Over the past few years, studies of children's environments have increasingly recognized the variation in children's experiences in shaping their learning, social development, and play (Holloway and Valentine, 2000; Matthews et al., 2000a; Matthews et al., 2000b; Punch, 2000). These studies remind us that children who grow up within a particular physical environment will not all share the same experiences or emotional responses to a place. Punch (2000) emphasizes that children themselves play a significant role in shaping their own experiences even within similar physical and social environments. With the recognition that children shape their own place experiences has come a growing number of studies with children in urban environments (Berg and Medrich, 1980; Katz, 1993; Kong, 2000; Lynch, 1997; Moore, 1986; Ward, 1978), rural environments (Derr, 2001; Hart, 1979; Jones, 2000; Matthews et al., 2000a; Nabhan and St Antoine, 1993; Punch, 2000; Sobel, 1993; Ward, 1990), and within a variety of cultural contexts (Beazley, 2000; Derr, 2001; Katz, 1993; Kong, 2000; Matthews, 1995; Punch, 2000; Robson, 1996). As this body of literature continues to grow, some trends emerge as to the importance of these places in children's development. In this chapter I develop these trends through a framework that emerged from my own research with children, aged nine to eleven, living in rural and urban towns of northern New Mexico in the United States.