A Recipe for Disaster

 

I have rather a love-hate relationship with pizzas. A little like the Marmite conundrum. I love the fact that it can be all things to all people and, really, anything goes. (Not pineapple, though, in my opinion.) It can be as healthy or as indulgent as you like. (I recently came across a rather luxurious recipe which included white truffles.) Most importantly, though, it is a food which most, if not all, children like mainly because of its versatility. I have always made pizzas with the little ones as it is both sensorial and productive at the same time. I adore the extremely proud faces stood in the doorway as I remove them from the oven and the excited:-

“That’s mine…..I made that……all by myself!”

So why the love-hate thing?

I have had a few sticky (pardon the pun) situations with pizza dough. I mentioned its versatility and how much children get out of playing with it. (In fact, I regularly use pizza dough for children to use with as they wish as it has a great elasticity and is fantastic for practicing stretching and pulling.)

Have you seen the expert Italian chefs and how they make bases? Lots of twirling and throwing up in the air. We watched a video demonstrating this quite recently.  I can honestly say the throwing-it-up-in-the-air bit was the highlight.  The first thing the 3 year old did was lob a large piece upwards with all she could muster. So hard was it thrown, in fact, that a large particularly sticky piece caught on the ceiling and then began slowly reaching down determined to comply with gravity. In fact it became a bit of a celebrity.  My own children were treated to a guided tour of my ceiling where we also spotted a cobweb and a couple of spiders thrown in as an added attraction. Before taking the decision to start charging for this new site of not-so-historical interest, I did actually remove it.  This was much to the annoyance of the children one of whom stood beneath it, dish in hand, at several intervals during the course of the day, hoping it would eventually drop. (And you thought this sort of thing only happened on Pancake Day.)

Pizza dough also took centre stage at my last Ofsted inspection when, stifling chuckles, the inspector watched as one of my then 2 year olds began using it for racket ball practice and flung it at all 4 corners of my garden.  She, later, worriedly asked me what I was “now going to do with the dough?”

“I am not making it into pizza, if that’s what you’re thinking,”

I hurriedly replied whilst thinking; I bet Jamie Oliver never has this problem.

It has also caused a local MP to leave my home a little earlier than anticipated when he posed for a photo with 2 of the children and one of them used his trousers as a towel after dusting the dough with flour.

I went shopping earlier and looked at the pizza displays in the local supermarket with their humongous amounts of cheese, meagre doses of vegetables and thin, sickly coloured bases.  These are the pizzas I really don’t like.  I left them well alone and proceeded to the aisle with the bread flour and the yeast wondering what the children would conjure up at my next pizza fest…..and whether I should contact Jamie Oliver to uncover his pizza etiquette.

DomesticatedMomster

Once Upon a Time in the Woods

They say first impressions are lasting. How true this is! The jaw-dropping reaction to my first session at a local forest school.

Once upon a time there was a city, a big city with lots of people and cars and buses and areoplanes.  In the middle of the city right next to all these people, cars, buses and aeroplanes, was a wood. Not a very big wood but a beautiful one with tall trees, dappled clearings, colourful flowers and mysterious bugs. This was not an ordinary wood; it was magical, with trees that spoke, insects as big as your hand and trees as high as sky scrapers.

These are not my words but those of a handful of 3 to 9 year olds at a forest school in Manchester. To the children it is many things; a haven, a place of solitude and learning and, above all, a place where you can come together with friends and make it anything you want it to be. Last week it was a puppet theatre, the week before that it was café…..

The school is far removed from the mainstream, assessment-driven, dare I say ‘factory,’ state schooling we currently allow our children to enter.  It is free from walls, myriads of rules and overly restrictive attitudes.  It allows children a real freedom.  Freedom to think, share, talk, learn and, most of all, play. There are few resources provided as the wood itself provides a rich array of media for children to explore, experiment and utilise readily in their play.  The result is a group of children who have a rich vocabulary, burgeoning self-confidence, exemplary negotiating skills and imaginations that are so diverse and rich that it takes some keeping up with.

Don’t get the incorrect impression, these are not feral children.  They have an order to the day that, whilst familiar to them, is in no way restrictive. Instead it fits around their interests and fascinations.  They continue play that was started the previous day or even the previous week.  In fact, they are indulged in these interests by the adults present who observe quietly and take part in their play by invitation only.  We are asked to taste tea, help with menus and listen to newly composed songs.  We watch and see children helping each other, feeding off each other’s imaginations and, ultimately, learning from one another. This is holistic learning. The day isn’t divided into compartmentalised subject chunks where ‘never the twain’ shall meet. (If only life were so ordered.) The learning that takes place is not that which helps them pass exams but which empowers them with life skills: They confidently use adult tools to make wooden objects; they cook their own lunch (and wash up afterwards.) They develop the confidence to climb trees with no adult support and they have lots and lots of discussions. (The talk is endless)

Waiting to gain entry on my first day, a large group of children were sitting playing a game.  I asked them if someone would let the leader know I was here. Five minutes later I was still there, waiting for them to nominate, put forward a motion and then vote on who should be the one to seek out the adult. Far from being aggravated for not being let in, I was stupefied into silence by the actions that unfolded. (And that takes some doing.) This is democracy in action and all at primary school age!

Reflecting later at this ‘full on’ yet wholly engrossing and captivating time spent in some local woods, I thought just how lucky these children were. Lucky to be able to roam, climb, investigate, deliberate and procrastinate whenever they liked. Lucky to be listened to and taken seriously. Lucky to be free to make connections with others as well as the natural world around them. Remind me, how many children do this these days?

PLAYING LEARNING ACHIEVING 

@Clarelouisebod

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