3 February 2016
Today’s weather looked a lot like winter was on its way, and as adults we often get wrapped up in how inconvenient the rain, mud and wet weather is.
Have you ever wondered what a child sees when it rains?
When I arrived this morning to say ‘Good morning’ to the children in our Winyu Sky room, they had pulled all of their chairs up to the windows and were curiously watching the rain.
“It’s thundering and lightning”, “Yesterday it was spitting and now it’s raining”, “The clouds are dark”
The children showed a genuine interest in what was happening outside which led the Educators and I to ponder the questions ‘Can we go outside, barefoot in the mud? Can we get every Educator and child outside today to experience what that feels like?’
At YWCA Canberra, our Early Childhood team strongly identify with socio-cultural development theory. We are always reading up on the associated research* and we work each day to ensure it’s embedded in the decisions we make.
We know there are lots of benefits to experiencing every element of nature for children, so we wanted to share with you our process of risk-benefit analysis and the research on MUD play!
When we were doing our analysis we considered:
Five great reasons why children should be able to go outside and play in the mud:
So, with all of this in mind, our Winyu children began a MUDTASTIC adventure! We had mud pits, a slip-n-slide and lots of fun.
I’m sure you can see just as I can by the looks on their faces that so much learning and joy happened that day.
YWCA Canberra’s early childhood team are passionate about ensuring our children experience everything life has to offer, not just in preparation for school and not just so they can sing ‘ABC’. Our Educators develop in every child a sense of curiosity that will make them learners for life.
*If you would like to access the research that I’m talking about, pop me an email (Louise.Billman@ywca-canberra.org.au) and I’ll forward it to you.
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Tags: Early Childhood Services, Winyu