Play is not a swear word!

Lately I have read and heard many Early Years Professionals justifying their decision to use play as a powerful tool with which to facilitate children’s learning. With newspaper articles suggesting that the government is going to introduce formal assessments and expect Early Years settings to teach official sessions of numeracy and literacy, it’s understandable that as professionals within education, we feel we need to explain why we don’t sign up to these potential changes and why we wholeheartedly believe children would not benefit.

As professionals, parents and carers we should do all we can to highlight the benefits of play to children’s learning and development. So, we stand shoulder to shoulder with our fellow Early Years settings and join in by sharing our views on play.

One of the ways we’d like to do this is by drawing your attention to the important matter of play. Firstly, we’d like to share with you the Free Rangers’ Play Policy, this explains our stance on Play and we hope you share our views. If we’ve left anything out then please let us know. It’s not in essay form, the topic is so vast we thought we’d condense it down to the nuts and bolts of play. But if you’re interested to find out more then please email the office and we can point you in the direction of some great theorists and studies.

With your help, we want your children to be the best they can be. We strongly believe not only the educational theories that support play as being the bedrock of early years learning, but also the emerging, sound scientific studies that further confirm; play leads to greater brain development.

Secondly, as from September 2013, we start in earnest our Stay & Play sessions, for children aged 0 – 5yrs at All Hallows School’s onsite woodland. Join us for Forest School sessions that will be tailored to encourage you and your child / children to learn through play in a beautiful and mature woodland. Please find details here.

The continued provision of our Free Rangers’ Forest School Holiday Clubs also ensures those children beyond nursery age can also access Forest School provision in the woods.

Thirdly, we thought the best thing to do was to invite Michael Gove to visit us for a “Play date.” We are confident that the families that choose to send their children to Free Rangers aren’t wrong, we are certain our views which reflect early years best practice (in fact only tonight we’ve just won three awards from our Education Authority) aren’t wrong, and furthermore we know we share the same ideals as many other fantastic Early Years Settings both locally and globally, so we can’t all be wrong can we? Once he sees Free Rangers’ children busy playing and learning we’re confident he’ll listen to all of us.

So what do we have to lose? Here goes:

Dear Mr. Gove,

Please come and play at Free Rangers for the day.

Toby, Laurie, Archie and William said they’d play dinosaurs with you; Josie said you could share one of the balance bikes; Lauren will sit with you during snack and lunch, Cain, Theo and Jess will show you the cement they made out of sand, water and grass and Daisy said she’d toast a marshmallow for you.

So you see Mr. Gove, all angles are covered. Please bring your wellies, if you don’t have any, we can lend you some.

Hope to see you soon for fun and frolicks at Free Rangers.

Yours sincerely,

Everyone here including Gary the Goose.

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!

"Hello Mrs Poo Poo Head!"

The children normally call me Charlotte, or Laurie's mum, or even the girl that's around a lot, but last week, for about 5 minutes I was called Mrs Poo Poo Head. Let me be clear, there was no malice in this title, it was said because it was funny; and to be fair it received quite a few laughs and a few escapee chuckles. I'll tell you how I reacted at the end of this post, but after the incident I decided to read up a little about poo and wee and why 3 and 4 year olds find it so hilariously funny. My research began. I spoke to my husband and we agreed "popping off / bottom burps / farting" are funny even though we're "old." But upon reflection we felt that poo and wee themselves didn't really hold as much humour as bottom coughing. I then asked my son (he's four) why poo and wee were funny and he just giggled. I realised my research needed to delve deeper.

To briefly summarise my findings, it turns out that child psychologists believe that a child's sense of humour progresses through clear developmental steps much like physical or emotional development. For example a toddler, by the age of around 2 years old, has worked out that a beaker's role in life is to hold drink. Put it on your head though and it's hilarious. Even at this age they have developed contextual humour, take the beaker out of its usual context and you've got a great gag.

Going back to the seemingly unending fascination with bodily functions then, it appears that from the age of 3 to 4 most children have been through or are going through the concept of self care and part of that involves toilet training. One thought is that having gone through this experience and the anxiety and memory of many uncomfortable situations, culminates in a sense of relief where children are comfortable in the knowledge that they are now masters of their own poo and wee and they can literally send it up and make a laugh out of the whole hideous period when it dictated their life.

Another theory is that it's an increasing awareness of the "inappropriate" coupled with the out of context that makes poo and wee such an alluring tool to express humour in our little one's minds. The perhaps exhausting thought is that this stage can carry on until the children are aged around 5 or 6, or in my husband's case nearing 40. Eventually though toilet humour turns in to jokes that don't follow the usual comedy rules, making the unpredictable humorous. A classic example being: "What did the banana say to the apple?" "Nothing, bananas don't speak."

Anyway, to the many parents out there that must endure many more months of poo and wee giggles, you are not on your own. Deal with it as you see fit but with bucket loads of tolerance, try to find solace in the professionals' explanation that this is just another interesting step in your child's developing sense of humour. If you have read to the end and wanted to hear about the way I reacted, here's what happened:

Child: Hello Mrs Poo Poo Head.

Slight awkward pause

Me: Oh dear! If my head is made of poo, I'd better flush it down the toilet.

Child: Don't be silly...laughter....it was only a joke!

Since poo and wee have become such a hit in the Den, the children have created some rules around their use. You can only call each other poo and wee if the other person is in on the joke and they find it funny and you are both enjoying the humour. As soon as it begins to annoy, upset or hurt the feelings of anyone else then it turns from being a joke into not being a good friend. Simple but effective. We're hoping this will enable us to embrace yet pass swiftly through the poo and wee phase.

Mr Poopy's Song

Charlotte.

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.

Sticks and Stones

Two boys with sticks in the woods

I could say no, should I say no?

No, I'll let it go

Two boys with sticks racing, chasing with sticks, poses pulled, spinning and twisting

"This is our throne, let's go!"

I could say no, should I say no?

No, I'll let it go

Two boys with sticks running passed others, stopping briefly, fixed stare, pose, speeding on

"we need to get the baddies into prison, the prison hole"

I could say no, should I say no?

No, I'll let it go

Two boys with sticks see the others up a slope and charge towards them, weapons brandished...

I could say no, should I say no?

Two boys with sticks get to the bottom of the slope, their eyes fixed on the children up above, sticks in the air...

I could say no, should I say no?

"We're ninja turtles, we're here to help you cos you're stuck

No, I'll let it go

Understanding Childhood Development Part 2

Our second speaker, Professor Colwyn Trevathon, continued the idea of ‘touch points’ in his talk extending its definition to include the development of pride in young children, its meaning to parents and how it is shared in conversation between child and adult. To start: what is pride, how do we develop it as a creative feeling and how, as adults, did we develop in ourselves? The first thing to break down is the idea of pride being a purely adult, or ‘learned’ trait:

• At birth the human brain is one third the size of an adult brain, but has all the parts in place for a creative human life, including a unique human face, eyes, voice and hands for sharing emotions, intentions & states of consciousness. They wait for bright company.

Clearly we need to be passed the point of thinking that at birth and even beforehand, babies are blank slates, waiting to communication to be acted on them rather than with them. What is it that allows young children to be creative and have the awareness to interact with others from birth and before, in Prof. Trevathon’s words;

“There is something to life that is: Adventurous, Speculative, Hopeful, Imaginative”

Children are not born with memories to draw upon and enact, this means that they are born with the imagination to move, interact and predict the results of their movements and interactions...

Life is creative because it is imaginative

pretty hard hitting stuff: we were 5 minutes into the lecture.

Every movement we make is based on internal rhythms and sequence, those same rhythms we learned when we were still in the womb growing from part of our mother’s body into a foetus that lives in amphoteronomic ‘shared regulation’ and finally sharing expressions by moving syn-rhythmically, ‘in synch’ with our mother before joining the world and our families to share our learning with a wider audience. So even before we have been born, the building blocks have been put in place for us to be interactive, imaginative and creative beings. During our time in the womb we are also developing a sense of ourselves physically, research has shown how foetus’ will explore themselves using their hands being more gentle when we touch delicate areas e.g eyes. Research also shows that twins the womb will explore each other more gently than they explore themselves... if you had listened hard when I was told that, you would have heard the sound of my brain exploding.

This is where the lecture opened up into the world of shared experiences and conversations between parents and children that had been recorded and analysed in terms of the rhythm and pitch of the adult and child: children just a few weeks old were shown lecturing and conversing with adults, giving equal amounts of time between speech, filling in pauses offered by parents and moving rhythmically, it’s far too much to try and bring across in this post but head HERE to check out the slides and data from the talk.

• Moving in sympathy - Creating stories of life with people we love

This talk opened my eyes and mind further to the way that we process information and apply it communicatively in an incredibly effective way from a very young age. We all love to talk and love hearing the voices of our children, we always need to make sure that we are ready to listen as we can’t ever be quite sure when it’s going to appear.

I started writing up notes for the final talk by Prof. Vasudevi Reddy but Pen Green have been ever so helpful and put all of the videos up online! Click the link an have a look: Understanding Children's Development slides and videos

I would love to hear you thoughts, please get in touch!

A massive thanks to all of the speakers at the conference and the team at Pen Green for putting the event on.

Tim

Our children learn how to box...

Whenever I see a discarded box outside a shop waiting to be recycled or (gasp) thrown away I always feel an urge to grab them and cart them away to FR HQ for transformation into the most fantastic creations. This post is dedicated to that most wonderful of forgettable items: the cardboard box (applause)

My favourite comic growing up (and indeed now, all good children's products can be judged on how much they interest adults) is Calvin and Hobbes: if you haven't heard of the adventures of this six year old boy and his 'stuffed' tiger then head here to have a read: Calvin and Hobbes. Calvin always had a hundred different uses for the humble cardboard box and we have started to explore our own imaginations with a few sides of corrugated cardboard.

Building tunnels and castles, the children drew their own windows along the sides

Space rockets travelling to space: one child would sit inside whilst the others stood around the edge giving them a countdown before shaking the box and welcoming them out

We've also created robots, dinosaurs and used them as slides: the possibilities are endless with boxes, the next time you have one, leave it lying around and see what you child makes of it... or with it!

[gallery ids="3450,3449,3446,3445,3444,3443,3439,3441,3442,3428,3429,3431,3430"]

A lot of our creations have been made possible because of an excellent construction aid called Makedo that a parent put me on to a little while ago. I mentioned it previously in this post: check it out as well.

Tim

Me, You and everything in between!

As children grow up they become more aware of people around them, from primary carers to extended family, friends and strangers they develop a sense of what they feel and apply those ideas to others using empathy. Emotions are incredibly hard to recognise and describe for young children (and for adults) and so our role as caring adults is to provide the words for them to talk openly about how they feel.  Being able to recognise and respond to other people and their emotions is a key aspect of social development and we also highlight it during conflict resolution: Our approach to conflict resolution

• The practitioner acknowledges and responds to the children involved "I can see that you're looking angry and frustrated X because the toy wasn't being shared but because you hit out, Y is scared and sad"
• We see if we can come to a resolution "What could you have done instead of hitting"
• Various solutions might be raised "I could have asked" or "But we need to share" "He had been playing for a long time with the toy"
• The practitioner mediates the discussion until a resolution is come to that is agreed on by all parties

As these steps progress, other children often come into the discussion with suggestions about what could happen as well, it's vital that all of our children know that their input is valued, their emotions are valid and they can communicate how they are feeling in any appropriate way. It is a very long process but our role is to plant the seeds that will hopefully flourish later in life. It's also important to recognise that children experiment with emotions during their play, particularly role play and that for them, it provides a really powerful tool to explore ethics, actions and consequences; Dinosaurs roar and some are meat eaters, superheroes fight and kill baddies etc... meeting the challenges that such play can present requires skill and quick thinking from the adult: why do superheroes kill baddies? To save and help others. As for dinosaurs, I always accept that they have every right to be in the setting but that if they want to join in, they have the responsibility to adhere to the same rules as everyone else: we all have our own personalities but our rights and responsibilities are also vital to make our nursery a positive place to be.

Here are two more examples that I have dealt with recently, their differences are clear but they both involve emotions and conflict in different ways:

• A child (S) had pushed another (T) to the ground and had been going to kick him when a coworker brought them in to me. As we entered discussion, I made it clear that I hadn't seen the incident so it was vital that they could tell me what had happened. S said that he had pushed T over because he had been hit by T. T in turn said that he had hit S because S had snatched a toy from him. It then turned out that the toy that T had belonged to another child and S was trying to get him to give it back. From backtracking the entire disagreement and letting the children describe to me what had happened (I said very little during the talk) both of the boys were able to recognise the causes and repercussions of their actions.
•  A boy (J) had just jumped off of a chair toward a cushion when another (A) ran in front of him and they collided. J looked shocked and upset as A shouted at him "you have to look before you jump" and started to cry loudly (I have to note that A was looking towards me and his cry seemed to outstrip the pain he was actually in) in response, J started to cry in reaction to A's own cry. Attending to the two children I had to acknowledge that A was feeling hurt but that because he was crying so loudly he was making J more upset in turn and for us to get to the bottom of the problem, A needed to calm himself to show J that he was feeling better. Once A had taken the time to calm himself, J calmed down and we started to come up with rules for safe jumping.

For any society to work all people involved need to feel positive about their interactions as well as actively attending and sorting out their conflicts: there aren't negative emotions, just negative actions. Have a look at the gallery below as well, think about what might be happening and what the children are thinking. Write what you think in the comments below!

[gallery ids="3350,3349,3348,3347"]

Tim

Mo Seeka Seeka

Here is a story that I've been telling recently, I heard it first from the wonderful Noah Messomo, originally from Cameroon and who now works in Dorset. This is a misremembered and edited version, drawing slightly on a couple of ideas from Aesop's fables 'Androcles and the lion' and 'The lion and the mouse'. [soundcloud url="http://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/82636822" params="" width=" 100%" height="166" iframe="true" /]

One day Mo Seeka Seeka left his home  a walked into the jungle

'Step, step, cheep, cheep; step, step, cheep, cheep; step, step, cheep, cheep'

Suddenly, out of the dense foliage came an Elephant

Elephant looked down at Mo Seeka Seeka, Mo Seeka Seeka looked up at Elephant

"Mo Seeka Seeka, what are you doing out in the jungle by yourself, don't you know it's dangerous?"

"Mr Elephant, I am going to see the king! I am going to ask him for some food and some water because my parents are so hungry and so thirsty that they are feeling tired... and I want to play!"

"OK, off you go: but be careful."

And on he walked

'Step, step, cheep, cheep; step, step, cheep, cheep; step, step. cheep, cheep'

Suddenly, out of the dense foliage came Giraffe

Giraffe looked down at Mo Seeka Seeka, Mo Seeka Seeka looked up at Giraffe

"Mo Seeka Seeka, what are you doing out in the jungle by yourself, don't you know it's dangerous?"

"Mr Giraffe, I am going to see the king! I am going to ask him for some food and some water because my parents are so hungry and so thirsty that they are feeling tired... and I want to play!"

"OK, off you go: but be careful."

And on he walked

'Step, step, cheep, cheep; step, step, cheep, cheep; step, step. cheep, cheep'

Suddenly, out of the dense foliage came Monkey

Monkey looked down at Mo Seeka Seeka, Mo Seeka Seeka looked up at Monkey

"Mo Seeka Seeka, what are you doing out in the jungle by yourself, don't you know it's dangerous?"

"Mr Monkey, I am going to see the king! I am going to ask him for some food and some water because my parents are so hungry and so thirsty that they are feeling tired... and I want to play!"

"OK, off you go: but be careful."

And on he walked

'Step, step, cheep, cheep; step, step, cheep, cheep; step, step. cheep, cheep'

Suddenly, out of the dense foliage came Snake

Snake looked down at Mo Seeka Seeka, Mo Seeka Seeka looked up at Snake

"Mo Seeka Seeka, what are you doing out in the jungle by yourself, don't you know it's dangerous?"

"Mr Snake, I am going to see the king! I am going to ask him for some food and some water because my parents are so hungry and so thirsty that they are feeling tired... and I want to play!"

"OK, off you go: but be careful."

And on he walked

'Step, step, cheep, cheep; step, step, cheep, cheep; step, step. cheep, cheep'

Suddenly, Mo Seeka Seeka came to the king's den

Mo Seeka Seeka heard a rumble and he shivered, Mo Seeka Seeka heard a grumble and he quivered, Mo Seeka Seeka heard a growl and he shook.

Out of the den came LION!!!

Lion looked down at Mo Seeka Seeka, Mo Seeka Seeka looked up at Lion

"Mo Seeka Seeka, what are you doing out in the jungle by yourself, don't you know it's dangerous?"

"Mr King! I am here to ask for some food and some water because my parents are so hungry and so thirsty that they are feeling tired... and I want to play!"

Lion laughed "why should I give you anything!?" but as he stepped forward to eat Mo Seeka Seeka he stood on a thorn: OW!!!

Mo Seeka Seeka leaned forward and pulled the thorn out with his beak. Lion was so grateful that he gave Mo Seeka Seeka a huge sack of food and a huge jug of water and Mo Seeka Seeka put them over his shoulders and off he walked

'Step, step, cheep, cheep; step, step, cheep, cheep; step, step. cheep, cheep'

All the way home.

Since telling this story, the children have come up with new and different ideas: what if Mo Seeka Seeka could see in the dark jungle? How can he carry such huge amounts of food and water home with him? Is Lion really nasty? We also looked at the story through a 'story map' so that the children could tell the tale by following the sequence of pictures

Have fun with this story and see what suggestions your child has for it.

Tim

Addendum: We just wrote a new story this week with two children narrating, me 'illustrating' and then three others colouring it in.

"One sunny day, all the dinosaurs grew big. Felix the dinosaur was being chased by poachers in a helicopter. the other dinosaur was being chased by soldiers and a giant was about to eat him.

Suddenly Triceratops said "stop trying to eat dinosaurs" the giant felt sad and so did the poachers. The dinosaurs cheered them up with a big ROAR!"

Understanding Childhood Development Part 1

It was my privilege and pleasure  in February, to take the long drive up North to the Pen Green Research Centre in Corby. I was attending a series of talks entitled ‘Understanding Childhood Development’ given by Joshua D Sparrow MD, Professor Colwyn Trevathon and Professor Vasudevi Reddy.

The vision, creation and expansion of Pen Green is a wonderful testament to what can be achieved with the right mindset; when the original nursery opened in the 1980’s, Corby was undergoing a terrible spell after the closing of the local steelworks which left 43% of the male population unemployed and the infrastructure depleted and infant mortality rates high due to poor healthcare. Over the last 30 years the nursery has expanded into a centre for children and families and an internationally renown research, development & training base and leadership centre catering for over 1200 families and offering professional development training, degree courses and (of course) seminar, research and conference events.

This particular event focussed primarily on the development of children from their antenatal growth up to a year but its applications and the knowledge can be applied anywhere along the developmental path. I want to give a brief overview of the three talks that happened during the day, full notes and slides are available here: Early Childhood Development 09/02/2013

Joshua Sparrow MD came to present the work of Dr T Berry Brazleton whose career has focussed on the developmental progress of children and the effect that it has on the parents and primary carers, key times that he identified included

• When a child is able to look further around and may suddenly become distracted during close times with the adult
• When a child is starting to learn to walk
• When a child starts to toilet train

The process of such developments is one of regressions, bursts and pauses and can be trying for families as their routine is disrupted in turn by the child’s own disorder. Highlighting these areas made me aware further of the relationships I had with parents when their children were heading through these periods (particularly toilet training), their own worries and stresses and how they found it difficult to see beyond this period. My response has always been one of encouragement and perseverance, following the parents’ lead and offering complementary advice: when I’ve spoken to these parents again after their children have passed through this stage they actually find it hard to believe that they went through that time. As a general rule, following children's developmental paths is far harder than pre-empting it.

Through his talk, I was impressed by the emphasis that touchpoints put on family care rather than child care: practitioners can extend the knowledge of primary carers but have a responsibility and duty to emphasise and learn from their expert knowledge in turn.

• Gatekeeping: The natural competition felt by any two adults who care passionately about the same child

The point at which relationships destabilise and break down comes when the different forces’ (parents, grandparents, professionals etc...) desire to push their own view of the child and what’s best for them outweighs the desire to work for the overall wellbeing of the child and loses focus on what each adult can bring to the child’s life. To paraphrase a story we were told:

“We (touchpoints) were asked to give a parenting class in one of the most deprived areas of Harlem, we agreed to the session but made it clear we weren’t going to be the teachers. At the first meeting the parents sat down and we asked them what they, as experts, could tell us about their children and each point that was mentioned was written down on a flipchart. By the end of the session the flip chart was full of their knowledge.”

What was the perception of the authorities who asked touchpoints to give a lesson on parenting? How could this session have gone if this view was accepted and not questioned? How do you think the parents felt at the end of the session as it ran? They were the ones who were given a chance to express themselves, whose knowledge was valued and recorded, not through a complicated or rigorous test and an average score, but through an open forum and an attentive, caring audience.

At the end of the opening talk, we were given this quote bringing together what touchpoints sought to achieve and provide:

• “What parents need to be the kind of parents they want to be for their children”

It took me a few minutes of consideration to fully understand the force behind this statement. Parents need to perceive themselves as competent, they need to feel empowered to make a difference to children’s lives, they need to feel connected to others through supportive networks and relationships and they need to be connected to their pasts, to be emotionally available in the present and dare to hope for their children’s future.

In our day to day work with children we share their pain, their joy, frustrations and resolutions and, all in all, we take them into our hearts... and we share that with their family in whatever form it takes. For everyone involved in a child’s life empowerment is key and with it the power to open up to others, accept their ideas and empower them in turn.

And this was just the end of the first talk... the learning continues in part 2

Tim

Outdoor Nation - National Trust Blog Post

The National Trust have been very vocal recently in trying to understand and reverse the growing trend of children that are growing up away and disconnected from Nature. In 2010 they ran a national debate called Outdoor Nation, asking the UK if getting children outside was important? Of course, everyone agreed it was. Since this, they have commissioned a report by writer and broadcaster Stephen Moss (you can read this report here: Natural Childhood Report) to drive this consensus forward to actionable results. They have also backed filmmaker David Bond in his film “Project Wild Thing” as he tries to convince the current generation of children that Nature is something to get involved in.

Another part of this Outdoor Nation project is a blog, which the National Trust has gathered lots of like minded educators, professionals and outdoor enthusiasts to keep this message alive and share their views on what can be done. I was privileged to be asked to contribute to this, and to detail why it is important to tap into Nature at an early age and to inspire lifelong learning and a connection with the Great Outdoors during the Early Years as well as after.

There are many other contributors as well that are well worth a read. Click on the link below and have a read! Do share your comments and thoughts, both here and on the blog. It’s a worthy debate to get involved in!

Outdoor Nation Blog

Thanks,

R. Fox

Story Telling - A Skill for Every Occasion

There’s a story teller in all of us... One of our favourite parts of the day as a family is snuggling down to a good cuddle and a book at the end of a long day. When our youngest started being able to shuffle and crawl, sharing a book with our eldest became tricky. Despite providing our youngest with his own book, ours was obviously more interesting because the rest of us were looking at it and he wanted in too. But in order for all of us to enjoy this time without our eldest getting frustrated that the little man was obstructing the his story time, we changed tack. We took away the books and started to use our imaginations, all of us.

To begin with we stayed safe and told stories about Billy the Digger and his daily routine; a familiar machine goes about his daily chores. Then we introduced more characters, many shared the same names of friends from nursery; this time though they were all ants who needed to climb a tree; I forget why. Now, after only a few weeks we have our favourite protagonists who have triangular heads sporting carefully balanced bowler hats, with tummies as big as tractor wheels and the longest legs you’ve ever seen. Sometimes these characters are entering into spaghetti eating competitions at the local circus or running from tsunamis. Sometimes we can’t even remember where our stories began but we all really relish the opportunity to create something shared that is unique yet meaningful to each of us thanks to the shared process involved with storytelling.

My new found love of the art of storytelling has introduced me to TED talks: http://www.ted.com/talks/andrew_stanton_the_clues_to_a_great_story.html and this really makes me want to develop my story telling capabilities.

As a Forest School Leader the ability to tell stories is a great skill to have up your sleeve. A lit fire, a relaxed group and a good yarn are so enjoyable, especially when the children start acting out the story or interjecting to direct the plot as it unfolds. This week, out in Free Rangers’ garden a small group of children came over to enquire what I was up to with P, one of our preschoolers. We were packing wet sand onto the side of the sandpit and trying to write her name without the sand cracking. Everyone had a go at packing the sand and soon we had a lovely blank canvas of smooth wet sand on which to make marks. I asked the children if I could make some doodles. They didn’t object and so I drew, using a stick, a series of random shapes and objects vertically on top of one another. I then asked if they could guess what they were. They all had a go and reasoned convincingly as to why one squiggle was clearly a feather and the other a coin, until they had agreed on every mark I had made. I then wondered out loud if together we could link all the objects into a story, they weren’t so sure, but that’s where “The man with a briefcase of music” was born.

Upon reflection so many learning opportunities presented themselves during this twenty minute interaction. Obviously communication and language are explored; made up words, rhythm and rhyme pop up; so too do different narrative styles and even story genres. Children must listen to the raconteur, sharing eye contact and recounting the events to those new children joining the group. When it comes to telling stories themselves, the ability to empathise with characters’ feelings demonstrates sound emotional development and including movement and music in stories promotes increased confidence in self-expression.

So how about it then? If you usually share a book with your child, try sharing a story created together. We would love to hear what happens or indeed if you already have some favourite home-made stories. What does your child / children love to hear about in these creative moments?

Finally, I’d like to make it clear that I’m not knocking the written word, I’m merely wondering if a love of literacy in later life stems from a love of the worlds it can create through the art of storytelling. If anyone would like to share a story that has been passed down verbally to them over the years, we would warmly welcome them to share it with the children.

Boing! (or, the nature of play as described by Free Rangers)

Earlier this week I posted this video on to our Facebook page:

BOING!!

I find it such a lovely snippet of play from two children (S & F) that involves so many different little bits of thought; when S came up with the idea the the balls could make a noise on the drum, the fact that F was more precise with her throwing (when she missed, her next throw was much more careful and planned) whereas S wanted to try and make the loudest noise he could, how F went back to the box after throwing each ball and how S followed the thrown objects as best he could, when F realises that she can use two balls instead of one to produce a different effect and when S sums it all up at the end with "heh, boing!"... All these lines of thought are wonderfully visible in just a minute long clip, their differing agendas and the purpose of their play, how they change their actions as they discover new things and how accepting they are of each other's presence in the play. The route that we took to this video, however, really started the afternoon before.

On my travels around the nursery I came across a bag full of white balls which seemed perfect for indoor use. We have lots of children who enjoy throwing and these balls were small and light enough not to cause any damage to those around. Interestingly, when I put the balls down for the children they didn't instantly spread them to the far corners of the room; they found targets in the form of baskets and boxes , they played 'Angry Birds', they tipped them from box to box back and forth, they packaged them up and carried them around the room delivering them to different people: such patterns of play are called schema.

Schema (schematic thinking) are lines and patterns of thought that children follow to further develop their ideas and make meaning from their play. Although everybody uses schema in their day to day life as we get older the patterns we use become more complicated and part of our thought process as opposed to children's schema which they use as a visual part of their play, some common types of schema in children could be;

• Trajectory: throwing, rolling, lining up, drawing and being interested in lines etc...
• Enclosing: enjoying small closed spaces, putting boxes on heads, creating boxes around their work (or fences around small world play
• Enveloping: wrapping things up, folding up paintings or drawings, covering toys over
• Rotational: enjoying watching things turn, fascination with wheel and rolling, drawing or cutting out circles
• Transporting: Moving objects from one place to another, games involving passing, rolling or throwing between people
• Positioning: Ordering items exactly, not wanting their food touching, looking at the world in different ways e.g lying down, standing on their head
• Connecting; linking or tying objects together, enjoying jigsaw puzzles and train sets with connecting pieces

As children play their schemas become more advanced, they may use two or more at the same time and the processes become more internalised and abstract. Schema play is just one of the structures that we use at Free Rangers to understand our children's work and plan for their needs. In brief two other ideas that this example represents are:

The theory of loose parts: if you give children (or adults) toys that have a wide range of applications and ways of being put together and played with, they will be able to mould and shape them to suit their needs and thoughts (and schema)

Portchmouth principle: if you give children the open access to these materials, they will be able to make meaning from it themselves without further introduction e.g give a child a bucket and spade on a beach and you won't have to teach them how to dig!

As a final example I'd like you to think of the popular children's toy Lego: Why has such a simple idea lasted for such a long time? Why, in light of technological advances do these small pieces of plastic still hold such joy for children and adults? After reading this post it should come as no surprise that Lego taps in to all children's mindsets, the fact that they can form and shape it as they will, it can be put connected together, pulled apart, sorted, turned into things that move, that roll and turn. If you give children Lego you give them possibilities. To extract the point somewhat look at the incredibly popular computer game Minecraft: same thing*. Recently in the Den we got our first set of Makedo: I'll let you know how we get on...

Tim

*for fairness' sake I'd like to point out that there are other brands of connecting toys and games on the market... but Lego is awesome!

Three Counties Early Years NETwork & National Education Trust Programme

Back in November 2012 Free Rangers Nursery was made into a National Education Trust “Advocacy School” (Read this Blog Post for more info). As a result we are now involved in various training, CPD and Early Years NETwork programmes, and we would like to extend an invitation for local nursery owners, managers and practitioners to come be a part of the latest Three Counties Early Years NETwork programme. In March, a DfE sponsored training programme will begin based at 3 centres; one here in Somerset, one in Gloucestershire and one in the West Midlands. Please see the attached flyer for more detail. This programme of three sessions is fully funded by the Department for Education, so is completely free for you. Do take advantage of this fantastic opportunity.

Click here for the Flyer (PDF)

The key aims are to enable participants to:

• Evaluate the changing context for delivery in Children’s Centres and early years settings
• Explore strategies for proactive service development and family engagement
• Exchange best practice and learn from other leaders: the NETworks approach

This training has been delivered across the country, and we’ve had some excellent feedback:

“I’ve gone from overwhelming concern over the challenges I face to celebrating success, feeling good and energised to do more”

The course will run as follows:

• Wednesday 6th March - Hill, Valley and Vale Children’s Centres c/o Park Infant School, Stonehouse, Gloucestershire
•  Tuesday 12th March - Free Rangers Forest School Nursery, Midsomer Norton, Somerset
•  Tuesday 19th March - Hillfields Children’s Centre, Coventry, West Midlands

At present, there are places available, but act quickly so that you can take this opportunity to benefit from this free, high-quality CPD in your local area. If you would like to join, please contact Charlotte at Free Rangers Nursery at charlottefreerangers@gmail.com or call the nursery on 01761411328.

For further information, contact Lucy Sumner at NET lucy@nationaleducationtrust.net.

We look forward to welcoming you at Free Rangers Nursery!

Gung Hay Fat Choi

We're coming into the year of the Snake on the 10th February and this week we've had a blast at Free Rangers getting into the spirit. The week started with us telling the story about the creation of the calendar: the race between the 12 animals and how the rat climbed atop the ox's head before hopping off right at the end to win the race! In celebration of this year's animal we put together a giant snake, painted in bright green and pink with foil stuck over it, the children decided that it would look more snake-like if it was wiggly and helped to cut out the shape before it was put up in the Den for everyone to see. The week was capped with a real lion dance, the path was mapped out beforehand, the lettuce for the lion was carried by a (willing) volunteer and then the lion was released amongst the noise of drums and shakers! We're certainly looking forward to a year of good luck at the nursery!

This celebration was made all the more enjoyable by one boy, T, whose family is partly Chinese. During one session he started talking to an adult about how he and his dad have "Chinese hair" but not his mum; he demonstrated his knowledge clearly not only of what made him 'him' but, because he also has a strong friendship group, he showed that he has a positive view of himself as an individual. Working in a primarily white setting leads me (the equailty officer) to the question of how diversity and different cultures are expressed in a meaningful and un-tokenistic way in order to provide positive learning experiences for all our children. Our children's interest, recognition and pride in their own individuality and that of others is key to unlocking this question and our Chinese New Year was a perfect chance to work with such a vital and delicate subject.

In discussion with T's Mum, she told us how as a family they went to watch the celebrations at the M shed in Bristol each year and expanded on what we already knew about T, that he recognised Chinese writing when he saw it and that when the family went to China town in London he was amazed at how many people looked just like him! To help us with our learning, she asked him to choose a selection of his favourite decorations and items from his home to bring in and share with us and provided us with some red pockets to hand out as well.

I felt so pleased with the way the children all got into the spirit of the event and though there were some worried looks at the lion when he came to life, all the children who were concerned took themselves to a safe distance... though where they could still watch!

Good luck and best wishes to all and and may you have a prosperous and joyous new year,

Tim

The Rise and Rise of The Den

We were making bread at Nursery today thanks to the interest of one of our children. This boy had approached me and asked to do some baking and we had listed some of the things he wanted to make up on our planning board; bread, cake, biscuits, bacon sandwiches, popcorn and burgers to name but a few! I'm a keen breadmaker and so with all the ingredients ready we set to work... I had a crack team of bakers all keen to mix, measure, stir and pat, roll, shape and splat, we discussed the different parts of the process that needed attention and I was really pleased to hear the children confidently telling an interested onlooker how they were kneading the dough before we proved it.

This activity also had an impact at home as well; I was fortunate enough to meet the mother of the boy who asked to bake this morning, she told how excited he was about seeing me. Meeting the parents and seeing how happy they are about their children's anticipation of the day or how confidently they can trust us when their child is not as sure in the transition gives me a real buzz and highlights an important issue about the way we as Early Years practitioners work with and respect the impact of the families around the children.

We’re now a little under a month settling into our new rooms and it seems like a good time to reflect on the positives of the room change and what we can do to keep everything working at a top level. I would like to invite parents from all four rooms to take some time to let us know how you feel about your new room, what you like and what your children like and want to add. Talk to your key person, drop us an email or a note in the office and remember this is our nursery and we make it better by working together.

Tim 'Wild Boar' Graham

P.S The bread was lovely and orders are now being taken!

A very Free Rangers Christmas

I'm sure you've all been checking out the various wonderful creations by our own Red Fox over the last few posts, I felt that it was, however, due time to shine a light on what happened inside the Den in the run up to Christmas. As we approached the season of merriment, I wanted to make sure that our build up was natural, had a home made feel and gave the children ownership of their room. I plan to go into the theory and practicalities of ownership in the setting in a future post but for now have a look at our results:

The star was kindly made for us by a parent (& a very creative bunch they are too!), the tree by Laura (one of our apprentices) and decorated over the month by the children. The night sky scene came out of pure happenstance: Nin found some gold spray paint and involved the children in a new mark making experience creating beautiful swirling patterns, I had been cutting out some kindness baubles (see below) and the left over material was uncannily star-shaped. Once the paint was dry we stencilled with silver paint: all the children exhibited great control over the cans and the result was impressive. The children especially loving the spacey look of it when I held it up: we'll have to do more next year...

The used shapes did not go to waste however, they were put up on our skylight!

The kindness baubles came from an idea inspired from my Mum's playgroup to promote kind thoughts, actions and deeds. Each snack time we discussed how we can be kind to others, after we had had some ideas then I said the kind things that I had seen happen during the session and wrote them out to be hung up with our other decorations. The children came up with lots of great ideas and the idea will be coming back in various form during the next to keep promoting our "Play, Share and Take Care" charter.

Christmas is a wonderful time of year and exciting for both the children and adults and it has been so enjoyable working as a group to create the festive feeling.

To finish, and as an interesting point of discussion I think we need to be considering how Christmas gets presented to our children, particularly as they get to the ages of 3-4 and understand what this day represents, not as a religious holiday, but as a cultural event. I was talking to one parent who was felt that her son was getting more and more worn out each day in the run up to the 25th and it didn't seem a coincidence that this was the first year he appeared to have 'got' Christmas, in fact all of our older children were far more aware of the concept of "x number of sleeps until Christmas" and as the last week passed, they were bouncing higher and further off of the walls (I'm just glad they took their shoes off first).The charged energy was palpable in the room* and I've been considering further how healthy this is for young people; with shops starting the advertising drive from Autumn, sales, media and the access that young people have to this I think it's vital that we keep promoting the ethos of this festive season as one of giving, kindness, valuing others and the enjoyment of celebration wherever we may be and whoever we may be with. What are your thoughts?

Have yourselves a very merry festive season, be kind, stay safe and here's to a fantastic 2013!

Tim

* I'm convinced that children's perception of the weekend is already cementing itself around this age as well.