I have recently got really into listening to podcasts and at the risk of sounding like a dinosaur, have never really taken the time to understand what they were all about. I now spend a happy hour or two at Kettlethorpe School allotment with my earphones in soaking up the latest choice of podcast. My most recent find is 'Raising Wildlings'. I absolutely love it! Wildlings is a Forest School in Queensland, Australia and like me with my blog have broadened their wings, put themselves out there and have started a podcast! Well done to them as it is certainly not easy to put yourself out there, I know from my own experience of seeing and hearing myself on camera!
The podcast is about parenting, alternative education and stepping into the wilderness with your family. Their first special guest was the inspirational Peter Gray, originally a neuroscientist and later to become a professor in play. Becoming a professor in play really does give the often under-rated ability to play huge value. I first came across Peter Gray, probably like most Forest School leaders, whilst doing my Forest School training and his book 'Free to learn' was on the recommended reading list. He is a great advocate of free play, a term that you may have heard from time to time maybe from an Early Years teacher in school or at Forest school. Most adults would probably think of free play as kids 'just playing' without any direction or learning but it is so much more than that and so important for parents to recognise this and the remarkable natural ability children have to teach themselves. I don't believe there is such a thing as 'just playing'. It always has a motivation and a purpose.
Peter Gray says that in order to be able to play two things must be in place:
1. The drive to play
2. Curiosity
Children have evolved naturally to have these drivers to enable them to learn, through their own exploration and curiosity. If we think for a minute about how it feels when you have found the answer to a question by yourself through self-motivation and the search for meaning as opposed to being told the answer by someone else. The exploratory journey never takes place and is therefore not that memorable to most of us. Children are no different and deserve the opportunity to find out for themselves. It's their right and part of having a happy childhood. They find out 'by doing' and as a teacher I learnt this lesson by looking at blank little faces on the carpet and realising I was talking too much and they just wanted to go and learn. In fact there is a great book called 'Can I Go and Play Now? by Greg Bottrill on this subject if you want to dive in a bit deeper.
It is therefore essential that free play opportunities are available to children. If a child is curious about something then they will explore it to find more out about it because they want to make sense of it, to find out what it does, how it works, if it helps to solve a problem. Have you ever wondered why children love filling and emptying containers with water? They repeat the same actions over and over again. They are in fact teaching themselves some science, the properties of water, how it behaves, changes, moves, disappears, the endless possibilities. If left uninterrupted the learning doesn't stop there. The water could get transported to another area for imaginative play in a mud kitchen for example. Mixing with the mud changes the water again into more of a solid state. It isn't only a science lesson though. The element of 'let's pretend' comes in, perhaps practising being in a kitchen, hotel, McDonalds, a school canteen? Someone pretends to be the shop keeper and someone else the customer, all the time making new rules up for the game through negotiation using communication. This is what some would call open ended play, there is no set end goal, one thing leads to another and all the time children are talking to each other or themselves and making decisions about how play can be extended. They aren't taking their places in class to learn one element of the curriculum, they are learning something from all areas at the same time and they are choosing to do this independently! Wow!
You don't have to be an expert in the Early Years and National Curriculums to spot that children are learning, you just need to have faith in their natural ability to learn through play. In the shop keeper example, children are subtly defining their own rules.This is because in order for play to continue everyone must agree and stick to the rules. For example, there could be a 'fall out' about who is on the till. At this point many adults might step in but it is better to let the play continue. The moment you step in the children's self-initiated learning stops, the adult solves the problem and the next time it happens the children won't have any experience of how to solve the problem apart from asking an adult to sort it out. This can become frustrating for adults, who can often be heard saying 'why can't you sort your own problems out?' Also what about in the future when children become adults and the consequences of conflict have greater implications for your job, relationship and friendships? It is better to learn these skills at a young age and have lots of time to practise and refine them before testing them out in the 'real world'.
One of the subtle rules that the children could decide is that everyone should have a turn at being the shopkeeper to make it fair. In this process children are using higher order skills of resolving conflict, negotiation, empathy for other children (very important and a super power if you are under 5 and have it!) sense of fair play and problem solving the value of which are huge to a child's learning. It's these experiences that will make your child a well rounded 'good egg' when they grow up. If you only take one thing from this week's blog let it be; to start seeing children's play as learning experiences that you want to extend as long as possible without interruption. Next time your child is playing look a little closer for their purpose and motivation, it will always be rooted in learning. There may be more to your child's play than you have realised.
I thought it might be useful for you to have some practical tips on free play activities that you can easily set up at home
Mud Kitchen - any old pots and pans/ recycled tubs. Make sure there is a variety of shapes and sizes which will offer children the opportunity to explore capacity and shape. Old utensils such as a wooden spoon, slotted spoon, spatula, whisk and/or a stirring stick which is any stick you find that can be used to stir. Different size pots with lids that are screw top and pull are good for dexterity and problem solving. Different size funnels and jugs. Coloured water by adding a dash of powder paint to the water. Recycled water bottles with a hole in the top so the water comes out slower and there is the learning opportunity of what happens to water pressure when you squeeze the bottle! Try and make it as real to life as possible with items that you would find in your kitchen so children can practise being you.
My motivation is to make the blogs useful to you if I can so please add a comment or a like to let me know, or tell me what you would like to know more about at Forest School. Also it would be great if you shared your own experiences of free play too so other parents can be inspired by you... until next time, Sally
