Rusty Keeler

Adventures in Risky Play: What is Your Yes? goes to the heart of children's risky play. As educators working with young children, we all have boundaries and feelings around what risky play is allowed. Rusty Keeler encourages you to realize that much of what feels risky to a child is not necessarily truly dangerous. When we as educators and caretakers examine our relationship with risk, observe carefully and allow children to play and confront risk on their own terms, we see them develop, hold their locus of control and make choices on how to navigate the bumpy terrain of a situation. What better teaching tool for life is there?

Recent research has drawn the link between children's brain development and time spent in the natural environment. Every child deserves a safe play to play, supportive adults to watch him grow, and an environment that offers her endless possibilities. In Seasons of Play, Rusty Keeler takes readers on a photographic journey through real child care centers that have embraced his philosophy that natural play environments create new opportunities for children to explore and grow. Seasons of Play promotes play among natural elements. Using the author's own photos, the book illustrates how to design natural play environments that encourage exploration and creativity in all seasons of the year. Keeler's own drawings complement the photos with renderings of how the play spaces were designed. Interviews with center directors add a personal touch to how the spaces improve learning at the centers. Seasons of Play has won the Creative Child Magazine, 2017 Preferred Choice Award.