In Nature Play

Stick parking… what a simple, beautiful idea to house the sticks that the children walk on land with. As part of a common worlds approach the children go walking with nature, learning from and with nature as the worlds unfold around them. I love how the sticks are all shapes and sizes, demonstrating that none have been shaped to meet the child’s needs, rather intra-active pedagogies can be seen here. Intra active pedagogies emphasise equitable relationships between the human and non human. As demonstrated here the agency of the natural material, the stick, has been taken into account as each child has chosen one to walk with based on the sticks natural characteristics.

I read this book before I went to Denmark and it all fell into place for me. This book really delves into the early years education system in Denmark and with that, comes an understanding of why nature play philosophy is so embedded over there. Whilst this book has forest school in its title, it’s made very clear that this isn’t a danish term, but rather a term coined by British educators to describe nature play philosophy! Regardless of its title this book is a brilliant read if you want to underhand the background of this philosophy more. Check it out on Perlego - you can sign up for free for 7 days and read it in 1 :)

Constantly growing and evolving, knowledge is a fluid concept that changes every day. Therefore, when sharing your expertise, it's important to preface with a disclaimer: "At this point in time, we know...". While you may possess more knowledge than others in your field, there's always more to learn. In other words, we are not experts, but rather, lifelong learners who share what we know. This approach may not always be perfect or well-received, but it's imperative to share knowledge so we can all grow and learn from each other. What if we replaced "experts" with "knowledge sharers" to relieve the pressure of imposter syndrome? I plan on doing this from now on and wonder if by shifting the focus from being an expert, to being a knowledge sharer, will it create a more collaborative and inclusive learning environment. An environment where everyone is encourager to share their unique insights and experiences, and we learn from one another.

We had the pleasure of meeting mads boelling in Denmark.
Someone that and I have both referenced. He told us all about his research, and we bet met and presented our research to his team. It was a wonderful afternoon full of international connections in our field!

When work is as awesome as this, is it really work! Yesterday I spent the day with a beautiful nature kindy whose grounds were wild… and building was environmentally friendly! I got taken around by little kids who spoke to me in danish and I smiled a lot. We bonded over frogs, spiders, gigantic snails.And round wild raspberries, apples, blueberries and plums! What a day :)

Stenurten is a naturbornehaven located in the middle of Nørrebro, Copenhagen with children from 0-6 years old. It was built in 2002 with ecological friendly materials - mainly recycled stone, wood and solarglass. They actively teach the children and their families about taking care of the environment and each other. For example they recycle their leftovers from the kitchen and when it becomes soil they use that for planting new vegetables, herbs and flowers. In addition each of their three kindy groups spends one whole week in a nearby forest every three weeks! It was so cool seeing this place in real life!

I spent some time wandering around Transmosen which is about twenty minutes outside of Copenhagen and came across this beautiful kindy. Struck me how the natural features really blended in with the nature that surrounded it!

This is me! I’m a nature lover who grew up building go karts in my grandads tool shed, playing schools in my grandmas rose garden, and swimming in the dam on my nan and lols acreage. I was a wild child and now I want all kids to get time to just ‘be’ in nature… so I’m working on my PhD in nature play philosophy and pedagogy and learning so much as I do case studies with other practitioners in Australia. I also run the Brisbane branch of Wildlings Forest School and am working on opening my own childcare centre where the kids can be outside as much as they want! Can’t wait to meet you!

Yes the EYLF (early years curriculum in Australia) has outcomes. But what are the underlying principles? Are they outcomes focused?

Social constructivism has been another one that I’ve spent months rewriting definitions for over and over again as I slowly construct my understanding. I differentiate between constructionism and constructivism by thinking of them in terms of construction and constructive. With construction it’s normally a lot of people working together to construct something. Whereas constructive feels very singular like I’m doing something that is constructive. Hence, social constructivism is my interpretation of knowledge that I’ve acquired. So an example in nature play would be a child bringing their lunch in reusable wrap after they’ve socially constructed knowledge within a past nature play session about the impact of rubbish on nature.