The Importance of Unstructured Time

Today was day two of our Natural Kids Summer Camp. We spent the morning building fairy houses in the woods, using whatever natural materials the kids could find to be imaginative with: bark, leaves, sticks, pine cones, acorns, rocks… They worked collaboratively to gather materials, and then to build five little houses together around a very large pine tree, with lots of nooks and hollows in its base. When they were finished, they explored in the woods – the older ones roaming out of eyesight, or so they believed: it’s important for children to have private time, even if in this case we were keeping an eye on them to make sure they were safe. Let them think we couldn’t see them.

Eventually they found a clump of Weeping Canadian Hemlocks that made a large enclosed area, safe from any grown-up eyes that might have happened by (none did, but that didn’t stop them from watching from the peep-holes vigilantly to protect their secret!). We ate lunch in the branches, and then Julia and I sat and watched them climbing and making believe for an hour. She looked at me and asked, “You still think it’s ok that we didn’t make a whole lesson plan, right?”
“I think it’s perfect.” I told her.

The whole purpose of this camp is to allow these kids the chance to be wild – something our children, even the ones that grow up outside the city – just don’t get today. When we were young, we roamed all over, and didn’t come in until we heard mom yelling for dinner. We got into all kinds of close scrapes, and if something really happened, we headed home for help. Otherwise, we saved ourselves. Kids today don’t have these opportunities, and I think they’re much the poorer for it.

So this week, we’re throwing the plans out the window! Sure, I didn’t pass up the opportunity to introduce them to stinging nettle today. We had fun foraging wild lunch of violet leaves, sorrel, plantain, and clover flowers yesterday. I was proud as I watched them accurately identifying plantain today to deal with mosquito bites – a trick they learned yesterday. But if we had a plan, what would we have done when suddenly we were visited by a red tailed hawk who was willing to sit still on a low branch while the children looked on in fascination? Would we have said “it’s not on our agenda” when the kids wanted to hunt a bullfrog they heard in the reeds and rushes by the side of a pond? I think too often, this is exactly what we do.

The whole world is full of teaching opportunities. For this week, we’re going to let them come to us. We’re writing our lesson plan “just in time” as we traipse through the forest and across the meadows. I think our children could use more of that.