Our Week in the Forest...
One of the best things about holiday camp is the gasp of amazement from the new children when they see base camp for the first time. It’s so different to any sort of classroom that they have been in before and their excitement and enthusiasm is always so clear to see.
We’ve had such a lovely week in the forest with lots of new friends and as usual, our regular children have enjoyed showing the others the ropes – quite literally! The holiday campers have enjoyed setting traps, tying some extremely hard to untie knots and catching the educators. Being that little bit older, it’s been fascinating to see how some of the younger children can often be in awe and have tried with all their might to learn the tricky knots tied by the older children.
The changes around the forest have been so visible recently, from caterpillars becoming butterflies, to the flowers in the walled garden now being out in full bloom, that our children have been fascinated by them. This week we saved the seeds from the fruit we had at snack time so we could plant them, hoping to see some changes in these seeds over the next few weeks. The children enjoyed filling their flower pots, choosing what they wanted to grow before writing their names on the labels.
Not only has our morning walk through the walled garden been visually enhanced by all the new flowers, but there are so many new and different smells too. As the children have been so interested in smelling the flowers as we walk past, we set up an herb station in base camp. We had thyme, rosemary, basil, mint and others for the children to look at and smell. Those who were brave enough even wanted to taste some! The children experimented by rolling the herbs in their hands to increase the smell before some of them used the herbs to make perfume in the mud kitchen.
Lastly, the children have enjoyed drilling this week. Our all year round children have continued to develop their competence with different tools and are always such good role models for the holiday campers when it comes to using them. The campers loved being able to drill a hole in a tree cookie before threading wool through it to make a medal. They then spent time painting and decorating their medals and watches.
It’s been a varied and exciting week, not least by listening to and watching the thunder and lightning and our regular Little Forest Folk-ers have enjoyed spending time with some old friends and making some new ones. For those who have been on holiday this week, we look forward to seeing you again after the weekend.
Little Forest Folk
Fulham