International Mud(Compost) Day!

In honour of International Mud Day I'm posting some photos of the compost creations some of my charges have created over the years...

Never made a sandcastle?-Compost will do the job too...

...mark making...

...a self portrait...

...patterns using pots.

But sometimes its about a lot more than fun...

These two young people hated the outdoors at the beginning of their sessions, they started to conquer their fears by a nice bit of squelching in some very sticky mud.

Whilst these two pupils had just been told their sessions were unexpectedly being cancelled (funding had been pulled), so not surprisingly they didn't want to use the compost they had mixed to plant anything new, so they spent their session throwing the mud and venting their anger at the abrupt ending by creating this piece of modern art. They gave it the title "Lifes a B..%*!"

I don't usually get modern art, but this one is a very different story...here's to Mud!!!!!

Planting for the future...

Personally I'm a winter girl but professionally I love this time of year.

Most of the children I work with will have been having sessions for nearly twelve months. We will have spent weeks weeding, preparing the soil and  mulling things over during the colder months and then in some cases, but not all, started to make plans for the future; thinking of practical or beautiful things that they want to bring into their lives.

Then we will have spent time sowing seeds or planting tubers and cared for their plants over the unusually early hot and dry spell. Later watching in amazement as their seedlings have enjoyed the recent rain and really started to get their roots down into the warmer soil.

And now those children are starting to see how they can change their worlds:

We've had things to eat:

 

And beautiful flowers that "Are really cool!"

Sometimes that one achievement is enough but for others they've tasted success and it leads to a whole new session of planting for the future...



Holidays and Loose Play

Sat inside watching thunderous clouds roll across the sky and rain stream down the window. Supposed to be putting together a talk to help one of my schools develop their grounds and the experiential and educational opportunities. Became distracted looking at photos to use whilst going through old holiday snaps...

It seems to me that once again my children have taught me whats important, and what I need to share this afternoon...

...time, space and the natural world for inspiration leads to many wonderful opportunities and creations.

 

Therapeutic Value of Digging

I've just been reading Lily's latest post over at http://kindlingplayandtraining.blogspot.com/ about the compulsion to make weapons and throw stones. It left me thinking about other compulsions that occur within sessions and for me recently there has been a lot of digging.

Either digging alone...

Or with a friend...

Sometimes holes get left. Just sitting waiting for something to fill it, whilst at others they are actively filled with bulbs and seeds planted for future growth...

By digging am I searching for something?

Looking for treasure?

Or my Self?

The Wood for the Trees....

After a long break it can be difficult to find anything worth looking at or working for.

"This bed is overgrown and full of weeds. Whats the point of all my hard work?"

Sometimes its hard to see anything good in life...

'Look closer. Is everything bad?' 'Can you see anything in there you might want to keep?'

Working together we slowly removed everything R wanted to, at his pace, talking about what was worth keeping, what might need some care and what we should throw onto the compost heap to be used again-in a different way.

The end result...

Onions, potatoes and beans-good things to come and space to sow more seeds for the future.