tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18655776391938024752012-02-19T18:38:34.183ZLily Horsemanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18426029473262767774noreply@blogger.comBlogger421100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1865577639193802475.post-36564135067783922362012-02-17T11:16:00.000Z2012-02-19T10:49:53.178Z

Last week a series of posters were doing the rounds, originated from Explorations Early Learning: http://www.explorationsearlylearning.com/shop5/posters.html This one really caught the imagination of a number of people on facebook: It's great isn't it! It speaks to that part of us that knows that young children need to play and explore, it shows a boy engaged with his world. It also spoke

Lily Horsemanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18426029473262767774noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1865577639193802475.post-313538558053794142012-02-12T14:58:00.000Z2012-02-12T14:58:27.075Z

Sometimes I feel like describing ‘play’ is like drawing the wind. You can recognise it, you know what it looks and feels like, but it is somehow nebulous and hard to pin down. I have been working in the field of play and playwork for nearly fifteen years and yet I have still to find just one way to describe what play is. I love the fact that all you need is a handful of playworkers (and maybe a

Lily Horsemanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18426029473262767774noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1865577639193802475.post-10616194434492325692011-10-23T12:06:00.000+01:002011-10-23T12:13:11.304+01:00

This is a wonderful creative technique that I often share with participants on training courses and with the children I work with, This week someone on a course made something so beautiful it reminded me I wanted to share this a bit more widely. Stacey's hapa zome with clover, dandelions, grasses,  berries and petals Hapa Zome is the Japanese art of beating up leaves with hammers,  pounding 

Lily Horsemanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18426029473262767774noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1865577639193802475.post-2309609853958678852011-08-01T18:17:00.000+01:002011-08-01T18:17:14.523+01:00

"You can discover more about a person in an hour of play than in a year of conversation."  — Plato I recently spent a wonderful 24hrs with my friend and her daughter, my goddaughter R. Now aged six, this is a child I have known since before she was born, we lived all together for a brief time when she was a baby. I met her mum met at a nature play conference and we worked together for a bit and

Lily Horsemanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18426029473262767774noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1865577639193802475.post-73805655138565629342011-07-24T15:26:00.002+01:002011-10-18T10:32:59.877+01:00

Training week October 24th-28th 2011 with Assessment week June 4th-8th 2012. Location Skelton Grange, Leeds,W.Yorks. Training week Nov 21st-25th 2011 with Assessment week May 21st-25th 2012. Location Rookhow, Grizedale,Cumbria. Training week March 26th-30th 2012 with Assessment week Sept 24th-28th 2012. Location Rookhow, Grizedale,Cumbria.  More information and booking forms.

Lily Horsemanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18426029473262767774noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1865577639193802475.post-47971152982250991462011-07-23T14:32:00.000+01:002011-07-23T14:32:26.473+01:00

One of the elements I find really rewarding about working with lots of different groups of children and adults in different contexts is that the ideas and inspiration that develops with one group feeds into another and I often find themes emerging at certain times. As part of my role in the foundation unit of a large school I was involved in a carving project, looking to find things that we

Lily Horsemanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18426029473262767774noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1865577639193802475.post-58794981241552502642011-07-09T13:26:00.002+01:002011-07-09T13:28:58.959+01:00

I have been working closely with a school as they went through some massive changes. When I first worked with them in March last year the Foundation stage; nursery and reception class were two separate entities. Hilary who leads the unit, has been inspired by a trip to Reggio Emilia in Italy and the approach they have for their Early Years learning and teaching.  She made some phenomenal changes

Lily Horsemanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18426029473262767774noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1865577639193802475.post-88205098257967909872011-06-20T14:27:00.001+01:002011-06-20T18:14:41.475+01:00

Kindling is taking bookings for Inset training days for primary schools and Early Years settings for the next academic year 2011-12. Please email for more information or to discuss your requirements.

Lily Horsemanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18426029473262767774noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1865577639193802475.post-66289562881212368852011-06-13T08:27:00.000+01:002011-06-13T08:27:35.454+01:00

I am, by nature a peaceful sort. However I often find myself building and making weapons. I do like the satisfaction of seeing a stick shooting off into the distance fired by a home made bow and we have made some constructions (that could best be described as siege engines!) that would fire pebble a good distance. I have written before about the theory of recapitulative play and I feel that

Lily Horsemanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18426029473262767774noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1865577639193802475.post-73864382594856353112011-05-02T12:00:00.009+01:002012-02-19T10:48:39.351Z

I have a source of pride to share with you; I was the best tree climber in my street as a child. I was small and skinny and could hold on to thin branches my brother and his friends were too big to handle. I loved climbing trees, we would climb really really high. Once a police car stopped and the policeman told us we were climbing too high, we came down, watched the car drive away and climbed

Lily Horsemanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18426029473262767774noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1865577639193802475.post-64609528790881918722011-04-24T20:12:00.001+01:002011-04-24T20:39:20.490+01:00

I took my fire top popcorn maker with me to the woods this week. Had I known it would be it's last outing, I might have marked its passing in some way. The children were intrigued by the popcorn maker. A conversation I had with a group of 9 and 10 year olds went a bit like this: Popcorn maker in action "Oooh Lily, What's that?" "What do you think it is?" "Is it for catching fish...?" "nah,

Lily Horsemanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18426029473262767774noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1865577639193802475.post-10407132898497243122011-04-18T17:14:00.001+01:002011-04-18T17:16:40.899+01:00

I'm slowly getting through the backlog of jobs to do brought on by having a wonderfully wildly busy six weeks. I just worked out that I've had six weeks where I was in the woods or working outdoors with children or training adults every weekday except one, some weekends too! I'm enjoying catching up with myself and working through the reflective diaries that I keep (offline) for each project.

Lily Horsemanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18426029473262767774noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1865577639193802475.post-88106106250915652522011-04-02T13:33:00.000+01:002011-04-02T13:33:47.831+01:00

March has been an exciting month. So exciting in fact I have barely had time to write it all up! I have been keeping notes and I have started to wade through all my photos, so the next week or so will hopefully get me up to date on current projects which involve a bit of this: Some more of this:                                      ....finishing off some of this with one group: and starting

Lily Horsemanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18426029473262767774noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1865577639193802475.post-23521021241215200642011-02-25T14:53:00.008Z2011-03-13T11:41:59.236Z

I was doing some research on a new site I will be using for a Forest School project when I came across a reference to a poet who had written about the wood. I wrote to her and she has sent me a copy of the poem. I think it may even inspire the children in the older groups to write poems of their own. Saturday afternoon on the Ridge by Lucy Newlyn The wind is up – raking beeches,stirring low

Lily Horsemanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18426029473262767774noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1865577639193802475.post-46426910007038983872011-02-20T16:27:00.006Z2011-02-20T16:33:07.312Z

In a recent post a new provocation came from the children. My job when I am in this particular school is to follow the children's lead and extend their ideas. This can be really exciting, especially as it is a large foundation stage with 100+ three to five year-olds. I was talking to my friend Jen about the new provocation and how the children had started off making a pretend fire with sticks.

Lily Horsemanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18426029473262767774noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1865577639193802475.post-32464908334683036532011-02-04T19:29:00.004Z2011-02-06T11:16:17.687Z

I have a love of words and have been using word clouds to sum up evaluations of training courses. The bigger the word is the more often it appeared. I shared one of these recently and Alex from Schola Foris suggested a collective Forest school wordle of all wordles. This is a long way from being that, but here are the top 200 words from one of my Forest School practitioner reflective diaries.

Lily Horsemanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18426029473262767774noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1865577639193802475.post-60660902879078201822011-02-04T14:23:00.002Z2011-02-04T14:33:58.028Z

Last night a group of newly qualified reception teachers came to the Foundation Stage Unit where I am doing some work with three to five year-olds. The lead teacher was talking about the ethos of the setting where I work and how the planning is built around the children and following their interests. The effort and energy is put into recording, reflecting and responding rather than planning and

Lily Horsemanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18426029473262767774noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1865577639193802475.post-48255333578737737872011-01-31T12:27:00.001Z2011-01-31T12:32:24.773Z

Reviewing and reflecting is a really important part of what I do as a practitioner. It is also what I encourage  children and other practitioners to do so they can see their own learning and acknowledge each others achievements. Sometimes really wonderful things come up. I would like to share with you this poem, written last week by four participants on a Level 3 Forest School training course.

Lily Horsemanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18426029473262767774noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1865577639193802475.post-62205897442720475952011-01-20T11:40:00.002Z2011-02-06T11:33:56.085Z

In the last few weeks I have been working with people who are really trying to hone down their personal Forest School ethos statements. This has been an ongoing journey for me too and I thought I would share with you a little bit of that journey and extracts from my reflective diaries.  I first took part in Forest School training in 2004. Before then I had been doing lots of wonderful work, where

Lily Horsemanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18426029473262767774noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1865577639193802475.post-15881544317439388342010-12-29T13:21:00.001Z2011-02-20T16:27:57.000Z

Even in that frantic run up to Christmas the Foundation stage children (aged three to five) who had been working on the treehouse were reflective of their experiences. The tree house building which has been recorded here and here ground to a halt when we found we had a structure that we could leap off. The staff in the setting and I were really fascinated by the pictures of them jumping. They

Lily Horsemanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18426029473262767774noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1865577639193802475.post-33992652770112135542010-12-03T10:29:00.005Z2010-12-03T10:39:41.985Z

Lily Horsemanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18426029473262767774noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1865577639193802475.post-76646596111537266922010-12-02T19:00:00.001Z2011-02-06T11:36:24.826Z

Snow that is covering lots of the UK at the moment and when I've been out and about I can't help keeping my nose to the ground looking for tracks. Walking up on the moors on Sunday (before it got so deep) we noticed a regular little round regular mark, keeping pace with some human footprints. It took a little while for it to dawn on me, we were following the tracks of someone walking with a stick

Lily Horsemanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18426029473262767774noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1865577639193802475.post-28386183394960608722010-11-29T10:58:00.001Z2011-02-20T16:28:24.494Z

As the children had their lunch I went up to the treehouse site (if you are new to this project then catch up here and here). I wanted to check things over and see what things looked like without half a dozen small bodies on top of the walls and door frame. A group of girls came out after their lunch and watching them playing in the treehouse distracted me so I didn't get a chance to get any

Lily Horsemanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18426029473262767774noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1865577639193802475.post-34364394292979848732010-11-28T20:13:00.001Z2010-12-03T18:20:52.728Z

Last week I began a child led project with a foundation stage group of children to build a treehouse. It was a very process oriented project. The children were content to have moved from hammering, sawing and drilling  around a table inside, to have moved to hammering, sawing and drilling around a pallet outside. This week however they were very keen to have something that felt like a tree house.

Lily Horsemanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18426029473262767774noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1865577639193802475.post-72823294338753660332010-11-19T18:45:00.003Z2010-11-28T11:48:21.171Z

After the popularity of the work bench in the Atelier I was reflecting on how we could keep developing our skills with the tools and make a collaborative project. I also wanted to take the work bench outside.  Over the next few sessions we have some different tools, like drills and different size nails and pieces of wood.  We also have different

Lily Horsemanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18426029473262767774noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1865577639193802475.post-91975703595356186952010-11-14T13:08:00.000Z2010-11-14T13:08:58.922Z

I’ve been mulling over in my mind whether I should write a ‘how to’  for making simple animations. This is mostly because I am still learning and trying things out myself, but, it is so exciting I just have to tell you where I have got to so far.I first tried to do an animation some years back using my niece’s and goddaughter toys. These were kind of successful, in that things moved and I

Lily Horsemanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18426029473262767774noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1865577639193802475.post-21904807530266569952010-11-05T21:57:00.002Z2010-11-28T11:49:27.264Z

So far this week we have only had to down tools to deal with an injury twice. Once for a very small cut that needed a plaster and once for a finger, that got hit with a hammer slightly harder than all the other times we hit our fingers and thumbs with a hammer.Not a bad record from almost two full days of hammering and sawing by a group of children aged between three and five. This week I have

Lily Horsemanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18426029473262767774noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1865577639193802475.post-13703571576047636162010-10-29T16:12:00.001+01:002010-10-29T16:12:55.570+01:00

Being known as 'Lily who plays out for a living' has some drawbacks.....erm.... I'll tell you what they are when I think of them...Excitingly, this winter, I will also be playing indoors too! A wonderful school has invited me into their foundation stage be their provider of springboards, their atelierista, their Lily who plays indoors sometimes too. We'll be going to the woods to do some Forest

Lily Horsemanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18426029473262767774noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1865577639193802475.post-80749007408264415742010-10-26T11:47:00.000+01:002010-10-26T11:47:56.681+01:00

I remember back to when I first started working with children, and I remember distinctly the first group of children I ever took into the woods. We followed a trail that was marked with posts and signs and the children loved running from one signpost to another, checking that we were following the right symbols and always waaaay ahead of me. The thing I noticed then and since, is that it takes a

Lily Horsemanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18426029473262767774noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1865577639193802475.post-53579603133456272862010-10-21T12:24:00.001+01:002010-10-21T17:08:32.706+01:00

This post was originally posted on my website on 3rd March 2010, but I moved over here to be with my other thoughts. Kindling delivered a training day with a wonderful enthusiastic group of Early years practitioners on Monday. To end the session we talked about  how being outdoors makes us feel. We had been in the woods for most of the day and I asked them, based on the emotions and feelings

Lily Horsemanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18426029473262767774noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1865577639193802475.post-29352789649107843002010-10-19T22:57:00.000+01:002010-10-19T23:17:41.298+01:00

If you were given a map like this one, you would have to check it out, wouldn't you? I was given this map yesterday and followed it to a special place in the woods: And there, in the woods, I found all the fairie's houses. Generations of them, some with little notes pinned to them, some in trees, apparently people come for miles to build houses here;  We had been making houses of our own

Lily Horsemanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18426029473262767774noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1865577639193802475.post-2273863091778287012010-10-14T18:35:00.002+01:002010-11-29T11:09:56.335Z

I have searched the whole internet to see if this has been posted anywhere else and it hasn't. It isn't mine, I can claim nothing but having found this a few years back and saved it. I would love to credit "Jacky" so if that's you, or you know who it is then give me a shout. But this is too good not to share: "I'm not sure if this is going to play out but here goes - Is play linked to present

Lily Horsemanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18426029473262767774noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1865577639193802475.post-13749936802806389772010-10-12T11:11:00.000+01:002010-10-12T17:13:28.708+01:00

In my early twenties I used to go to Oxford once a fortnight and my treat was to go to the Pitt Rivers museum of anthropology. I was always fascinated by the shrunken heads from the Amazon Basin.  When I found a how to in an old craft book I had to have a try. That was a few years back and I kept meaning to revisit the idea. I had a fine opportunity this weekend.  First get a head, one that

Lily Horsemanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18426029473262767774noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1865577639193802475.post-85615188575695117562010-10-08T18:17:00.001+01:002010-10-21T17:09:55.292+01:00

This post was originally on my website 26th Feb 2010. I'm enjoying being able to collect all my thoughts together in one place!I have been thinking a lot about springboards this week. Not the swimming pool ones, but a playwork theory that was first described to me by Martin Maudesley; sometimes even if we want to stimulate free play for children, or encourage self directed learning we need to

Lily Horsemanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18426029473262767774noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1865577639193802475.post-4700504939782083372010-10-07T10:27:00.001+01:002010-10-07T10:27:12.415+01:00

This post first appeared on my website on 28th Aug 2010Rope BridgesThese last few months have seen an increase in the number of rope bridges I have been making with Forest school groups. It is interesting to notice how each group takes the same basic springboard and has their way of using it.                                                   With the younger nursery age children I have noticed

Lily Horsemanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18426029473262767774noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1865577639193802475.post-66893651553633016882010-10-07T09:45:00.000+01:002010-10-08T10:14:51.493+01:00

This is what happens when I get trapped in the house on a rainy Sunday. I'm putting together a howto soon, but first I am going to do some more with the kids in the woods next week.

Lily Horsemanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18426029473262767774noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1865577639193802475.post-8894514502286902452010-10-06T15:48:00.001+01:002010-11-28T11:50:32.273Z

This post was originally posted on my website on 2nd Sept 2010 In a recent discussion about whether children should be allowed to use egg boxes in their play I was reminded of how completely fabulous the HSE myth of the month posters are. The truth about egg boxes is here: www.hse.gov.uk/myth/august.htm There are quite a few others of these posters that I particularly like: This time of year

Lily Horsemanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18426029473262767774noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1865577639193802475.post-39363244878776860042010-10-06T13:40:00.000+01:002010-10-06T13:41:20.112+01:00

Oooh, I was just looking for an creature footprint ID sheet that I have been using since I worked at Herefordshire Nature Trust. I couldn't find it in my filing system anywhere, but I remembered there was a copy in the the PDF that went with the WildPlay Kitbag that I complied with Jo Polack in 2005 (ish I am a bit rubbish with dates!). www.herefordshirewt.org/wildplay/downloads/

Lily Horsemanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18426029473262767774noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1865577639193802475.post-54621412627018122072010-10-06T10:17:00.001+01:002010-10-21T17:10:24.947+01:00

Often on training courses, when I ask what people want to get out of the day the response is that they want to know the names of more things in the woods. Inside there is a part of me that baulks at this. I love learning and sharing the names of flowers, trees, insects and birds with my adult friends but if we wish to stimulate children’s curiosity, interest and excitement about the natural world

Lily Horsemanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18426029473262767774noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1865577639193802475.post-49172589486992630692010-10-05T22:43:00.000+01:002010-10-08T14:37:19.840+01:00

Why is clay cleaner than mud? Why are barbecues safer than fires? These are questions that often come to my mind when I am working with adults rather than with children. The thought of putting a hand into the mud can be pretty uuugh! for some people. I have learned to spot them and make sure they get to see the handywipes are all ready for them, I tell them that I have dug up some specially

Lily Horsemanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18426029473262767774noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1865577639193802475.post-24510820753978710072010-10-05T18:11:00.001+01:002010-10-21T17:10:53.171+01:00

This post was originally posted on my website on 24th Sept 2010 I was sorting through some files of pictures today  when I came across this series of pictures from earlier in the year. I really like that you can see the thought processes that this group of 3 and 4 year olds are working through. First one boys tries to lift a log, and finding it too heavy calls his best friend over to help him.

Lily Horsemanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18426029473262767774noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1865577639193802475.post-69560677576254828732010-10-05T17:30:00.000+01:002010-10-05T17:31:15.578+01:00

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