We’re working on a couple of quick updates to this site over the next day or two to make it a little more functional and easier to get around. In going through my files, I found my original mood board when thinking about chronicling our forest school adventures in the form of this blog, and thought it would be fun to share. And you know what? I would still pretty much pull together the same thing if I had to start all over again…I can’t promise that we’re always 100% on it as I’m no designer, but we certainly try to capture the outside spirit of the school with the vibrance of toddlers. Feel free to weigh in if there is anything more or anything less of that you’d like to see!
Have you been wondering? I know you have. People inevitably either ask this question first, or confess later that they wanted to ask this one first. It’s funny how intriguing bathroom subjects can be.
But it intrigued me too, I confess. I think it was probably one of the first three things I asked the school, and I remember getting a bit of a blank look back. Well…not blank but rather, more disbelief that I wasn’t able to answer my own question, since it amounted to a rather simple answer. As they’re in the forest all day, the kiddies go to the bathroom in the forest.
Now…there are a few variations here. The first is that, as they have the building as a meeting point, there is the opportunity to use the bathroom there. Either in the mornings before they go, or in the afternoons when they return. In my mind, I had pictured this colossal, collective “who has to go to the bathroom?” roll call at departure time which would surely add at least 45 minutes to the routine as it tends to do at our house. But no, they let kids figure it out themselves. I found that rather brave. This tends, decidedly, to NOT work at our house.
The building has a normal bathroom, just as you would expect it, except that there is one full size bathroom and then one bathroom with two little kiddie thrones in there. I’ve been by to do an afternoon pick up to see two tots just sitting there, doing their thing and chatting and laughing away; sometimes they’re even mixed gender. That particular element I didn’t expect necessarily, but then again, I’m not sure it would have phased me when I was that age either… For forest schoolers, going to the bathroom is a totally normal, if not social, thing to do - so why not take a moment to catch up? As Taro Gomi likes to say in his book, “everybody poops”…and no one will explain that to you faster than a forest schooler.
When they’re in the forest, the possibilities are limitless - behind trees, behind bushes…Because this particular school is on the move, in a different place each day, they tend to just deal with the bathroom on the go. When the kids are younger, they hold them up, cannonball style, but as they get older, these littles ones pop squats like pros. The teachers carry around small plastic trash bags for when items need to be removed. I do believe that in other forest schools more globally though, if they have a more permanent location in the woods, they might have a fixed bathroom place that’s there or that they’ve built.
Accidents definitely happen (that’s why the extra clothes in the backpack are for, amongst other things). And for the record, you don’t need to be potty trained to attend (at least, not at our school). Which for us, ended up helping immensely. We arrived in Denmark when our daughter was two and a half, but with the move, then another move to our house, and then the language barrier, we were grateful for the flexibility to stay in diapers a little while longer without all that added pressure. For those in diapers, the teachers deal with that on the go too - we just had to pack extra in her backpack for standing changes in the forest (another skill that comes in handy).
The humorous thing though that ends up happening when you’re doing training throughout all that forest school, is that the children first have a little bit of a hard time distinguishing why you can pop a squat in the woods, but not behind the tree of your local playground, or your backyard. Or why it’s okay to write your name in the snow in the woods , but not okay to repeat that in the snow drift on your hotel balcony (true story). My daughter has always had a healthy fear of public restrooms anyway but after forest school, if there is an option for a tree, she’ll go for it every time. It’s all green to them to them in the end.
One of the best parts of being in the blogging community is meeting some of the other great bloggers out there. I met Jenni from Museum Diary a few times over the past couple of years, and have always admired her dedication to not only get out and about to museums, but also to make sure that kids enjoy them too.
We did a little interview over on Museum Diary for Jenni’s new “Meet a Museum Family” series about how our family does museums when we’re here in the city or out on travels (hint: we talk about our favorites a lot) - take a peek!
When you travel with toddlers, to visit friends with toddlers, not surprisingly, your travel itinerary tends to be geared a bit more towards toddlers, and that was definitely the case when we visited our friends in Dublin a couple of weekends ago.
Luckily, our friends are seasoned pros when it comes to toddlers, and while the visit was short (much too short for my liking - Dublin and Ireland, you are on my list to return to!), we managed to pack in an entirely new playground each of the three days we were there. And each one had their own special flavor and proximity to “extras” that were just as entertaining for the parents, which means that these were winners all around.
1. St. Stephen’s Green: We were told that if you could only see one thing in Dublin, St. Stephen’s Green should be it. Not only is it a beautiful park right in the middle of the city, but it’s got a great playground right in the middle. Now, Copenhagen is home to some pretty amazing playgrounds, but one of the things you notice pretty quickly when you have kids here is that nearly all playgrounds are based in dark sand, which means you’re guaranteed a load of laundry (or two) by the time you get home. This playground is outfitted with softer matting instead, making it possible to play your heart out and still look respectable for your fish’n’chips luncheon at the local pub. The playground is laid out in a graduated fashion, so there are groups of structures and activities for kids to enjoy regardless of their size, and scattered benches that allow parents to take a load off. As a bonus, the entry to St. Stephen’s Green is right off of Grafton Street, which means you can do a little busker entertainment and window shopping on your way over. And if you start on Suffolk Street by Trinity, you can pop by the Avoka main store, pick up a few Irish blankets to take home, and a pack up some phenomenal baked treats and salad boxes from their cafe in the basement for a lunch on the green.
2. Herbert Park:Right between the Ballsbridge and Donnybrook neighborhoods is a huge expanse of green space called Herbert Park. Our friends live just around the corner and I have to say, it’s pretty prime toddler space. The park itself is huge, with a lovely pavilion area and ducks and swans which makes for a nice walk (or run for the ambitious) at pretty much any time of day. The playground is expansive, with lots of climbing structures and a base of wood chips, which is also something we don’t find here in Copenhagen. What was nice about this one, was how many people seemed to know each other and each other’s children - it has a really nice neighborhood feel to it.
3. Dun Laoghaire Market + Playground: This one is a little outside of Dublin with a quick ride on the local transit, but in a toddler’s eyes, it has it all: a train ride! the sea! ice cream! It only took me the entire train ride to figure out that Dun Laoghaire is pronounced “dunnleary”…and suddenly I remembered that this was where some of the characters in Circle of Friends lived (three cheers for Maeve Binchy! ) which made me love it even more. On Sundays, Dun Laoghaire hosts a big open air food stall market: crepes, pad thai, falafel…they’re all on the menu - as are beautiful farm fresh eggs, soda bread and cookies the size of your head. But don’t use up all your dessert chips just yet - after a lunch to everyone’s taste on the lawn (where you may get treated to an impromptu choir performance), head over to the playground (crowded but fun!) to work it off. Once everyone has had their fill, you can follow the road down to Teddy’s for ice cream, a bit of a local institution. We had to head back after that for our flight, but if we had more time, a nice walk on the water would have been an even more perfect ending.
So that’s the scoop on Dublin playgrounds - again, we were only there for a weekend so I’m sure there is much more out there. For those that have visited or lived in Dublin with little ones, feel free to add your suggestions about playgrounds or other great things to do with toddlers in the comments below!
