Our week in the forest

There is a saying at the skovbørnehave in Denmark that there is no such thing as bad weather, only bad clothes, and our children having been living proof of this during the week. We have had all four seasons in as many days, from mild sunny afternoons to cold torrential rain and our Little Forest Folk have been embracing each and every day with excitement, laughter and a natural curiosity for the world around them.

It has been an opportunity for the children to understand the importance, and value, of wearing appropriate clothing, one of the many life skills that is intrinsic to their days with us in the forest, particularly when this means they can have endless fun in huge muddy puddles.

Since returning in January we have noticed that the children have developed a much greater interest in the wider environment at Fulham Palace, there is definitely a sense that they are taking ownership of their setting!!! So to support this we have incorporated more time into exploring the Palace grounds on our way down to the nursery each morning. The children are making wondrous discoveries; giant sized pine cones that they can climb; hidden treasures in the squirrel caves and a Princesses tree with huge pink flowers that only come out in the Winter!

Having this initial time to explore has had such a positive impact, the children have been much calmer and focused upon entering our setting, and of course already built up an appetite for their morning snack.

This week we have also been introducing further challenges to the environment to enable the children to improve on their already amazing balance and coordination. Our spider’s web became vertical which offered more than just a few interesting ways to negotiate it’s sticky strands, while all the time looking out for the spider… and our slack line has finally been introduced, we will again be using this throughout next week, watch out Cirque du Soleil!!

Reminders

If your child attends term time only and you'd like to book their place during February half term holiday camp please click here and book now.

We have had a recent upgrade to our tablet system which has caused a few teething problems with daily reports. We appreciate your patience while we adjust to all of the toileting, food and sleep functions and hope to have everything working seamlessly soon.

What to wear

Next week is forecast to be the coldest week this winter. Brrrrrrrrr.

Please follow our winter kit list recommendations.

And in addition to normal kit list, can we please request that all children wear an extra layer on their top half, wear at least a double layer of socks, a hat and 2 pairs of gloves.

New footwear recommendation from Bogs Footwear

We have been trialling a pair of waterproof boots from Bogs Footwear for just over a month now and we're delighted to be able to fully recommend them for little feet in the forest. Not only do they look super snazzy but they are comfortable, durable, 100% waterproof and toasty warm too.

They are available to buy from:
Online at Bogs Footwear or in-store at Step2wo Biff in Dulwich, Olive Loves Alfie in East London and Windmill in Crouch End.

Although we don’t have a current discount in place for our Little Forest Folk families just yet, we are working on it and we’ll let you know if we manage to get one.

Team Update

You may have noticed some new faces in the forest already – some of our educators from our Wimbledon site will be helping out over the next couple of weeks as we will be having many new little forest folk joining us at Fulham during January.

Have a great weekend, we hope there's lots of snow for you to enjoy!

Little Forest Folk
Fulham