Tag: play

Time to get messy?

Time to get messy?

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Last week our theme included a bucket of agar agar jelly (if you follow me on Instagram/Facebook you’ll see I was mighty proud of it!)

This taste safe pink wobbly jelly was intended for play, and wow did it get played with, but not by everyone.

Some children really aren’t keen on messy play. Fact. So as parents are we meant to encourage, cajole and entice little fingers to get messy or is it ok if they resist? What even ARE the benefits to messy play? How is it STEAM learning and should you be worried if your little one doesn’t like getting messy? So many questions!

I suppose to start with it’s important to say, messy play is anything which obviously involves getting messy Paints, jelly, dough, pasta, water… you get the idea. There’s more though, think about your every day and how those little hands interact with the world around them. Hummus at dinner time is a messy experience in our house, as is bath time, playing in the garden and going to the woods.

When children are able to get their hands interacting with the world around them, they’re able to fully experience all the materials have to offer. Grasping, grabbing, squeezing, flowing through fingers, immersing their hands, covering and uncovering, measuring, weighing and problem solving. The list of could go on.

In terms of movement skills, messy play helps develop fine motor skills, muscle development (not just in the hands but the whole body) and proprioceptive awareness. STEAM (science, technology, engineering, art and maths) learning and messy play also go hand in hand. Learning about substances, textures and quantities. It’s also a fantastic chance to explore measuring and weighing and did you know attempting to stack and sort pasta helps develop spatial awareness ready for more advanced maths skills too!

So what happens when your littlest doesn’t want to engage in messy play during class? Well, absolutely nothing. It’s really no big deal. So they don’t want to cover themselves in blue paint or play with the pink jelly. That’s ok! They will still explore the world around them and will learn just as much as a child who goes headfirst into the bucket full of cooked spaghetti!

There is no right or wrong answer. Just like the old “love it or hate it” Marmite debate, messy play just isn’t for everyone.

Connecting with the world around us

Connecting with the world around us

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This topic is a big one for me. I love the outdoors, I love nature, I love trees and being in a woodland. It’s my happy place. Of course that’s really rubbed off on my son who’s now happiest with a stick in his hand, digging in the mud. So imagine my sadness when I overheard a parent say this to her daughter last week at the park…

“That’s too much mud! Come now out of the mud, I hate getting dirty.”

I scuffled my filthy boots in front of me as I turned away from them. On my scale of “muddy” it wasn’t even registering! A completely dry day with barely a squelch of mud around. If I walked the line the little girl did, I don’t think any mud would even stick to my boots!  As the pair walked away her words began to tumble in my memory again. Last week in class we made mud ball seed bombs.

“What’s the big deal” I asked myself. Of course, I have no idea of the context, perhaps she was on the way to something important where mud was not appropriate. Perhaps it was the guilt of the pile of mud sat not a few meters from us in my van, the remnants from making seed bombs.

In the scheme of things it’s no big deal this mom didn’t want her little one to get dirty that day.

There are however plenty of parents out there doing battle with an ever growing mountain of sticks at the back door or tumbling drifts of mud from their car boot as they take out the shopping. I’m sure I’m not alone when I scrub my sons muddy fingernails at the end of a wonderful day playing outside at kindergarten.

When children get down to the basics of being inquisitive they inevitably get hands on. Some hang back and don’t get fully head-to-toe involved but they’ll be carefully watching what’s going on around them. What I love most about children being outside is they’ll be using all 7 of their senses to explore their surroundings; so much more intensely than adults.  

Nature asks that we observe what’s around us. The changing seasons, wildlife in front of us and the weather all demand our attention and for the most part we as humans oblige. Discussing the inclement weather, the blossom on the tree or spotting a deer dashing through a field, we stop to watch and take it in. Imagine experiencing all of that for the very first time. There’s so much wonder in seeing a shooting star or playing in long grass, how lucky to be a child.

 

This week my #steammsunday is a plea to you. Go outside, embrace the world around you and indulge in your little one’s inquisitive nature. Mud washes off whilst experiential learning sticks around. They’ll remember the times they played in the woods or went for a paddle in the stream. We need to help our little ones respect the world around us, after all they’ll be the ones to take charge when we’re gone.

You can make a simple check sheet to try on your next outdoor adventure. I’ve listed a few below to get you started.
FERN TIP: Try putting your little one in charge of a camera; either a phone camera or a camera they’re able to use. Ask them to take snaps of everything you find to show [insert name of important person in their life here.] It’s a great way to help them to be observant.

  • The tallest tree you can see
  • A white flower
  • A piece of litter (bonus point if you can put it in the nearest bin)
  • Water
  • A patch of mud
  • 10 stones
  • An animal with wings
  • Bark on a tree
  • Draw a face with a stick

The more enthusiastic you are, they will likely follow suit!

Have fun, get muddy, laugh and learn. Then head home for warm baths and relive the adventures in your bedtime stories.

Filling and Refilling

Filling and Refilling

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Filling and emptying things is a big part of childhood… like, really big! My almost 1 year old loves it, at The Fern Club our big boy 7 year olds love it too. So what makes it such a big hit and why do we stop doing this as we get older?

My son is almost 1 and for the last few months his favourite toy (even more than his absolute favourite toy… his granny) has been an empty bottle or tin and putting little things in it. We’ve given him things which will fill that need for emptying and filling in so many different ways; a milk container and wooden marbles, an empty tea tin and pinecones, a plastic bottle and little sticks…the list goes on! This part of childhood is a really big one, that realisation that things can go in… well, other things!

It’s been amazing to see how each child approaches this activity but there are some really important milestones and real world realisations which are happening.

The exploration of transporting objects to containers allows children to examine space, movement of objects and volumes. It also allows them to explore how permanent an object is and also how to encompass it.

The repetitive movements allow them to refine and master skills like pouring and aiming, it also helps to calm as they find their flow. This semi-meditative state is something we saw all week during our classes. The little black-eye beans being scooped up and dropped into the demijohns allowed the children to slow down and become more accurate in their approach. Any quick sudden movements were very rarely rewarded with successful filling!

Children as they get older will lose this innate need to fill and empty objects because they master the skill quite simply. But don’t put away those containers just yet, give them chance to master the skill in more complex ways!

If your little one is beyond 6-7 years try these skills to prolong that wonder, creativity and give them some more real life, real world skills to master along the same path.

  • Give them a set of weighing scales and a “target” number to reach. Once they’ve achieved it, set another one! And if that becomes too easy, how’s about mixing a recipe all by themself?
  • Play with water and set levels to reach on the side of a bottle. Lines drawn in a marker pen on the side can provide a challenge as they fill to reach the line. Anything over the line and they’ll have to start again from scratch!
  • How’s about mixing solids and liquids with a healthy risk taking – can they help make a cup of coffee or hot chocolate? Give them a jug, a lighter alternative to a heavy kettle to pour the hot water.

So this weeks #steammsunday is a simple one. Get moving by filling and emptying!

Jump, Jump, Jump
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Jump, Jump, Jump

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There are so many precursors to being able to jump. When a child is able to jump for the first time; it tends to happen between 2 and 2.5 years old, there have been some big developmental boxes ticked behind the scenes. Being able to coordinate both sides of your body is essential for two…

#STEAMMSUNDAY And breathe...

#STEAMMSUNDAY And breathe...

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Slightly off topic from the colours theme last week. On this journey of child led learning it’s been incredible to see how children respond to activities and this one didn’t disappoint. 

Let’s set the scene… a little child’s table, colourful bowls around the edge and building blocks stacked in the middle of the table. The aim is to create a pathway with the blocks to take a ping pong ball to the right coloured bowl. The way to move the ball is by using your breath. The activity is quite a simple one, behind the scenes though there’s so much more. 

I love a good list so here goes;

– The child must use their planning and visualise the pathway they want to create. Does the path have two sides, will the ball fit through the middle and where is it going to start and finish. 
– Getting the correct colour (remember, first comes matching, then identifying then naming) 
*An understanding of how to control their breath* I’ll come back to this one
– Getting their body in the right place to begin
– And finally seeing the final result; a success or something to learn by? 

*Let’s get back to the breath control and delve a little deeper. Think about how much breath controls our adult bodies; when we’re angry, nervous, excited, calm and at rest. For children still learning to control their emotions it takes a while for their breathing to fall in line. 
Occupational therapists use breath exercises to help regulate the proprioceptive system (one of the 7 senses) when a child feels overwhelmed or unable to calm themselves. 

If you have a rainy Sunday and the energy in the house is getting a little much, try activities like these to (try) and help restore a sense of calm (for a little while at least!)

– Blowing bubbles into dishwashing liquid through a straw
– Blowing toy cars to make them roll down a ramp
– Blowing bubbles! 
– In a bathtub blowing swimming flips
– Blow a ping pong ball around a play dough maze
– Playing with a snorkel! 
– Blowing away feathers
– Blowing paper windmills
– Blowing paint with a straw

If you have any other similar ideas, I’d love to know! How great to have a bag of tricks like this for when we need them most. 

Keep in touch, I love to chat!

Have a great #steammsunday