Experiencing real freedom by leaving toys at home

Many children are used to being entertained. In their house they can find many toys that call them to do a certain activity, so to speak. And outside, too, you can find plenty of places and things that direct you toward a particular activity. A slide invites you to slide, a ball to play soccer, a shovel to dig and a path to follow it. You may already feel it coming: the environment guides a child’s behavior, and the more guiding elements are present, the less freedom there is, unconsciously, to shape your own activities.

Become a dinosaur

The best choice for children is often viewed from the adults’ perspective. If you ask children to judge a play area, the function is important; what you can do there counts. A piece of playground equipment can be fun for a while, but if you’ve climbed in, hung from, crawled under, then you know it. Children need to be challenged. Play is discovery, trial and error. A climbing frame will not change and lose its function. The more elements there are in an environment that children themselves can give meaning to, use and reuse differently, the more challenging and stimulating the environment is. After all, the environment raises all kinds of questions that provoke action and play.

Making a rainbow with autumn leaves

These questions that a child experiences, whether unconsciously or not, provoke action and play. Depending on factors such as age and development, a child will ask different questions of its environment and engage with that environment in different ways. The questions playground equipment or other toy poses to a child are much less complex than those posed by a wilder, natural environment. Our brains are used to the idea that a slide is for sliding down. Sometimes to climb on or hide under, but then it stops. Nature, however, is full of materials that children can give meaning to themselves. For example, a branch is not only a sword, but also a building material to build a hut with, a stick to measure how deep the water is or a horse to ride on. In the wilderness, children are free to move, combine and change materials. The seasons and weather determine the characteristics of the environment and all senses are activated.

The more materials there are in an environment where children can give their own meaning to, the more challenging and stimulating the environment is. After all, there are many questions to ask. According to the “theory of loose parts” (1), the degree of ingenuity, creativity and discovery that an environment provokes, depends on the number and type of elements in that environment. Consider open terrain, sloping terrain, sheltered spots, fixed elements (such as trees), moving elements (such as swaying branches), loose elements (such as pine cones), loose material (such as pebbles and sand), water, animals and fire (2).

Mix elements and create your own doll.

But what is so wrong with bringing a ball or seeking out a natural environment that includes playground equipment? It doesn’t have to be a problem, but experience tells us (3) that the mere presence of playground equipment can be enough to direct children’s play. Take, for example, a large observation tower on a field in a large nature reserve. Not even playground equipment, but it still has enormous appeal to the children. Whenever we are in the neighborhood, children ask if we can go up there for a while or play under the stairs. While it’s obviously wonderful to be able to see the surroundings from above, it adds little to their play and direct experience of nature. If a lookout tower is already such an attraction, a toy, ball or shovel will only pull harder.

Although children can also play freely in a playground or with toys, the true freedom they experience in nature is truly different. After all, play equipment and toys are also designed for a specific purpose and direct children toward a certain form of play. It therefore disrupts the child’s own creative thought process and imagination. Nature, on the other hand, provides raw materials to which a child can make meaning for himself and is free from guiding man-made objects. This allows children to shape and use their play and the materials from their own imagination. Compare it to a walk in nature. When there are trails, you will tend to follow them. If there are none, you are more likely to follow your own curiosity and be more aware of your surroundings.

At Struin we embrace nature as our teacher, our inspiration and our place for personal and social development. We really value the endless ways the wild nature attracts and surprises, that especially and only nature offers. For this we let nature provide us with elements to explore and to play with and don’t bring any toys that can only be distracting from this opportunity to learn from and with nature.

In nature and without toys, children are more likely to need each other to play, than when there are toys and play equipment. Because of the freedom in nature, children are challenged to find their own play materials and make meaning out of them. Bringing toys with them distracts from the place, whereas the very act of searching for materials themselves connects children with hands, head and heart to the place where they are.

References

• Nicholson, S. (1972). The Theory of Loose Parts: An important principle for design methodology. Studies in Design Education Craft & Technology, 4(2).
• Lerstrup, I., & Konijnendijk van den Bosch, C. (2017). Affordances of outdoor settings for children in preschool: revisiting heft’s functional taxonomy. Landscape Research, 42(1), 47–62.
• Schouten-van der Laan, A (2017). Experiencing wild or domesticated nature: effects on children’s connection to nature and environmental stewardship. Master Thesis WUR.