Animal Friends
Animal Friends: On Monday this week, I attended a wonderful open-air theatre performance in a hornbeam circle in a private woodland.
The tree circle to create the ‘stage’ had been planted many years previously and the play wasn’t unique only in its setting- it had been crafted by the young children who performed it. They designed and produced the whole play, including recording the soundtrack.
These days, with many children struggling with their mental health, the stress of targets, assessments, and the constant pressure to conform and perform, some parents are choosing alternative schooling for their children.
Little Forest is one such alternative.
Koan had created a wolf costume for himself, while Oscar in his costume, made a very convincing and entertaining chicken! Once their costumes were made, the next obvious step was to create a performance to use them, and Fionntan, Jonny, Millicent and Leo gradually chose to join in.
Basing their work on a beautiful book called, ‘The Wild’ by Yuval Zommer, the children developed their story to explain that the wild needs a voice. The beings they chose to portray were Squirrel Monkey, Red Squirrel, Grey Wolf, Chicken, and Tree. I learned that squirrel monkeys don’t have prehensile tails and that they can jump up to 18 feet high!
The children, aged 5-11, realised the event could support charities to help the animals, so they made cakes and biscuits at home with their families to raise money for their four choices: Chicken Rescue UK, Saving Monkeys, Red Squirrel Survival Trust and Trees for Life. Each was responsible for selling their own items (delicious!) and for giving the correct change to their customers. We sat on tree stump stools, chairs or rugs and were invited to share what hopes and dreams we had for the future. We were offered flat wooden discs to record our personal commitments to help look after planet, to take home as a souvenir.
It was a contrast to traditional education, where the teachers do all the planning: at Little Forest, the planning is done together in daily meetings, and there are other planning sessions for longer projects. As well as learning acceptance and cooperation, there are all sorts of other benefits too: there are incidental lessons about ecology and biology, while being able to climb trees during rehearsals, playing not on concrete, or poison-sprayed fields, or on plastic ‘grass,’ but on an area teeming with microbes, plants and animal diversity, while breathing in the fresh air naturally and richly oxygenated by the trees, has multiple benefits for mind and body,
Jen, the Little Forest leader, says, “Little Forest is different. The children become part of a democratic learning community where we respect the rights of everyone, and pay attention to the best interests of children and nature.”
As we chatted while sharing our picnics, we grown-ups realised that we can certainly learn a lot by keeping an open mind and fully supporting our children in their natural love of nature.
By Morag Warrack
