GEKA Bentleigh
Authentic Opportunities to Explore Boundaries
Kerry Spiritosanto, Karen Chisolm & Kym Haggerty
A natural part of children’s physical play involves engaging in play that is challenging, a bit scary and somewhat risky. Life is full of risks and children openly and actively seek this thrilling kind of play that stimulates a quivering feeling of butterflies when they encounter something different that they are not sure they can manage or what the consequences of their actions will be.
At GEKA Bentleigh Kindergarten we openly provide children with authentic opportunities to participate in risky and challenging play in a safe learning environment, which enables each child to develop important life skills and learnings involving making choices, problem solving, measure risks and navigating their way both socially and emotionally in various group play situations.
We understand each child’s uniqueness, individuality and capabilities as learners, then support them with understanding personal risks and challenges may vary according to their age, physical abilities and limitations.
Activities such as climbing trees, using swings, riding on billy carts or exploring the use of authentic tools and equipment such as using real spades to dig in the mud patch or providing wood work experiences using hammers and nails, so that children gradually develop the ability to build self-confidence and independence, learn about themselves through resilience and persistence, understand consequences and make safe judgements about risks in stages.
As educators it is our role to create these opportunities for children to take safe risks by providing safe, secure, well planned and supervised environments for them to explore.
However we need to ensure children have a clear understanding to rules on what is safe and unsafe play. It’s therefore the importance of promoting these skills earlier to set them right through life, particularly in vulnerable stages such as their teen years, so let’s give them the life skills to be prepared!
