Happy Friday! We had a wonderful week continuing to settle into our routines, introducing more and more materials, and starting to form some wonderful friendships. In the process we managed to harvest, thresh, grind, and bake with wheat grown in our school garden! (See pictures below for details).
Part of the purpose of this blog is communicating with you families about why we do the things we do. And one thing we do here at school is teach children about and allow healthy risk taking. One of the wonderful benefits of outdoor play is the numerous encounters children have with risk-taking activities. We deeply believe that thoughtful exposure to risks helps build healthy self-confident children.
In recent years there has been a great deal of documentation from educators, parents, psychologists, and doctors noting the severity of risk-aversion in our society. When we shelter children from risk we deprive them of crucial learning activities. Nature play advocate Ken Finch writes about the myriad benefits of risk, saying that "children need risk. It is a powerful catalyst for growth that helps them develop good judgement, persistence, courage, resiliency, and self-confidence." We couldn't agree more.
So what are the risks that we encounter out in the forest? We have a couple of climbing trees, we balance and jump from logs and rocks, we play with sticks, build fires (once it gets cold!), use whittling tools, saw, and hammers, we play hiding games, and we sled, to name just a few. At the beginning of the school year, and when faced with new risks throughout the school year, teacher and students work together to answer the questions What is wonderful about [this risk activity]? What do we need to do to be safe while [engaging in this risk]? The collective conversation helps children learn how to assess risk while giving them ownership over their actions. Children are never pushed to engage in something that is beyond their comfort level, and risk based activities are carefully scaffolded with slow release of responsibility. What we see is the development of problem solving skills, confidence, and pride. We only hope that these traits will be carried with our students into later childhood and beyond.
For more information on the importance of risk in childhood you can check out the following articles and resources:
*Risky Play, Why Children Love It and Need It - Peter Gray, Psychology Today
*But...but...but...Isn’t It Dangerous, Risk and Reward in Nature Play - Ken Finch
*The Overprotected Kid - Hanna Rosen
*The End of Zero Risk in Childhood - Tim Gill
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