We read a great piece in the Guardian this week about “Risk is essential to childhood – as are scrapes, grazes, falls and panics”
Following yesterday’s all-party parliamentary group report on a fit and healthy childhood, diligent parents everywhere are wondering how much risk they should introduce into their children’s lives. The report stated that: “Risky play, involving perhaps rough and tumble, height, speed, playing near potentially dangerous elements such as water, cliffs and exploring alone with the possibility of getting lost, gives children a feeling of thrill and excitement.”
Our LadyBird Parent Toddler group is a great example where children from 6 months to 3 years are exploring the woods and taking risks continually as part of their play. Many parents remark that seeing their children near fire and playing with sticks, wood and mud reminds them of their childhood; so it seems strange that the culture to our children taking risks is still so adverse.
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When we trained with with our first UK Skogsmulle Leaders, one of the sessions we focussed on was play and how should we facilitate “it’. After observing 2 videos of children playing and our groups looking at the risks versus benefits of the activities it was clear that when we started with the benefits, we had some context of the risks…the benefits far outweighed the risks. It was at this point we introduced our BENEFIT/RISK Assessment (note benefit first). We encourage all of our trainees to look at the benefits of any activity FIRST, before the negative mindset of what is the risk. We believe if the mindset works this way we not only get to involve children in fun, risky and beneficial activities; but it also challenges us to find the learning in the simplest of activities like climbing a tree.