This week we have been able to allow the Burrow children do an activity that they have never done before, this has given the children enthusiasm and confidence to do things that might not have crossed their mind yet!
We have been very privileged this week to have Lou out on Forest School with us (Lou is Forest School trained which I will be starting in September, how exciting!!), and what have we been doing… lighting fires!!! How amazing right? The Burrow staff have been very excited so the children must have been!
Talking about our Forest School during the day, we had lots of speech out of the children such as “who has a fire at home?”, “what do we need to light a fire?”. This gave the children the idea of fire in their head, Daniel says “we have a fire at home to keep us warm, but we don’t touch”. What great understanding of a fire, talking about in a positive way but also thinking about what we must not do!
So, on Forest School before the activity commenced we always ask the children what the forest school rule are! Ask your child if they know, (hopefully most of them will) but if they don’t they are; we don’t run off without an adult as we might get lost and we don’t put things in our mouths!
After this Lou/Lauren shown the children what we will be doing, introducing them to the fire steels and cotton wool. Of course the biggest talk was about safety, asking the children “shall I put my hand into this fire?” The older children shown lots of knowledge and understanding whereas some of the younger children would say yes! (Obviously we corrected them, I think that may hurt if we did that!!). We also spoke about the fire steels, shall we point them towards our friends? Etc. We also spoke to the children about what happens if we can’t control the fire, talking about how if we throw the water over the top it will fizzle out!
I wish you could have all seen the children’s faces when we first struck the fire steel (for anyone who doesn’t know what a fire steel is, don’t worry Soraya didn’t either, it’s where two bits of steel are glided against each other causing a spark. See photo). As soon as Lou struck the fire steel the children just stopped and stared, it was like they had been hypnotized for a brief second! “MORE” they shouted. It was then time for the children to have a turn, kneeling down we fluffed out the cotton wool and use the fire steel to catch fire.
On our second day the wind had picked up and the children were very wary of this, “oh no, it’s blowing away!” they told us. “Quick, get the water” another child told us, it was so great to see that our information had got through in such a short time!
So the next time you visit a camping shop, why not pop in and see if they do fire steels! It is a great way of teaching your children about fire but in a safe manner!
Recipe for fire lighting with a two year old;
- fire steel
- cotton wool balls
- water
Thanks for reading.
Lauren