forest school

I always forget to take my camera in the hustle of getting us all there with waterproofs, lunch, gloves, hats, a just-in-case dog lead (dog!) and a heavy backpack chock full of what feels like utter crap but I am always sure at the time of packing they are necessities. Anyway, no rain yesterday meant I dared take my (camera bag-less) camera. It seems like I ought to occasionally take note of the 'educational' activities we partake in (even though I feel like playing with Lego or reading a magazine counts as education, should I ever get sprung by the LEA - god I am sounding criminal - then I can at least show them some photos).



The day usually takes shape with everyone working to make a fire. Then toasting marshmallows and having a sit down and early-ish lunch. The fire making often involves lots of foraging for dry kindling and sawing of logs and branches by all of the children, so it can take well over an hour some days.









I usually take this time to slip off with my mad dog and try to walk some energy out of her (ha, as if). The nice thing about forest school and the dog is that a) I get to take her and no one minds, in fact for the dog-less children she is a novelty, and b) importantly for her and my sanity she can be off leash in the woodland the whole time.



So today the activity after fire making and lunch was to make reindeer.



This involved selecting pieces of wood, cutting branches and whittling them to fit in the drilled holes to make legs etc. Ours lost their antlers on the way back to the car, so hey ho, today will involve me and my trusty glue gun rather than me and my untrustworthy whittling knife (the non existent one) fashioning a few more. Both Felix and Esmé were mightily pleased with their efforts, and I think I may even buy Felix a knife for his ninth birthday next week. He has always seemed hesitant to use one, and did so very feebly and inefficiently until yesterday when I saw that he really got to grips with it, gained a measure of control and confidence and was really pleased with himself.



I think that is the sort of learning Forest School is about, not necessarily being able to memorise the names of various fungi (by the way that red thing on the log is a Red Elf Cap) but the feeling of confidence in ability. You can see by the saws and hacking things that the kids do get to use serious tools that any scary maniac would be proud to own. The teacher is a nice guy, and ex-head teacher who manages to be both interesting, kind and reigns in the stragglers who are easily distracted. It is a very nice thing indeed to sit around a fire chatting while children are purposeful and busy and the dog finally flops down, dare I hope, a tiny bit tired.