It is getting warmer in Belgium, and although we even go to the forest on cold, rainy days, they would be happy to stay out all day on a day like this.
I think we're very lucky to have this forest as a resource, right outside our classroom door. It's a wild place to them - and their bodies and minds are stimulated simply by what is naturally surrounding them. It is impossible to be bored, or without inspiration, out here in the forest.
This is also a good time to mention that I finally got around to reading this wonderful article by Anna Golden from the Atelierista blog. It makes me want to be out in the forest with the children every day. For those of you who do not have "wild spaces", this article will probably inspire you to find one and use it often. A wild space can mean many things - and more things are wild to children than they are to us as adults.
Thanks Allie! Our 'forest' isn't really that big, and we teachers didn't even notice it for years. It is really just an overgrown easement area. But when we did notice and begin to explore it, it changed everything at our school.
ReplyDeleteI think that no matter what the space, when you give the children the chance to explore an unplanned space, they find amazing things that we, as adults, overlook everyday. We went into the forest again yesterday, and even I was lured towards a new trail that I thought might bring us to a creek.
ReplyDeleteThanks a lot for sharing this. I miss not having a nice wild space to explore. Even with older kids it is just so much fun to get out. They are so different in another environment.
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