As I jumped in a huge muddy puddle accompanied by 11 kids last week on residential, I had a completely happy realisation that I was part of something kids rarely do these days. Be a kid.
There's lots of just being a kid I don't remember-probably because I took it for granted- but I do know I climbed trees, made dens, mudpies and my dad cross by digging holes in the lawn. I saw a woman on BBC recently talking about the importance of play, (she worked for Play England A company I now really wanna work with) and she was talking about how little modern children play the games or build mini adventures like we used to as children.
A part of what play England does is go into communities or cities and teach children how great it is to build dens. I loved den building! I used to spend long rainey afternoons armed with blankets and my mum's clothes horse and create a whole world for myself and my brother where we would be hiding out from an evil captain or getting ready to climb the world's highest mountain. The wonderful feeling of being hidden in a makeshift A-frame tent still makes me smile! Then there were the outdoor dens of the summer holidays.... Hideouts were created using old bits of plywood, plastic sacks and broken bits of brick as anchors for it all. My den was usually behind my parents shed. This was because there was the obvious way in via a gap next to the shed door, but also a secret passage behind the huge privet hedge that marked the bottom of the garden. That meant that when enemies attacked I could make a quick gettaway via the secret passage!
Of course the dens were just the start. As I got older I was allowed playing out time where me and kids from the neighbourhood would explore trees and the path to the canal. I became the hunter of treasure on these trips... Finding shards of broken pot and carefully cleaning and saving them, claiming they were evidence or hidden incase treasure! I became an alchemist in my dens mixing magical amounts of dirt, sand and water in pots and claiming I had created magic potions!
Do kids do this these days? A few years ago I discovered that the kids in my year 6 class had really poor knowledge of the world around them. We were doing a revision of the y3 unit of work on floating and sinking. I was heartbroken when they could only name plastic bags and pebbles as things that float. None of them had heard of poohsticks and the fact it was only litter that gave them a frame of reference for understanding I thought was really sad.
This is why I love non conventional teaching and learning environments.
The sheer joy the kids had purely wearing wellies and kicking muddy water at each other was one of the most powerful things I've seen in a while. I knew that experience alone would inform writing tasks, and would stay with them as something they'd share with their kids when they were older. Or would they?
My generation clearly hasn't bothered with their kids. Next year my role in school is changing slightly and I will be devoting part of my time to help set up and run parenting groups in school. They are being run by the surestart centre, but focus of the importance of play with your child and in sharing experiences with them. I am hugely excited by the chance to be part of something so important.
Everyone should get the chance to be Max and build dens and meet monsters and create a wild rumpus. I salute you max.
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