking my 6-year old shopping) then immediately doubted my own judgement. Often, I've been rewarded by their exhilaration at having taken another succesful step towards independence. Sometimes, I'm surprised to find I'm less liberal than other parents. For example, having considered myself somewhat towards the more risk-tolerant end of the parenting scale (a nod to Tim Gill here), I suddenly discover that many of my daughter's male classmates have been allowed to go to the park independently for ages when I'd been holding back.

In some ways, I think all this is where the Playing Out model comes from, both for Amy and me and for the other parents taking up the idea. We all want to allow our kids greater freedom but also feel the need to work towards a safer, more supportive environment for that to happen i.e. one less car-dominated and more community-orientated. We are avid followers of Leonie Skenazy's brilliant Free Range Kids blog and believe in the strength of being part of a movement (parent power!), but also feel there are some genuine barriers 'out there' that need addressing before the majority of parents will feel comfortable letting their kids play out. I was just a little bit irked at a recent conference by the statement that "Mothers are to blame for children's inactivity". The onus for kids having a better quality of life can't be put on parents alone - we're all in this together!

I have been reading a local history book called "A Small Corner of Bristol", about a triangle of residential streets nearby, based on interviews with residents who have lived in the area for many years. A whole chapter is devoted to play and includes some interesting insights into how limits were set when street play was 'normal'. One resident remembers a particular boundary being set not by his parents but by another neighbour who was sensitive to noise. I love this, because although on the surface it sounds like a neighbour being grumpy, it's also the flip-side to having a neighbourhood where people know and look out for each other:

"We were roller skating in the street. It was metal wheels in those days and it used to clank across the street. We could come down as far as number 30 and no further and that was it. If we ventured any further, oh that was trouble!"

Also interesting to note was that, even in the 1930s, parents deemed some streets too busy with traffic for play. However, other 'wild spaces' (ref. Bob Hughes) were found: "We were lucky because we had the lanes. We could use those for hiding, so hide and seek and stuff like that was always going on using the lanes as a sort of shelter."

But let's not get too nostalgic. Although undoubtably this playing out culture has diminished in those streets over the decades, it's not dead. Those lanes are now fenced in for security but they are still used for play and, guess what...one of the streets in the book is about to start monthly playing out sessions and hopefully re-ignite that culture. Who knows, maybe now they'll even be allowed to skate past number 30!

To support Bristol's new 'Temporary Play Street Order', we will be running workshops aimed at parents/residents who are interested in doing playing out sessions on their street. Dates so far:

Monday 26th March, 9-10.30am, St Anne's Park Children's Centre, St Anne's.

Tuesday 27th March, 9-10.30am, Hillcrest Primary School, Knowle.

Wednesday 18th April, 9-10.30am, Compass Point Children's Centre, Bedminster.

Friday 20th April, 9.30-11.30, St Werburgh's City Farm, St Werburgh's.

Tea and coffee will be available and children/babies are welcome to come along.

If you are interested but can't get to any of these, we may well be able to come and give a workshop near you, or give you individual support. Contact alice@playingout.net with any queries.

During March and April, we'll be running a series of free workshops in schools and community centres around Bristol, to get you up and running for playing out in the summer - further details to follow...

Well, no sooner do we have the car drivers on board and (mostly) happily complying to the Playing Out conditions of being walked to a parking space, than the cyclists suddenly seem to take over the role of road-dominators! Not all of them, I hasten to add: many are as considerate as you would expect, stopping to find out what’s going on, slowing right down or dismounting to go safely through a street filled with kids. But a significant number at today's Playing Out certainly did not seem to think the road closure applied to them, nor – more worryingly – did they react or reduce their speed to take account of the fact there were small children in the road. One man, in particular, must have been doing about 30mph and treated the children as though they were a slalom course, ignoring the shouts of stewards and parents. Thankfully, there were no collisions, but having taken quite a liberal approach to bikes coming through the road closure until now, we cannot take this risk again and from next week will have a full barrier across the road so cyclists have to stop and dismount, as they strictly should in accordance with the ‘Town Police Clauses Act 1847’ that is used for road closures in Bristol.

I feel sad about it, as had assumed cyclists were a pretty aware bunch and “on our side”, but it seems that mode of transport is not necessarily an indicator of sensitivity. In fact, some cyclists seem to be suffering exactly the kind of disconnect from their surroundings that we normally associate with being behind a windscreen. Perhaps this is a form of defence that has developed in response to having to compete with bigger, faster, heavier, hurtier forms of transport. I know, as a cyclist myself, that you have to put yourself inside a mental force-field at times (á la Violet from The Incredibles) to anaesthetise your own vulnerability and behave as though equal to the ten-tonne trucks. It is unfortunate if one effect of such chutzpah is to make cyclists themselves insensitive to those in turn more vulnerable – bikes can be pretty hurty objects too, especially travelling at speed with a hefty passenger on board. I dread to think what would have happened if a child had stepped out from between parked cars as this 2-wheeled menace today was hurtling down the street in his protective bubble. I will do my best to make sure we never find out.

There was much to delight in yesterday afternoon at the first monthly session on another Bristol street. Older kids hanging out and playing swingball (excuse the photo quality - taken on my mobile!),

younger ones (boys and girls) running a 'beauty parlour' from a front garden,

neighbours of various ages and stages of life sharing stewarding and stories,

lots of free-wheeling down the long, steep hill, then running back to the top for more. I counted around 50 children at one point, so there will have been more than that coming and going over the course of the 2-hour road closure. Adults were mostly hanging back around front gardens and doorsteps, or in and out of their houses. Perhaps best of all, for a street that has had its share of detractors about the whole idea, was the general support and understanding from residents when it came to car access. One resident, stewarding for the first time, told me he was pleasantly surprised that positive comments from passers-by had "outweighed the negative ones". All in all a very good one - with many more ahead!

The first ever ‘Playing Out’ session, on Greville Road in Bristol, was held on International Children’s Day 2009. The idea was to raise awareness about children’s need and right to play outside in and on their own street, and to highlight some of the barriers to this being a normal, everyday part of life – in particular cars and traffic.

This one-off event sparked a renewed interest in the possibility of street play and brought neighbours and parents together to start talking about how to enable children to play out together regularly and safely. Since then, the Playing Out project has helped over 20 streets, in Bristol and beyond, to organise their own play sessions, some of whom are now doing this as on a weekly or monthly basis.

For International Children’s Day 2012, we are encouraging anyone interested in children’s right to play outside to host a one-off Playing Out session on their own street. It is not as much work as a street party and doesn’t have to involve the whole street (although it’s great if it does!) – all that’s required is sufficient support from your neighbours and permission from the council to close the road to through traffic for just 2 hours after school. You don’t need to supply any food, games or equipment – free, child-led play is encouraged!

We've got all sorts of resources to help guide you through the process, from holding an initial meeting for neighbours, applying for a road closure, publicising the event and organising signage and stewarding (see Instructions and Helpful Things).

If you are lucky enough to live in Bristol(!), you can apply for ongoing, regular sessions under the ‘Temporary Play Street’ scheme – some other councils also allow repeat applications. But just one session can have an amazing impact, bringing both kids and adults together and giving everyone a chance to see their street in a new light – as a liveable, playable space – and perhaps inspiring further action to make this happen.

In order to give the statutory 6-weeks notice for road closure that most councils require, applications will need to be made by 20^th April, so if you are keen you’ll need to get cracking and talking to neighbours before the Easter holidays!

 If you have any questions or need help getting started, please contact alice@playingout.net or phone 07896 957141.

We've put in a bulk order for more of these kits (Road Closed banner and wheelie-bin stickers), which is the simplest/cheapest safe and legal option for closing the road that we can think of (please let us know if you have any other ideas!). First 10 streets in Bristol who apply for regular playing out sessions under the Temporary Play Street scheme get them for free! Thereafter there may have to be some sharing....

If you are outside Bristol and want to order the stickers from us, please email alice@playingout.net for details.The banners can be ordered directly from http://www.thebannerhub.co.uk/streetparty.php.

So, everyone, this is the perfect time to start thinking about doing a playing out session (or several) over the summer. If you put out a 'Neighbour Meeting Invitation' (http://playingout.net/instructions-and-helpful-things/print-outs-and-posters/) in the next couple of weeks, you could get your road closure application in by the end of March and be playing out by Mid-May! Get in touch with me directly if you want any help: alice@playingout.net.