Outdoor Play Party - Norwegian influences.

I am so delighted to welcome Erin from The Usual Mayhem back to the OPP & to welcome a new co-host, the brilliant Leila from Mud, Mud, Marvellous Mud. It's always great to connect with like minded bloggers across the globe & for us all to able to host a collaborative linky every fortnight is a honour.

I loved seeing children climbing up on top of the sheds in Norway

In 2008 I was very lucky to be able to spend a week working in an outdoor Kindergarten, in Eikefjord, Western Norway. At the time the kindergarten was one of our Comenius partners & I received funding from the British Council to go on a job shadow of one of the outdoor teachers, Susette. The 5 days I spent in the kindergarten from 8 until 4.30 had an amazing & far reaching impact upon my practice. I can remember coming back to my own setting & deciding to make so many changes all at once! The biggest thing I believe I took back from that time was to stand back during outdoor play & allow the children to take more of a lead, before this experience we would definitely have been more 'hands on' & in a more 'teacher' mode during outdoor play. I can actually remember some of the Norwegian teachers laughing at the fact I was in the sand pit with the children, they saw that as interfering with their play. I did a lot of observing that week & I saw that the adults may have looked like they were standing around when in fact they were watching all the play very closely & were ready to step in & help it develop if necessary. 
A student I have this year,who was a parent volunteer last year was telling me that that was the hardest thing for her to adjust to when she started in the class - she was used to being 'on' when around young children & entertaining them, whereas, she noticed immediately that the adults don't do that in my setting.

Children very happy with very little resources

When I look at the photos I took in 2008, they all look like the kind of play I might see any day in my class and yet 5 years ago it seemed very different to me. The children didn't need a lot of resources to have fun, they played with whatever was around them - loose parts long before I ever heard the term -sticks, gravel, water, mud etc.

When I travelled to Iceland last month with Fafu I was fascinated by how much some of the other adults were amazed by the perceived lack of adult intervention in play & in fact it had become a standing joke to play 'spot the adult' as this was not always possible in some playgrounds or areas. This aspect didn't really trouble or me or stand out to me, as I had seen it in Norway & I also know that on any given day in the forest it would be possible to come across a group of children in my class on their own with no adult in sight. It made me realise how far my own practice has come in 5 years & in fact when I was speaking to one of my colleagues back home during the Iceland trip, she said 'Oh flip, what are you going to have us doing now?' as she well remembered how much I wanted to change when I came back from Norway!

5 years later, quite similar play in Iceland.

5 years ago a lot of the risky play I saw did challenge me but now it is definitely part & parcel of everyday play in my setting & some days when the children are all wrapped up in their rain gear I can well believe that I could be teaching somewhere in Scandinavia!!

Even though the past week has been very chilly as Autumn moves closer to winter for us, it was great to see so many posts linked up & to see people are trying their best to have some outdoor fun no matter what. My favourite post from them all was from Jenny over at Mummy Mishaps of her son sitting up a tree! I loved that it's the first thing he asks when he gets out of school & even better that he is allowed to get up there in his uniform!

• Any kind of children's outdoor play-related posts are welcome!

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