Whatever happened to good old-fashioned play?
How often do you wonder why your child is incapable of playing by themselves?
By the time the school holidays arrive, children have spent at least six weeks working hard on literacy, numeracy and science. This school based learning is vitally important to their understanding of how the world works, and to develop their skill in these areas. But what use is this if it is not balanced with an understanding of its relevance to everyday life?
After such an intense period of time where they are told what to do with just about every minute of their day, children need to relearn how to occupy themselves and to re-engage their curiosity, and their imagination.
Children are not outdoors as much as they used to be, and there is growing evidence supporting the harm that this is doing to them physically, emotionally and socially. Humber Forest School gives them the opportunity to be outside in a different environment, with different people. This means they are stimulated in completely different ways – finding new interests, new friends and new skills.
Outdoors, there's a whole range of play opportunities, including physical – tree climbing, evasion games, obstacle courses; creative – whittling sticks, making dens, campfire cooking; environmental – lighting fires, building dams, flying kites or making mud pies; social –meeting new people, inventing games and rules; imaginative – going on a dragon hunt, building fairy houses, making witches potions…
Play is so important to children’s wellbeing. For children, play is learning, but at the rate that each individual is biologically ready for. Play enables children to explore the way the world works in a way they are ready and able to understand. There is no end result expected when children are playing and this takes the pressure off them, enabling them to explore and experiment in whatever takes their fancy. This can occasionally mean allowing children to feel bored, and relax until something they are really interested in catches their attention. Being bored in a stimulating environment allows the brain to become more inventive and gives children time to explore all possibilities of things to do.
At Humber Forest School our staff are experienced at allowing children to make their own decisions about how they want to spend their day, yet know when to step in when children need help making these choices.
