Our Week in the Forest...
Well, what a lovely jubbley week we have had! The air has definitely gotten a lot crisper and we have certainly been eyeing up some cracking homemade knitwear in the forest!
We had a little surprise this week when our simple guttering order arrived for our Paradise site and turned out to be about 30ft long (only a slight exaggeration!). It was the most fantastic object as we all set about hoisting it up with ropes and trying to work out where to tie them to allow water to flow from one pipe down onto the next. Through trial and error the children managed to achieve what can only be described as some kind of super-sized marble run for water! The children had an absolute blast creating this and then fetching water to pour down the gutters. Others busied themselves trying to capture the water as it cascaded out the end. It wasn’t long before the children had set up a ‘Tomato Soup Kitchen’ that Willy Wonka would have been proud to call his own. Fortunately, no children were sucked down any pipes or turned red from too much soup. Must have been thanks to our ‘No picking, no licking’ rule, because there was definitely magic in the making! Everyone had a super time problem solving, thinking about the capacity of their soup pots, working as a team, and just general merry making!
There has also been a carnival atmosphere over at our Windmill site this week which saw three weddings in one day! It really is heart-warming to see the friendships of the children develop. When children first start with us they often prefer to play with an adult or independently, branching out into playing alongside one another as they grow in confidence.
This week we have really found that we could just step back and observe them at play, so engaged were they in their imaginative ideas and explorations. The proof was quite literally in the pudding when one pair proudly proclaimed that they were getting married and were busy making their wedding cake! They were certainly more excited about the prospect of cake than the wedding itself, and did need reminding to have the ceremony first before tucking in. More guests started to gather and were informed they could wear fancy outfits which they dutifully pretended to put on. It was a simple ceremony with a grown-up officiating and declaring them ‘Forest Friends’ with an exchange of leaves. Afterwards, they all set about doing some ‘Wild Rumpus’ style dancing around the forest, with everybody cheering.
We wish everyone could have days like ours at work! Hope you all have a terrific weekend, and see you next week!
Have a lovely weekend!
Little Forest Folk
Wandsworth