Just a peg

Five children sat around the table with the peg boards. As they worked we chatted about the patterns they were noticing, there were shape patterns and colour patterns "I've made a line around the edge"

"I can see a square and there's a red one, then a yellow one then red, red, yellow, yellow"

"I got green, green, green!"

Their pattern identification became more expansive as well

"I'm three"

"And I'm three but your a girl"

"I'm a boy and you've got a stripey top"

There was a wider pattern to their play as well, they would take an interest in the pegs that they were working with, some would work around the edges to form squares and then fill them in line by line, others would start the same way but make smaller and smaller squares. Then again other children would place them in random holes but worked with a clear determination to fill up their tile. They paid attention to what each other were doing and chose colours to match or helped to find particular pegs if they were needed. When they had finished their tile (as far as they wanted to go) they would tip all the pegs back into the bowl ("It looks like fireworks") before starting the process, and pattern, again.

Their behaviour too went in patterns; when one boy said "these are my pegs", the other children repeated the same phrase and regarded each other very tensely. The atmosphere was then broken when the same boy said "look you've got some the same as me", everyone looked down to theirs and then they started to share with each other before the next moment of tension appeared when someone could see their peg in the bowl and moved it closer ("we got to keep it in the middle!").

I sat next to these five children musing about the pattern and structure that our day follows in the Den: it's subtle but it's there. Our free play is based around group times at the start and end of the session with Ed taking a group of Forest Schoolers out to have a specific session in the paddock and beyond and smaller groups splitting off from the main room to focus on more detailed games and projects that allow the staff to get to know their children all the more closely.

This free play takes on intricate patterns through the children's interests and social interactions as well as their physical and emotional development. They develop their sense of self, who they are and who they want to be. We don't pressure them to fit the boxes and we wouldn't expect them to fit into our categorisation of "what a child aged x should be doing" and as for school readiness... if a child feels confident in themselves then they will deal with the pressures of life far better than if their constantly being shown who they should be.

As this play continued another girl came up to the group and asked "What are you all doing?"

One boy answered "We're just putting pegs in holes"

but there's far more to it than that...

It's started!

Two of our older children had been to see Disney on Ice together, this is a section of the observation that Tam made during their play. I love the way it captures the excitement of backstage preparations, the thrill of the audience waiting and, above all, the magic of performance Charlie, "I need two more seats for my babies." looking at the chairs around the cosy corner she said, "Those are my babies' seats." placing the dolls onto them. walking back to the carpet she joined Daisy, holding hands they smiled and shouted together, "Disney on ice! Disney on ice!"

Daisy, "It's over. Now it's a brand new show."

Charlie, "I need my shoes on."

Daisy, "Now get the cushions." Daisy picked up and placed two cushions onto the carpet. "This is a brand new metal show."

Charlie, "This show's on and the chocolate van's here. The chocolate man has eaten the ice­-cream!" she looked shocked and wide-eyed then burst out giggling.

Daisy looked seriously at everyone who sat in the audience, "The show's over in ten minutes. Here's a brand new show from me today. Is anyone watching? We must wait now"

Jessica and Phoebe came over to Charlie and Daisy.

Jessica,"My show is dancing."

Phoebe: "My show is singing."

Daisy and Charlie went to the audience on chairs around the carpet while Jessica and Phoebe sang and danced, at the end they clapped.

Daisy announced the next interval, "The ice cream van's back, time to get some ice creams."

Jessica, "My show is starting over, the customers are at the show." Everyone was sat quietly in their seats waiting for the show to begin, I asked Florence if I could have an ice-cream, she said to me, "Strawberry ice cream and yours was strawberry ice cream and the babies got strawberry ice cream!"

Jessica theatrically announced, "1,2,3,4,5."

Charlie and Rosa joined in repeating her counting together, "1,2,3,4,5!"

Daisy announced, "Ladies and gentleman welcome to Disney on ice. You're welcome to cheer and shout."

Florence smiled at me and said, "Tam it's started!"

Part of the same game

It's become a normal part of our day for parts of the garden to get blocked off for repairs by builders, recently there have been disagreements between the builders and the bikers who need to travel down down them. The other day, after several sessions of this stalemate we managed to come to a solution Builders: "The road's closed, you can't come this way."

Bikers: "I need to get down this road, my home's over there!"

Bu: "There's a crack in the road you can't come down"

Bi: "Tim, we can't drive down here but I really need to get over there"

T: "Sounds to me like there's some serious work happening: what's wrong?"

Bu: "There's a crack in the road we need to fix it"

T: "And how long will that take?" (this question really helps with sharing problems, give the children control over their time limits in turns)

Bu: "uh.... I think.... but, well it'll be about 5 hours" (they won't really take 5 hours)

T: "Ah, then we need a diversion!"

I ran in to get some chalk and explained briefly what I was about to do before starting to draw arrows along the ground for children to follow...

This is common in the way we work at FRHQ and is (unironically in this case) called scaffolding. The adult's role is to extend ideas introduced in play to open up new ideas and directions to children, to flow with the play and only directing it if problems are becoming apparent.

In the above example my part was not to tell the builders to move or the bikers to stay away from the road, they were all part of the same game... they just didn't realise it yet!

Once the arrows were down, I left the chalk out and let the activity carry on unhindered:

"Alright builders, let's get the bits and bobs done"

One child drove on to the building site with his bike, the builders all turned and explained calmly that this was not allowed, the biker responded "Oh, I'm not in work today cos my baby's ill. S, Can you take my bike home? I've got some work to do" and promptly joined in.

I watched the play expand and evolve, taking in new ideas and bringing different children into the mix. There were arrows drawn, cracks created and fixed, blocks marked with different names so we knew who had put it down... There was even a sojourn in the jungle (I am still unsure how that happened) and when the session came to a close the play was still in progress in one form or another around the garden.

Building work continues to spring up around the garden but now it doesn't prove a big problem, everyone knows what the game is and get around as best they can

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I'll be good to the land

At the end of August I set out with two other musicians on a 5 day musical cycling tour. Under the title 'Pedal Folk' our aim is to promote folk music and sustainable touring using just the power of our own legs. During this tour we covered 130 miles, climbed 10,000 feet and played seven gigs in pubs, record stores, a tapas bar and a library, you can have a look at our adventures at www.pedalfolk.co.uk. We decided to challenge ourselves this time round and spend as little money as possible as we went. Each day we bought a loaf of bread, a block of cheese and made it last through our days cycling with the only additions being what we could forage from our travels; evening primrose in Bath, blackberries near Bristol, horseradish on the way to Stroud and, of course, the ubiquitous apple.

We have a beautiful apple tree in the paddock and over the last week Ed and I have been talking about the need to start picking as some of the fruit are on the turn. On Friday morning we took all of the children out with the mission to collect as many apples as we could: and what a crop we got! Armed with our specially designed telescopic apple grabbers (or fishing nets) and our bare hands and with the Autumn sun gently warming our backs we picked, and picked, and picked

All of the children stayed around the tree picking, carrying the fruit to our overflowing baskets and chomping their way through apple after apple, I'm sure that we're going to have a lot more apple trees growing around the nursery after today!

We supported our work with a lovely little song that Lucy taught us:

"High up in the apple tree

5 little apples smiled at me

I shook that tree as hard as I could

Down came an apple, mmm tastes good!"

Repeated as a counting song it created a great atmosphere.

The question is now, what shall we do with our crop? I've been thinking up a little rhyme to help us out:

"Hat fulls, cap fulls, bushels, bags and sacks full

But the apple in my pocket is just for me

Hat fulls, cap fulls, bushels, bags and sacks full

But the apple in my pocket is just for me

Juice, pie, crumble or cake

With my apple: what shall I make?

Juice, pie, crumble or cake

With my apple: what shall I make?"

I always consider our foremost responsibility as adults is to provide our children with a wide range of experiences, the chance to take part in this activity gave the children a greater idea of where our food comes from, the way it tastes when it comes freshly from the plant, it builds their trust in eating wild and it also develops their physical ability and understanding about amounts. We are going to be baking and juicing next week so conversations about amounts will be important, joining the process and relating experiences from home will also be part and parcel of the learning experience. I can't think of a better way to understand and extend learning and development than to provide a broad activity and then pay the closest attention to what comes from it and adapting accordingly. It's sometimes best to open an idea and be carried by it as far as it will go, the results will often be surprising.. and rather tasty!

To finish, have a listen to a song written by my friend Robin Grey which tells of a community gardening project near London: The Ballad of Hawkwood

Happy scrumping

Tim

Physical Development (how not to land on other people's faces)

The weather has been wonderful, the rain has (in the main) kept off and the garden is dry Get out the ball pool!!

A little while ago Charlotte came to the nursery having bought a huge amount of soft play equipment including a 1.5m ball pool, it has been fantastic to provide the children with a way to develop their physical motor skills whilst having a soft landing at the end! Creating different spaces for children to push themselves physically means that we have to be aware how to create rules to manage them. One of the best ways is to let the children choose themselves and so self-govern the space; saying "watch out!", looking for the space, thinking about children who might be under the balls...

And it's not just the ball pool getting the use

"look how high I can jump!"

"I did a forward roll!"

Watching children push themselves and testing how far their confidence will let them go has been mentioned before, when I watch our children I consider four stages of development

Unconscious incompetence: I don't know what I can't do

Conscious incompetence: I know what I can't do

Conscious competence: I can do it but I need to concentrate

Unconscious competence: I can do it

It's always wonderful to look back at the pictures and see the concentration on the faces of children who are very much in the "conscious competence" stage of their development, it's only after they feel fully confident with the processes of jumping and landing do we see the next stage: looking at the camera, smiling in mid-air, doing rolls and spins into the pool, helping others out and showing them how do jump in. And the best thing is that it's completely natural.

Strong in the Sun

The weather has been blazing over the last few weeks and it means that nearly all of our play has happened outside. We love the fact that all our children want to be out and our planning allows for that fact but more importantly we want our children to understand the importance of being safe in the sun. We do this in a few ways:

• Slip, Slap, Slop: Slip on a T-shirt, Slap on a hat, slop on some suncream!
• We always have water available either in the garden or inside with cups for a drink
• We talk about the emotional side of things, feeling overly angry or upset can be because of the heat so we add cooling down as part of our conflict resolution

Having so much time outside as led to wonderful activities, most notably when Vince took our hose and we had to improvise!

We've also put up a few hammocks in our shelters and they have proved so popular that they haven't been moved for about a month!

So keep enjoying the weather (though it is meant to change rapidly over the next week!) and remember to keep safe whatever the weather... and don't forget to put up a few hammocks as well!

Tim

Mama Panya's Pancakes

This week we used the book 'Mama Panya's Pancakes' as the inspiration for a whole line of activities culminating with a cooking session in the paddock. I came across this book during a wander around the children's section in Mr B's emporium of reading delights: a wonderful shop which I recommend you head to! The story concerns Mama Panya and her son Adika as they head to market to buy ingredients to make pancakes. What follows is a lovely tale of African village life, the joy of friendship and (perhaps most importantly) how to make delicious food! Over the week we have been reading the story and it has inspired the children to make pancakes using playdough which was scented with elderflowers (follow this recipe to make your own) and to mix sand with a lot of water and cook it in the mud kitchen. I love watching our children taking an idea and running with it, coming together to focus and concentrate on a group aim that they themselves have created, sharing and enjoying the process of adding and mixing ingredients with such a high level of involvement that the adult has to taking a spectator's seat for fear of disrupting the beauty that's happening. I wanted to take this interest to the next level by the end of the week and fortunately it all came together and the children were all keen to help with the process, a group mixed the ingredients to make the pancake batter, another group went with Ed to help light fires and we all sat around the firepit to the end of the session singing songs, telling stories and having banana pancakes in the sun

What really made my day was the fact that we overran so much that the parents had to walk out to the paddock to collect their children, I'm aware of the desire to have the children ready to go home, shoes on, bags packed etc but it means that their parents don't always have a chance to see them during a natural part of the day; focussing on the task, helping with the process and enjoying the company of others. I look forward to more cooking next week!

Tim

Story challenge

For a little while I have had a project slowly fermenting and it's at the stage that I'd like your input. It all started when I saw the work of Bath based artist Robert Fresson who captures, in a single panel, a whole narrative or a situation that allows you a snapshot into a whole world Robert and I have started a story writing project and need your help with extending the narrative! Have a look at the two pictures below, print them off using this link: Story Challenge, share them with your setting, show them to your children, and let them tell you what is happening, what has happened and what will happen next?

This is a time to let your child's imagination shine, whatever they say and create, go with it! Here's a couple of example stories that came about last week:

"It's a lady... she's looking at the sea. The house is in the sea. there are sharks in there! She has to swim to the shops, she isn't very happy. She gets a rope and ties it around the house and around her and swims to where the lights are. The lights are in a town, she wants to get there."

"William has a keylock, his house is in the water, a flood cos it rained too much. He's scared cos he can't get anywhere, he needs to swim to the beach... he needs to take: bananas, crisps, sandwiches - cheese, sauce, ham, cucumber, mayonnaise, pickle and salad - water to keep hydrated, a towel and a bottom towel for his bottom (laughter) an eye towel and an arm towel and a leg and feet towel, goggles, a woggle and arm bands. He has a boat and sees seagulls and hears waves... he doesn't get to the beach, he hits a rock and crashed. A mermaid might come to help him? They have a tail to go under the water and little heads like people. The mermaid lifts him up and he has arm bands to let him float. He's ok."

Have fun with the stories, prompt with open ended questions if the child gets stuck or if they say 'I don't know' (although once the child 'gets' the game, they will have no difficulties). All that I ask is that you send me a transcript or some of the ideas that you come up with, they will help to shape the story, keep an eye out for more updates on how the project develops!

Happy storytelling!

Tim

The art of language

In this post I want to handle the delicate topic of the language we give to children and how it effects their self-confidence and belief. To start, here are two examples of children at nurseries where I have worked: S and S were working in the sandpit. Their canvases were the slate tiles, their medium was wet chalk, sand and grass. Their method of working involved colouring a slate piece, covering it first with sand and then grass then colouring through the sand once again. As other children came to look they invited them into their play, worked alongside them and explained their methods; once they had sufficient pieces of work they moved them to the playhouse and told me with great enthusiasm (and the sort of poses that children love to use to emphasise points) "We're being artists: we're artists!".

T went to the art area and chose a piece of paper, he told me "I'm going to do some fingerpainting, my Mum says I'm good at art". He worked quietly by himself until he felt that his piece of work was finished, put it to dry and went to find another activity

Compare those two phrases "We're artists" to "my Mum says I'm good at art" they seem so similar  and (I have to state) that they both come from children with very positive views but what do they really mean?

At Free Rangers we strive to stretch and challenge our children but that can only happen if they wish to do the same for themselves, we want to focus on the process that the child has gone through rather than just highlight the end result.

A little while ago I was at a conference at Pen Green that was led by the wonderful Margaret Carr where she spoke about the learning dispositions of children and how the purpose of education is to inspire a desire to learn, rather than to tick boxes

"The fundamental purpose of education for the 21st Century, it is argued, is not so much the transmission of particular bodies of knowledge, skill and understanding as facilitating the development of the capacity and the confidence to engage in lifelong learning. Central to this enterprise is the development of positive learning dispositions, such as resilience, playfulness and reciprocity.” - Carr 2002

One particular point that was brought up was the responses that adults gave to children's work and in particular, the emphasis that they could put on the finished product. To paraphrase some anecdotal evidence:

"Two groups of children were given a puzzle to do, both succeeded but after completing the puzzle one group were told 'well done, you did the puzzle' and the other were told 'well done for working so hard on that'. When the groups were offered another, harder puzzle to do the former refused as they felt they had already succeeded enough whereas the latter group were keen to work hard again for a greater sense of self-satisfaction"

Interesting eh? Let's apply this to the two examples at the start of the piece; "we're artists" sets out the role of the child, it doesn't hem it in, they were existing under their self defined title, one that gave them the drive to create a methodology of working that drew others in and changed as the play progressed. Their title was just a defining parameter of their play. On the other hand "my Mum says I'm good at art" is a title that has been placed by another on the child, one that allows no direct progression as the child can produce work safe in the knowledge that he has succeeded before he has begun.

Here are some simple steps to support children's efforts:

• When children bring us work that they've done, they are already proud of it, they want to show it: comment on something that you notice to start conversation
• Acknowledge the child's feelings "I can see you look very proud of that" or "your smile shows me that you're pleased with your work
• Avoid rhetorical questions such as "Have you done some art?" or "Have you been painting?" the child knows what they've been doing, offer stimulating comments and you will hear what they're really thinking
• Stay clear of ending the conversation before the child is ready, don't be scared of silences, give the child time to think as they may be taking in your comments

Have fun; if you have any art that your children want to show us, please bring it in and we'll add it to our "I have done, I am proud of..." board in the art area!

Fool's Gold

What is a fool?

A fool is someone who steps back from the everyday, who looks at it and wonders what can be done with it

A fool recognises that he is a fool and is, therefore, not so foolish as he first seems

A fool makes us laugh: frees us from the constraints of being too serious about our day to day lives

A fool is utterly serious about his foolery

A fool is the wisest person imaginable

Thanks to Simon Blakeman for performing and guiding the children through his extraordinary world!

Rational for rewinding ratios

So, there has been a lot of interesting talk and comment the past few weeks and months due to the government's decision to raise the amount of children that any one adult in a childcare setting can be responsible for: for babies this will raise from 3 children per adult to 4 and from 4 children to 6 per adult for 2-3 year old children. There has been a lot of twittering today about this and it lead me to the Education minister's (Elizabeth Truss) speech on "improving teaching practices in early years education and giving more flexibility to nurseries." delivered on the 19th April. What I read shocked me Here's a quote from the press release:

"Teachers can currently teach up to 13 children aged 3 and 4 years. But that ratio falls to 1:8 when teachers are not present. Employing better qualified staff means young children get better quality early education that helps them to prepare for school."

Makes sense doesn't it? Here's my problem with the sentence:

""Teachers can currently teach up to 13 children aged 3 and 4 years. But that ratio falls to 1:8 when teachers are not present. Employing better qualified staff means young children get better quality early education that helps them to prepare for school"

to carry on...

"Eight 2-year-olds were happily able to sit together and watch each other’s behaviour while the teacher led the session. Free flow play, a child-centred approach where individual children choose what to do, is often considered to be a requirement in English settings. This is a myth and there are no reasons why structured teacher-led sessions can’t also be the norm here."

I could pull this apart to my heart's content but here's the bottom line:

I am not a teacher

I never describe myself as a teacher. To me the term 'teacher' means that you have nothing left to learn, that you are just the point of contact for information, you give out knowledge for children to take on and automatically . This is not what I do. The fact is that this term and a more 'structured' approach is being propagated by ministers who are out of touch with current educational research and thinking, who want a quick fix to our education system and don't recognise that the most important years of a child's life are the first few, who still reside in the (real) myth that teachers are better at education than Early Years Practitioners. However they dress up reforms and the rational is immaterial as the rhetoric stays the same.

Please head over to the Pre-school Learning Alliance and show your support on their petition: https://www.pre-school.org.uk/rewindonratios

I want our children to stay free range.