Posts tagged ‘free play’
Bubble Trouble
Kids love bubbles. They love making them, popping them and watching them. That’s why for the past three months, I have tried just about every homemade and store bought bubble recipe to find one that works and is inexpensive. It’s no fun to run out of bubble juice when kids are having fun (See Bubble Recipe post). I’ve also tried an assortment of homemade bubble wand methods: pipe cleaners, coat hangers, tin cans with both ends cut off, paper funnels, strainers, plastic food containers and a lot more. These wands worked great for a short while, but didn’t last. The cans rusted, the paper funnels got soggy, and the coat hangers were easily bent. I needed something that would last, so, I looked for store bought wands. They worked better, but they started at around $10 each. Again, this wouldn’t work with lots of kids. I kept searching the net for inexpensive wands that worked. I found them at www.bigbubble wands.com. I ordered a kit and tried them out. They worked. Then I got the idea to become a distributor for these wands. Just click on my Bubble Wand page for more information.
I guess that’s why I call this post ‘Bubble Trouble’. I never knew that my passion for getting kids outside would lead me to starting a business. I’m busier than every with working full-time with kids and getting my business off the ground. It’s exciting and exhausting. It’s fun to sell a product that provides such joy to young and old.
If you have any questions about bubbling and bubble wands, please let me know. I’d be happy to help you wand through the tangle of information on the web and elsewhere.
Happy Bubbling!
A Wonderful 20 Minutes
Wonderful things can happen in short amounts of time. On Tuesday, I had about 20 minutes to explore the rain garden next to our community center with three second grade boys. We started at the pond to look for frogs. We didn’t find any, but the boys quickly spotted some water striders moving across the water. We talked about how they “floated” on top of water, but what I really wanted to show them was a picture in a book. Note to self: Pur together a nature backpack with field guides, magnifying lenses and collection vials for these kind of short trips.
Of course, the kids started to throw rocks immediately when we got there. Rocks + kids = kids throwing rocks. One boy even started tossing them inside a drainage pipe that fed the rain garden. This led to a conversation about the pipe and where it might lead. I don’t know if the concept of rain gardens sunk in with them, but they seemed curious about where the pipe led to so we followed the pipe to the fence that stands between our property and railroad bed.
We didn’t find where the drainage pipe came out, but upon inspection, we found a large culvert under the tracks. One boy commented that his mother once explored one of those and told him about it. Part of me wanted to let these kids explore this culvert, but a fence and giant grate prevented that, as well as a healthy dose of common sense. The kid part of me did want to explore it further. Perhaps I will another day and then find a safe alternative to take kids. There are places in Madison where you can safely walk under railroad tracks and roads. These are great places to talk about drainage and run-off.
We then walked to where we could safely cross the railroad tracks. The railroad bed is covered with rocks and we found some good ones today. One boy found a piece of chert (flintrock), a hard limestone found west of Madison near Blue Mounds State Park. This rock was commonly used by native people to make tools and spear points.He seemed genuinely thrilled by his find. He also found a beautiful piece of quartzite, all shimmery in the sun.
The third boy identified garlic mustard growing along the railroad tracks. This impressed me. He had gone out with his mom and she told him about this noxious plant. The other kids got to smell it and Joey, a compulsive and eager child, took a big bite out of a leaf and took some home with him (I had to remind him not to eat plants without asking an adult first). When I told the the boys about alien species and why they aren’t good for native plants, they wanted to pull all the plants out! Wow! They just started pulling them up. That’s the fastest I’ve ever seen anyone move to tear up this plant. I was impressed by their enthusiasm, but also cautioned them to not pull up plants without being sure of what they were doing.
All together, I thought that was a productive 20 minutes. The kids got hands-on lessons in groundwater regeneration, run-off, geology, plant biology, and even a bit of entomology, all in 20 minutes.
I look forward to developing these hikes into formalized lessons and welcome opportunities to explore the area around the center. However, I do not want to make these trips too academic. A sense of wonder needs to present to truly enjoy nature and too much emphasis on structure can destroy that. I really like just letting the kids explore and seeing where their interests take them. Perhaps setting up stations and tools for learning may be a better way to go. Regardless, the rain garden and railroad tracks are a gold mine right outside our door.
Last winter, we even slip-slided on the ice here. Kids explored different kinds of ice and rode their sleds down the snowbanks onto the ice. They chipped at it; held it up to the sun; sat on it; looked into it; slid on it; laid on it; wondered about the air bubbles in it and lots more. But I digress.
It’s spring and that was a wonderful 20 minutes.
Kids love beaches
I firmly believe that if you take kids outside, they will find endless ways to entertain themselves. This belief was validated on Tuesday, when I took our kids to BB Clark Beach.
Immediately, groups of children started building moats and filling them water. They saw real or imagined “crabs” in the water. They floated boats on the water (really discarded plastic). Others were busy collecting sticks and building tepees for their pretend fire. Kids quacked at the ducks that paddled near the shore and they saw migrating loons in the distance. They learned that it’s not a good idea to throw sticks at birds on the water, but it’s okay to skip rocks if there’s nothing in the way. Others were running along the shore exploring. We had a few kites and those occupied a few children for awhile. Those not interested in the water, made up games on the play structures and tossed around a few balls.
It was time to go when kids started to have to use the bathroom. It’s April, so the bathrooms weren’t open yet.
I learned that clear boundaries need to be established about where kids can and cannot go. Can they climb on the rocks near the water or not? Can they retrieve sticks from the lake? This ensures that no one gets wet. Also, toys are a must on the beach. We had plenty of sand toys, but there is always room for more. I would bring more things that they could float and tools to explore nature like magnifying lenses, an underwater scope, etc. I would like to put together a nature kit that we could take with us on outings. This kit would be ready to go.
It’s great to give kids a chance to play freely without the intrusion of media or structure. It’s really fun to watch too.
