Autumn is truly a favourite season of mine, with it brings wonderful walks and adventures in nature searching through fallen leaves for insects, finding nuts and seeds and getting ready to batten down the hatches before the long cold nights that winter will bring. Presently I observe the glorious indecision of leaves desperately trying to decide whether they should 'hold on' or 'leave go'; a reminder of my own crossroad. Writing this coincided with my own transition of being 'at risk' from redundancy and deciding on the next step to take. I am told that the answer to every question can be found in nature, if you take the time to look for it.
Our first attempt at a holiday provision was also the first of its kind attempted (that we are aware of) in South East Wales; 100% free range in nature 'without any walls', just the way we like it!
Giving our provision a name...... it didn't meet the criteria of a Forest School and would intentionaly be very different to the existing play and childcare schemes currently on offer. Not wanting to be too prescriptive or rigid with any one methodology for learning, we simply wanted to focus on engaging children in having as much fun as possible in the forest, allowing them the opportunity to find interest, excitement and enjoyment there.
Deciding on the use of the KISS methodology (Keep It Simple)... the name for our first holiday provision was found 'Fun in the Forest'.
The aim of our scheme was to identify if children would use this scheme and whether parents would send or take their children to a provision delivered entirely in the outdoors.
The programme ran over four Saturday mornings through the school summer break, with sessions benefiting 35 participants experiencing adventure play, den building, wood craft skills, cooking on a campfire, making wild paints and finding adventure in Blaen Bran Community Woodlands (http://www.blaenbran.org.uk).
You may have picked up on the word participant? A very formal way for stating we worked with children, well............... The choice of word was due to the fact we did not have 35 children playing at our provision!
An unexpected and very positive outcome was the high degree of parental support we experienced throughout the scheme. We were asked by the first family to arrive at the woods if they could take a look around instead of just dropping the kids off (the norm) and coming back to pick them up later. Excited that parents were keen to explore the woods I explained some routes they could follow....... and then asked if they wanted to stay and join in they would be more than welcome. The parents seemed shocked at the invitation and responded with a very tentative "are we allowed to". I explained the purpose of the programme and that I wanted to speak to parents to consult and share their views and that they were very welcome. With the first family now all very happy and excited more families arrived and were given an invitation to 'play too'. The outcome of a very simple gesture was very simple, all the parents stayed and played and had a fantastic time getting stuck in!
There are cautions that we must take in safeguarding children in our care and as someone with a background in education and working with vulnerable children in the care system, I fully understand the need for this. However, we must ask ourselves what is common sense, practical and reasonable for the situation and the circumstances we are in. In this case the programme was designed to consult with both parents and children and we had enough workers to ensure groups were never left alone, therefore it was reasonable to 'allow' parents to stay and play with their children. The outcome was that the children loved it almost as much as the parents.
A common conversation with parents was how exciting they found playing in the woods as a child and the adventures they had. This was almost always followed by "why don't children have fun like this anymore"? A good question, we only mention a piece of the jigsaw here; involving parents and lack of opportunity. A good start on your journey to finding an answer would be reading The Last Child in the Wood by Richard Louvre.
The evaluation of the Fun in the Forest programme was the overwhelming support for this programme to continue, not as a child group but as a family group. It was great to see Mums, Dads and Grand parents all getting involved. Even after four sessions it was noticeable to see the positive impact this activity had on developing positive nurturing relationships between parents and their children. Other notable comments from children was that they had developed new friendships and parents proud of their child learning new skills something they sometimes feel divorced from in every day life.
There are cautions that we must take in safeguarding children in our care and as someone with a background in education and working with vulnerable children in the care system, I fully understand the need for this. However, we must ask ourselves what is common sense, practical and reasonable for the situation and the circumstances we are in. In this case the programme was designed to consult with both parents and children and we had enough workers to ensure groups were never left alone, therefore it was reasonable to 'allow' parents to stay and play with their children. The outcome was that the children loved it almost as much as the parents.
A common conversation with parents was how exciting they found playing in the woods as a child and the adventures they had. This was almost always followed by "why don't children have fun like this anymore"? A good question, we only mention a piece of the jigsaw here; involving parents and lack of opportunity. A good start on your journey to finding an answer would be reading The Last Child in the Wood by Richard Louvre.
The evaluation of the Fun in the Forest programme was the overwhelming support for this programme to continue, not as a child group but as a family group. It was great to see Mums, Dads and Grand parents all getting involved. Even after four sessions it was noticeable to see the positive impact this activity had on developing positive nurturing relationships between parents and their children. Other notable comments from children was that they had developed new friendships and parents proud of their child learning new skills something they sometimes feel divorced from in every day life.
Working in Nature has this magical quality that seems to break down barriers that would restrict us in more urban settings and this proved to be evident in feedback from parents (both Mums and Dads) on how they felt 'unrestricted to play freely with their children'. Undoubtedly the social interaction and formation of new friendships (both children and parents) was a very important outcome for us, after only a short period it struck me on how strongly they felt that this group should continue. After two sessions we were an official group!
It was a privilege to see many children working together and solving problems such as the shelters capacity for everyone to play in (even big kids like me), making sure it had space to relax in (this needed an extension to be built), enough moss and fern for pillows and the very important washing line to dry any damp clothes that we might have.
The final session of the programme coincided with the International Picnic in the Forest day in which the group celebrated in true Family Forest Group style with a campfire cooking favourites such as sausages, toasted Marshmallows, hot chocolate banana’s, pop corn, toasted teacakes and all things both delicious and sticky!
The future
I started this blogg in the summer whilst we were delivering the programme, finshing the final session a few days prior to attending The International Skogsmulle Leader course in Sweden. It was interesting for me to learn the Skogsmulle methology as they too use Family groups called 'Family Mulle' on weekends and holidays. It would seem only right for our first Fun in the Forest group to have the opportunity of becoming the first Family Mulle group in Wales!
For more infornmation on Skogsmulle please see Juliet Roberstson's blogg creative star learning and if your not following it it's definately one to keep an eye on.
http://creativestarlearning.blogspot.com/2011/08/skogsmulle-learning-for-all-senses.html?spref=tw
A big thank you to all the children and parents, Blaen Bran Community Woodland, Torfaen Voluntary Alliance (TVA) and our volunteers for making this programme such a big success.
