The New Office & Staff Room

We are pleased to announce the opening of the new office this week. If you would like to visit please feel free, likewise if you want to pop in and say Hello you are more than welcome. Gemma or Jess will be on the gate each morning as normal for general enquiries as well as to meet and greet our little rangers. However if you would like to talk privately we can use the multi-purpose room, which has a main use as our staff room. The Free Rangers team are very excited as we are wifi friendly across the whole of the nursery. This will assist with our EYFS Cog that we are transferring to, instead of the learning logs which again, we are very excited about. This will allow your children's learning to be more accessible and visual to you, as we can upload photographs, videos and observations throughout the day. As we believe parents/carers are the children's first educators, we feel it is paramount for you to be part of your child's learning, therefore you will have access to your child's cog and share their home experiences with us, again with photographs and video's, as well as anecdotes from the children's explorations and learning.

We would like to say massive thank you to Adam Drescher Construction for the refurbishment and design of the new office, as well as the other local business that participated:

- Woodfit

- JD Electrical

- MW Plestor Plumbing

- West Country Joinery

- Temple Plastering and Rendering

We are also currently taking bookings for 2016, if you are interested in your little ones becoming a Free Ranger or to visit our lovely setting please contact Gemma on 01761411328 to arrange a visit.

We wish you a Happy Halloween!!

Gemma and all the Team at FR!

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Big Ted Comes to Visit!

The team and children at Free Rangers celebrated Ted's Big Day Out on Friday 18th October 2013. We celebrated in style by wearing a hat or a wig and meeting Big Ted alongside the Heart FM Team. We enjoyed the afternoon with homemade Teddy Bear biscuits for our snacks as well as raising money which will be donated to Cancer Care at the Royal United Hospital.

Gemma

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Free Rangers Goes to the Awards!

Welcome to the first blog post for the children aged 2 years and under. Each of the rooms will take it in turns to write a little something informing you of what's been occurring with the littlest Free Rangers. The Burrow ( 2-3 year old's) will start and then the Warren (1-2 years) old's will follow, finishing up with the Nest.

Recently Holly from the Burrow went to an awards ceremony in Bath with Gemma and Tim. Gemma received an award for "Your commitment to working an integrated way to support children and families" (she had worked with many outside agencies to ensure the well being of children in her previous setting). Holly collected an award for "Empowering staff to include a large number of children with a wide range of needs", and Tim was the nursery representative when we were congratulated for obtaining our 'Outstanding' from Ofsted. It was a lovely to have all the hard work we put in to Free Rangers recognised by the Local Authority!

There are some changes afoot in the Burrow, Meg has left us, Booo! She is going to Hong Kong to work in a nursery. It's an amazing opportunity and although we'll miss her (her love of pick 'n' mix and comedy value clumsiness), we wish her all the best! As of Monday 5th August the room staff in the Burrow will consist of Holly, Lauren and we'll welcome Nicola in Meg's place.

We all wish you a pleasant August and look forward to meeting some of our new little Rangers in September.

Have fun!! :-)

Forest School Inset at Free Rangers

Never one to rest on our laurels and always looking to improve, the Free Rangers Staff team met up on Saturday 20th July for an Inset morning. We were promised cake and marshmallows cooked over the fires that we were to light so there was an incentive for the early morning start! The morning started with us all playing an “ice breaker game” in which staff were positioned in a circle and given something in their hands. Without looking and using only their sense of touch they had to find their partner in the circle who had the same item as themselves. Once their partner was located they were asked to talk about what they are most proud in their lives; it could be a personal achievement or a family member or a combination of a number of things. Staff were then invited to share this with the whole group. This was an emotional half hour when we all listened intently as people generously shared private feelings and personal triumphs.

We then progressed onto collecting sticks of similar size and learnt how to tie them together and make a star. Whilst doing this and lending a hand to one another, we chatted about what Free Rangers means to us on a personal level and shared ideas about our vision for Free Rangers in the future.

Ideas expressed in no particular order included:

• Open an Infant School, Primary School, Secondary School, University (all with a forest school ethos)
• Open another Free Rangers Nursery around the Bath area
• Have a sensory room on site
• Have a flower meadow on site
• Expand the pond area
• Forge links with other nurseries both on a local, national and international level
• Develop a building just for the under two’s
• Further improve the provision for the under two’s outside
• Increased opportunities for Continued Professional Development

Everyone has ideas about how they see the nursery developing whether it is on the current site or elsewhere. We actively encourage all parents past and present to share their ideas in the comments box following this blog post. What would you like to see at Free Rangers, how can we seek to improve out practice further? Is making the car park floor puddle free a priority over investing in more outdoor resources for the children? What do you think?

Following a short break we split into groups and went to different areas in the paddock area. We came up with a list of the perceived risks in our allocated area. This provoked numerous discussions on what is a risk? How can we minimize risks? One overall conclusion we all agreed on is that there are so many “benefits to risk” and by taking them all away would hugely reduce the learning experiences and opportunities we provide for the children. A bit of good old common sense is of course required!

We headed down to the woods and foraged for firewood to make our own fires. We reminded ourselves of the fire triangle and the importance of fire safety and under the watchful eye of Ed Harding we all accomplished lighting our own fire. It was clear to see from the faces of the group that I was in that we all felt a sense of accomplishment seeing our fires burning brightly ready for some serious marshmallow cooking. It reminded us of how the children feel when they achieve something. You that that warm glow feeling, that “ Sense of Chuffedness!”

A couple of days later and having had an opportunity to reflect on the morning some things are very apparent and already known but there is no harm in putting it in writing from time to time:

• We are all very passionate about children.
• We care deeply about finding the best ways to meet the needs of each and every child that passes through the Free Rangers doors.
• The Free Rangers staff is a special group of individuals.
• We are all looking to learn and improve all the time.

Saturday was at the very least an opportunity for us to talk to one another without the distractions of a working day. It was an opportunity to catch up on one another lives and to say those important words,

“Thank You Free Rangers Staff we are very lucky to have you."

Onwards an upwards we all go, seeking to enhance the opportunities of those little Free Rangers.

Jayne

"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.

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.

Inside & Out

At Free Rangers the children are offered the great outdoors as much as possible. But as there are occasions when some shelter and R&R are required we - as much as possible - bring the outside in! [nggallery id=3]

The Free Rangers Map

It's difficult to show the extent of what's on offer to our Free Range Kids with just a camera. But Midsomer Norton and Radstock boast woodland, fields and paddocks aplenty; and - as well as a purpose built converted barn - the local natural classroom is vast...! You can download a copy here.

Our Popular Game Of Tyre Jumping

At Free Rangers learning takes flight!

Bell Tent Buckled in Big Breeze Bend!

Over the Christmas break the gale force weather caused a debilitating bend in the mainstay of the garden’s brilliant bell tent. We’re waiting for the replacement to arrive, and no doubt the resourceful, inventive and ingenious Free Rangers staff will create a terrific learning experience while hoisting the new one …every canvas has a silver lining!