Jane Ji had a resolution to be a contributor to our blog this year. We think it is only perfect that she launches her blog career with an article for Earth Day.
Jane is the president of Springbay Studio Ltd, and the creator of the award-winning app iBiome-Wetland.
Earth Day 2015!
We hear about Earth Day for weeks in advance. April 22 – Today’s the day! All around the world, students are doing “something” to commemorate this day. Earth Day is more than just a one-day “school project.” We live on earth. So isn’t every day Earth day?
Our children spend more hours at home than at school, so Earth Day should have a family component, too. It starts with disconnecting our kids – and ourselves – from technology. It isn’t just our kids’ playtime that’s moved indoors, ours has too. With all that focus on our screens (big and small) we have probably lost track of just how little time we spend outdoors.
Not that long ago, I came across A Child Inside, an article by George Monbiot. His article brought focus on something we probably don’t think about: concrete! Like those ubiquitous screens, concrete is everywhere. Mr. Monbiot observed that we, the adults, tend to build our houses and communities surrounded by concrete.
Paved communities are built for cars and bicycles. What isn’t paved is probably a small park with an artificial playground. For a myriad of reasons, it seems there is little space left over for green ground. In her book Kith, Jay Griffiths describes it this way.
Today’s children are enclosed in school and home, enclosed in cars to shuttle between them, enclosed by fear, by surveillance and poverty and enclosed in rigid schedules of time.
In the crazy-busy world we live in – on Earth Day and everyday – structure can be helpful. Yet structure can also be limiting and separate us from the rest of the world.
What we’re learning – and hearing about more and more – is just how important unscheduled or unstructured activities are. As parents and caregivers, we can introduce our children to the unstructured outdoor experiences that we loved as kids
- turning over a dead log or rock to see what’s underneath;
- raking the mud looking for insects;
- following the sound of a frog to see if they can catch it.
You get the idea. It is through these kinds of activities that we help our children fully embrace what Earth Day is all about. [Not to mention create really fabulous memories of being together!]
Earth Day can be any day, not just a specially marked spot on the calendar. Give them the chance to experience nature on their own terms and in their own way. Let those connections nurture their love of the earth and the beauty that surrounds them.
Happy Earth Day to all of us.
@ Jane Ji
Jane Ji is the co-founder of Springbay Studio Ltd., a company committed to making educational games to help children appreciate and understand the beauty of the natural world that surrounds them. Jane focuses her decades of game design expertise on creating fun learning experience. As the executive producer for all games from Springbay Studio, Jane contributes her passion on nature and skills in game design to highly engaging and successful educational games.
As a mother who wants to pass her love of nature to all kids, Jane wants to create a game that will help our kids understand and appreciate nature through teaching simple biological concepts such as food webs and habitats. She envisions children experiencing and learning about the beauty of nature through a virtual journey at their fingertips. That’s how iBiome-Wetland was born.
Connect with Jane and Springbay Studio on Social Media
@ iBiome-Wetland
With Professor Bio as your guide, we invite kids come explore the wetland habitat and all the amazing species within. Build unique bio domes from scratch and interact with their fascinating food webs through immersive game play. Use what you learn to make your bio domes flourish with life.
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