Wood cookies swinging in the trees make romantic braids...

Occasionally I see a craft technique and think to myself "I can't wait to take that to the woods!" So it was when I attended a textile workshop with Larry Schmidt at the North House Folk School. He specialises in traditional Scandinavian textile techniques that were brought to America by the first settlers and the have wonderful names like flettet snor, frynseflet, bregdet band and rundflet snor.

I've shared this technique with various practitioners and children over the years, most recently when I was hanging out in the woods with the fabulous Treecreepers. They have done what I have never managed to do and got some excellent photos that they allowed me to share with you. (Thank you Simon and Harry).

The technique is called a Nordic slinging braid. Also known as a romantic braid because it requires two people and good cooperation!

The first step is to hang weights off four strands of wool, string or thread. These strings need to be two different colours. Wood cookies or little branch slices are ideal for weights. Treecreepers used different symbols to help people who can't distinguish the colours as easily. This promotes thinking skills, trying to work out what things would work as opposites.

The strings need to be tied together then hung above head height. This is when I realised that the woods are ideal for this. All those convenient branches! 

Next stand facing opposite each other, each with two strings of different colours, one in each hand.

The next bit is simple; take the string in your left hand and let it swing across and swap it with the string in your partners left hand. 

Now do the same with the strings held in both of your right hands.  

Now repeat; left, right, left, right and... allow the rhythm to build, the strings to swing, from one person to the next, sometimes getting faster, or slowing down, stopping completely to untangle and laugh when things go awry. 

You will notice a braid starting to develop above your head and a pattern starting to develop in the braid. This pattern will be different depending on whether you both have the same colour strings in your left hand or opposite colour strings. You could try more than two colours when you get the hang of things. 

They are called romantic braids because you can only really do them with another person, I like the way this appeals to very physical people, and people who like to get immersed in making things, as well as people who 'don't normally like this sort of thing' but think they will have a go.  

Massive thanks to Treecreepers for the use of their pictures. Check out their facebook page for more inspiration (and probably some pictures of beetles). 

Bridge that gap

I've written before about building rope bridges among the trees and how fantastic they are for children's motor development, encouraging social skills and confidence and being loads of fun.

What I have also found is that adults who work with children are equally as fascinated and enjoy learning the skills of tying the knots. I thought I would leave some notes here for a refresher for anyone who needs it (you know who you are :) and to maybe inspire you to have a try at tying rope bridges if you haven't yet.

I'll put in links to animated knot videos and drawings to help you along if you need it, but here's the thing about knots, some people learn by watching, some people learn by listening, some just have to have a bit of string and be shown. That's the way different people learn and it doesn't mean one way is better.

Trees:  you want to tie ropes from trees that are solid and secure. Give them a good look over, lean against them and look up noticing if they move too much when you put weight against them. Check there are no dead branches in the crown of the tree that could show a weakness or cause problems. Choose trees that are a good size, not so massive that all your rope gets used up tying on to them but big enough.

Protection: If you are going to leave them up and the tree are smooth skinned like beech or young ash trees etc then put something like carpet or thick fabric under the ropes to protect the bark.


Rope: I use 10ml (or thicker) polyprop rope. It's that cheapish blue stuff. Climbing rope can be too stretchy unless you have static climbing rope.
For length go for two pieces that are as long as a piece of string (!). Mine are about 10 metres each.

Once the children are interested in the idea I encourage them to be fully involved in tying the bridges, taking over completely after the first couple of times with my help. The older children tend to make them more challenging, going up slopes or with non-parallel lines.

Tying the knots: First end is wrapped around the tree three or four times. Tie with a couple of half hitches. The turns around the tree take the pressure off the knot

Wrap the second end of the rope around another tree, leaving a long long tail. go around the tree once and pull it tight "heave, heave etc",  I love getting the children involved at this stage, it takes much longer this way but is so much more fun and they definitely use the bridges more if they have built them.

The working end of the rope then goes over the top of the standing end and back round the tree in the opposite direction.
This is quite heard to type how to do this bit, so I have done a couple of doodles that may (or may not) help.


This end of the rope is tied to another tree.

                     This end of the rope is doing all the work.

           


























Repeat this 3-4 times so the rope is pulled tighter each time.







The zig zagging of each turn, pulled really tight, with more of the "heave, heave" shortens the rope. It is this which pulls it tight.


With the end of the rope, wrap it round and round in a twizzly timber hitch. This stops it over-tightening and is why you need to make sure you have a long long tail on your rope. If you haven't got a long end on the rope then a couple of half hitches works well but can get a bit fiddly to untie


Repeat with the second rope, about a child's height above the first rope. They don't need to be far of the ground to be challenging and the wobbliness adds to the physical challenge.                                                      
                         
                                               

Let me know how you get on! 

Did you used to climb trees?

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 straight back up. I can still recall intimately the feel and smell of  each different tree I climbed regularly and the best routes up each tree. 

So can you imagine how I felt reading this article from Openwaldorf? This a website that describes itself as one Waldorf parent's personal journey, with no official affiliation with Waldorf education. The article focuses on how terribly dangerous tree climbing is, the risks of tree climbing and includes a list of questions  parents should ask their school: 

1. Were you aware that when a child falls 8 feet out of a tree, that it's the same as hitting a brick wall at 30 MPH?
2. Are children allowed to climb above unsafe falling surfaces?
3. What are the rules for tree climbing at Waldorf?
4. Were you aware that professional tree climbers do not recommend free climbing because it is too dangerous?
5. How many children are allowed in the tree at one time?
6. What kind of supervision is provided during tree climbs?
7. Who is the the trained person in charge of tree climbing? Has anyone received training on proper tree climbing techniques?
8. Has anyone signed off on specific trees as established climbing trees? Have the trees been certified for climbing by an arborist?
9. What kind of instruction is provided for high tree climbing?
10. Do you consider it safe for a child to ride a bike or a scooter without a helmet? Do you consider it safe for a child to climb 8 feet into a tree without a helmet? Does the school allow the children to climb trees?
11. Do you provide the children with protective gear such as helmets, ropes, and gloves?
12. Are children at Waldorf allowed to climb trees 8 feet or higher without protective gear? Is there a maximum height children are allowed to climb?
13. Which is more dangerous to my child: (1) climbing more than 8 feet into a tree over an unsafe falling surface without protective gear, or (2) watching television?  "Source: OpenWaldorf.com, the most open site on the Internet for new and prospective Waldorf parents."

I must admit I felt a little sad after reading this. Then really panicked! I have had lots of experience of working with children and my career has included supporting children of all ages to take part in tree climbing. Had I been doing something really ridiculous and uncalled for?
Then I thought... If I could be made to feel this bad by one person over emphasising the risks that are inherent in an activity, then I felt for the myriad of parents and inexperienced practitioners who may read the list of questions posed in the article and decide that never,ever, ever would a child be allowed to climb in a tree. Accidents do happen, but children falling out of trees is uncommon. I know of two that I (or my students or team members from the last 10 years) have had to deal with. Only two accidents that have led to injury requiring hospitalisation (both broken arms). Risk management isn't just about what is possible, but also about what is probable. Only longevity of experience can tell you this.

So when I had managed to breathe and actually think about what I do, I felt someone should look at the statistics that are quoted on the site and help people reading this get some perspective! 

Luckily the wonderful Tinkering School founded by Gever Tulley has done just that in their follow up articles to the book, 50 dangerous things (you should let your children do) : Some Thoughts on #28 - Climb a Tree

The article links to the same article that alarmed me and refutes some of the statistics used and points out some the things I felt instinctively: 

No two children are alike and broad least-common denominator rules are never appropriate when it comes to evaluating the risk of an activity for your child. All children need opportunities to learn to judge and assess danger, as well as opportunities to demonstrate their ability to be responsible. They should practice climbing down as well as up, and learn to evaluate every branch. Tree climbing is a great activity for children (and adults) and it can be done safely without helmets or climbing ropes as long as everyone exercises a little common sense.

And I leave you with this wonderful quote from a spokesman for the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents in the UK:

Climbing trees and falling out of them is all part of growing up and having small injuries helps children learn about risks. We take the view that it's a good thing to try to equip children and young people and help them make informed decisions about the risks that they take.

Source: http://www.fiftydangerousthings.com

My current insurance policy requires that the children I work with don't climb higher than 1.5 meters,(*edit Jan 2012, this has now been amended to be 3x the height of the child. This makes sense considering a 3 year old and a 14 year old have very different levels of need and challenge when tree climbing) so I do have to limit the children. They know they can only climb as high as my shoulder. If I tried to stop them completely, they would still do it, only more furtively and secretly and  less safely. Interestingly this height restriction doesn't limit them in every way, they have come up with lots of ways to challenge themselves. Last week the older children challenged themselves to see for how many seconds they could hang upside down from a branch and we often build rope bridges and slack lines so that the children can challenges themselves to go in a horizontal direction rather than a vertical.

These boys constructed their own challenges with a spiders
web to cross, all only a small distance off the ground.
It later morphed into a zip wire slide.

If I could find an insurance company that would support me to allow kids to climb higher, then I would jump at the chance. The underwriters have said that they would only allow this if I had a qualification that trained me to run  free tree climbing sessions (without ropes), So this is a plea: Does anyone know of a course or see themselves as a collaborator in establishing a free tree climbing qualification?

If that is you then do get in touch with me a mail(at)kindlingplayandtraining.co.uk

(OK I can't leave that list of questions alone alone, let's try and answer some of them. Here is what I have found out)

1. A fall of 8 feet would be a velocoity of 22.6ft per second, that is the equivalent of 15.4090909 MPH

2. A quote from a child (age nine) that I heard recently. "It's better falling out of the trees in the woods because it is softer than falling over on the playground."

3. Useful rules we have for climbing trees: Children not to be put under pressure when climbing, allow children to focus on the activity and speak to them calmly and reassuringly. Adult to climb all trees that children climb to assess hidden risks. Children must only climb the trees they can climb unaided. Do not give ‘bunk ups’ or allow children to use climbing aids. Children should be able to climb down as well as up.

4. Professional tree climbing companies that offer roped climbing experiences for children and individuals all acknowledge that free tree climbing is a normal part of childhood experience. They have a business to run and very good safety records. They don't incorporate the two types of climbing.

5. The number of children allowed in the tree at anyone time depends on the tree and the children. 

6. Children climbing trees should be supervised, the proximity of the supervision depends on the child and the trees they are climbing.

7.There are currently no appropriate tree based free climbing courses in the UK.

8. You should assess all trees that are climbable for safety. there is a fantastic list here

9. Following a three points of contact rule is really useful for any climbing. Always have 3 body parts in contact with the tree, (hands, feet, knees, belly, bottom)

10. "Expert" opinions, you should or shouldn't make the child wear a helmet when climbing a tree. The Bicycle Helmet Safety Institute say: "Children should not wear helmets on playgrounds or when climbing trees. The helmet can snag and the strap can asphyxiate them. Several deaths have been recorded, and more close calls"

11. Ropes are provided but these are not used for climbing but traversing between trees. Some children like to have gloves when holding ropes but these are not so useful in trees and you miss the wonderful sensory experience on offer. 

12. Maximum heights are instituted by some insurance companies. 

13. I personally gain far more from my experiences of climbing in trees, I climbed a beautiful pollarded oak last weekend and looked down on a sea of bluebells. Breathtaking!

Building bridges

This post first appeared on my website on 28th Aug 2010

Rope Bridges

These 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 how much more time they spend using the bridges if they have been involved in setting them up in the first place. Although having a group of helpful 3 and 4 year olds winding the ropes around trees has its own challenges, they soon get the idea and after a few times doing it they need me to tighten the ropes which they set up.

                   

                               

It is really good fun pulling together to tighten the ropes, and there is always a bag of other shorter ropes to satisfy the needs of the ones who want to wind and tie ropes around themselves, the trees or my legs.

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One child, who was electively mute in nursery, couldn’t resist shouting ‘look at me’ as he swung from a bridge, repeatedly dropping off to the floor and climbing back on.

 YR 5 and 6 children hadn’t been asked to queue or take turns in using the rope bridges but did it spontaneously. Crossing the bridges was part of their quest; they came up with their characters and what the bridge was built to cross. We ended up crossing rivers of fire and chocolate and a lava flow which all featured over a couple of days.

                                  

One boy in this group got the idea of how the ropes could be tied to make a bridge and was really chuffed when we used ‘his’ idea.

Building rope bridges encourages team working, problem solving and physical development; hanging, swinging, traversing etc.

                     

                               

 But it also involves a fair amount of negotiation, turn taking and fine motor development and a lot of laughing.