Time to Wonder and Wander

Time to Wonder and Wander

Close your eyes and think about one of your favorite memories as a child. I recently attended a

conference where the speaker asked the crowd to do this. We were all very surprised as people

started to share their answers. Almost every single person who spoke up had a memory that was

connected to nature. I know this is certainly true for me. I was very lucky to grow up with fields and

forests to explore, the truth is children will find nature anywhere.

When my children were five and seven, we took them to Washington DC. They had never spent much

time in a city, so we were excited to see their awe over all the traffic and big city stuff. They enjoyed it

all, but their favorite part of our whole visit was a big tree on the open lawn by the Washington

Monument. They ran around on the green grass and climbed and played all over the tree, while my

husband and I took pictures of the monument. They complained when it was time to continue on with

our sightseeing.  This moment has stuck with me as a reminder of how much children need time with

nature. 

Another morning of our trip, we were on our way to one of the museums to see dinosaur bones and

other exciting stuff. That morning they got distracted by a line of ants on the sidewalk. We stopped for

a while, in the middle of the sidewalk, and let them study the activity for a few minutes. But as bored

adults, we couldn’t help but remind them that we had ants back in Maine, so let’s go! I think most

parents can probably think of a time when their child was more interested in the puddle or a particular

stick on the ground, than the amazing thing you were trying to get to.

Children don’t care if nature is big or small, fancy or just a rock they found. In fact, they often prefer the

ordinary rock that they found at the top of the mountain rather than the view that you climbed there to

see. As adults, we need to provide more space and time for our children to experience nature. 

Children need time to observe, time to dawdle and time to poke at things with a stick, without adults

feeling the need to teach them something every step of the way. As adults, it is easy for us to pull them

by the hand to the big exciting thing. The reality is they learn so much more if we just step back and

allow them the time to explore the world through their eyes. 

 

This post was originally written for my Growing The Future column for the Daily Bulldog. 

Far Reaches and Beyond!

 

Far reaches and beyond! 

I had the opportunity to meet and listen to Rachel Larimore of Samara Early Learning speak at the Maine State Early Childhood Conference. Rachel said a lot of things that were familiar and resonated. One thing she mentioned that really stuck was exploring "the beyond." The space beyond the playground. The outer world. I believe the use of the phrase originates from Claire Warden. 

Since then I have also been reflecting a lot on what I am now calling our "far reaches." We've always been fascinated with how children naturally congregate to most extreme borders they can within the playground limits. They feel hidden and like they can escape from the adults. 

In 2015, I wrote a post about letting the children wander. This was when we were first exploring our woods. Even though there was no fence, at this time they were a place only visited with teacher permission. After I wrote that post, the woods slowly became a more and more regular place we played. As I learned more and more about the importance of space, the children were allowed more freedom.

https://growinginchbyinch.blogspot.com/2015/01/let-them-wander.html

Recently our far reaches became our beyond again, when insurance required us to fully fence our playground. There is property now just beyond the fence that the children can no longer enter without adult help. There is a magical stone wall that the children always climbed on, since it was the farthest reach. The abutting neighbors always commented how much they enjoyed watching the children play there. We were all pretty devastated to lose immediate access to this property, but now I can look at it with a new perspective. I understand the importance of having a space beyond. It has also allowed the unintentional damage the children had done to the ecosystem to heal. We are excited to start exploring this space in a new way. 

Our GREAT Beyond: Trail Walking and Field Wandering

We are so fortunate to have a public trail nearby that we visit many times per year. 

We have familiar landmarks that we stop and explore along the way. 

We are hoping someday to have even more 

BEYOND to visit with our preschoolers.

The bouncy log is a familiar stop, but unfortunately after over a year of

bouncing, we discovered one day that it didn't any more.

Lots of theories from the children on why it stopped being bouncy. 

Our beyond has several water features that are great for throwing 

rocks and observing wildlife.

We have permission from the local farmer to wander through

the great green field several times a year. 

The great green field is just as spectacular in the winter. 

Visiting these landmarks in our great beyond is an important part of our curriculum now. This adds to our goals of place-based learning. The children see the changes that take place throughout the season. Is there ice on the swamp yet? Did the farmer hay the field yet? And even the local culture of staying out of the field once hunting season begins out of respect for the hunters (and our safety).

Teacher Tom wrote a related post as well. 

We have both recently been visiting playschools in Iceland, 

where the children can often be found in the "far reaches" 

and also are taken regularly to the beyond. 

http://teachertomsblog.blogspot.com/2022/10/disappearing-or-getting-lost.html

Icelandic playschool children exploring a nearby beach.

The People. The Message. The Magic.

 

    

I haven't written a real blog post in about seven years. This blog has just been sitting here.

  

But I just spent a week with a wonderful group of early years educators at 

INTERNATIONAL PLAY ICELAND. 

My mind and heart are bursting with love for all things early childhood!

So here I am feeling thankful and blessed to be so inspired by so many amazing conversations. 

I needed somewhere to put it. 

“Do your little bit of good where you are; it's those little bits of good 
put together that overwhelm the world.” 
― Desmond Tutu

I first attended International Play Iceland in 2014. It was a huge step out of my comfort zone to travel alone to another country to spend a week with strangers. It was worth it. I made wonderful connections that I still maintain eight years later.

When I arrived this time, my good friend Tom Shea asked, "What made you come back?"

I wasn't even really sure how to answer. I just said, "It was time."

By the second day I remembered all the reasons that I came back. 

The People. The Message. The Magic. 

The People.

There were forty of us travelling from England, Australia, US, and more. We were there to spend the week together sharing, reflecting and learning from our visits to Icelandic playschools, but also about our own careers and settings back home. We walked away knowing not only about Icelandic culture, but the culture of the other members of the group and how those places value early childhood education and PLAY.

I remembered that when I left in 2014, I had a million pictures, but it was the conversations that I wanted to remember. It was the relationships that formed through the close experience of being together from sunrise to beyond sunset every day with these people. I took far less pictures and a lot more notes this time. 

We also had several different opportunities to share and reflect with the educators working in Iceland. We hosted a small event at the city hall, where children could bring their adults to play for a couple hours with activities we have provided throughout the room. 

And then we had the opportunity to gather for an evening with many Icelandic teachers and hear inspiring talks from a panel of play advocates. 

The amount of passion and compassion for defending play and childhood in this group brought more than one person to tears before the week was over. 

The Message.

The importance of children and the importance of play is combined with the relaxed and unhurried culture of the Icelandic people, which is apparent everywhere you go. The message comes from within the group and all the interactions throughout the week. 

Play is the message. The crucial need for time to allow uninterrupted play and the freedom to choose and explore.  

A few of us joined a group of five year olds, who spent a couple hours exploring off school property. We walked to a public playground where the children could wander and explore as they pleased. Eventually a few of them wandered closer and closer to the fjord and the black sand beach just beyond the playground. Here they once again were able to wander and explore, uninterrupted. They walked through the water. Broke chunks of ice out of the tidal pools. They explored the icy crust that had formed on the very top layer of the sand. The children are given time. 

I watched as another playschool teacher handed out lumps of playdough to a whole table full of three and four year olds. The children could squish the playdough,  but they also had paint, glue, macaroni, glitter and many other items to add to it. The teacher calmly chatted with them while they reached and worked and spilled and decorated. She was so calm and so were they. There was no agenda, just exploration and play. They could leave when they were done or stay and get a second lump if they wanted. The children are given choice. 

The next two pictures are facing opposite directions. One picture is from the playground balcony on the second story of a school for ages two to ten years old. The other photo is on a hill from the far side of the playground looking back at the school. This is only half of the playground. There are swings, hills, sand, trees, rocks, hiding places, digging places, climbing places. They children are given space. 

The Magic.

On our last day together we spent the day driving through the country on a tour bus. Seeing the beautiful sites that make Iceland so unique. Everything feels magical. Mossy rocks, volcanoes, steam coming out of the ground on mountainside, waterfalls. 

But the real magic comes from the togetherness that has been created all week. We are woven now. We are all in awe together. We are in awe of this beautiful part of our Earth. We are in awe of each other and ourselves. We are in awe of children. We are in awe of the opportunity to be in Iceland surrounded by people who are so passionate about children, play and the future! We are given hope. 

And that's what made me come back. 

Please check out more from International Play Iceland Here:

 

PLAYed Video

Inch By Inch Preschool

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Or contact Jessica at inchbyinch.maine@gmail.com for more information. 

 

 

Preschool Sticker Stories

A month ago, I purchased a bunch of sticker books at A.C. Moore. I wasn't really sure what my plan for them was, but they were cute and cheap.

One afternoon I needed to get a rambunctious group of boys to settle down and called them to the table. I grabbed my set of "Big Rig" truck stickers. I told them I was going to give them each a truck sticker, but first they had to draw a road to put their truck on. As the boys added to their pictures, I gave them more stickers: traffic cones, signs, and more trucks. They were all working so hard on their pictures, but I quickly realized that more importantly they were storytelling.  I also asked them what the weather was for their trucks. Some added suns and some added storms. Several of them had elaborate stories about their trucks having to go through the cones and the storm and more.

I was pretty proud to see the rich language that came from that impromptu activity.

Several weeks later I decided to try it again, but this time I wanted to record their stories. I chose pirate stickers this time. What I love the most about these stickers is that they had both girl and boy pirates (as it should be).  I worked with them in a similar way. As they added to their picture I would hand them another sticker. Here's a monkey, so now you might need to draw a tree.  Here's a whale can you draw some waves for him. 

This was a younger group (ages 2.5 to 3.5) and their "maps" didn't look like much, 

but they had quite the stories to tell. 

In January, we are working on building language and storytelling and 

I am excited to see what other stories they come up with during this month.

The monkey is heading to the water and the ship is steering. The captain is driving the ship.
The whale is doing a backflip and a fo-fish and diving.
The pirate is a diver. And the telescope is looking for the treasure.
The monkey is heading to the jungle.  

The pirate is going to the treasure. And the pirate is going in the boat.
The pirate is going to the jungle. 

He is supposed to go to the ship and he's going to the deep deep dark in the woods.
In the jungle. He's going to the boat with his steering wheel.

The pirate can't find the treasure. That stops the pirate from danger. These things are water that gets the fire.
The fire is getting closer to the pirate. But it's not getting closer to the parrot.
So the parrot is following the way to the treasure. 

The monkey was driving the boat and then he sinked in the boat. Then he realized
the pirate came and saved him. And then a crocodile ate them. The monkey found
the treasure and the man came looking for him but the alligator ate him too quick.
And then he went to bed and had a dream about it.

The pirate is looking for treasure and a parrot. And the whale is looking for an elephant seal.
She misses her little pet seal. She's looking for that trap so she can
recognize it.