Making Bargains and the value of Play

I took my 4 year old to her first day of Nature Preschool recently. She's lucky enough to be able to attend this school. There are only four like it in the country and she loves to tell everyone she goes to school in a forest. Which, she does. The whole place used to be a farm. It's over 100 acres and was donated then converted to a wildlife refuge about 20 years ago. They added a preschool 10 years ago and built, on donations alone, this incredible eco-friendly building to house it all. There are trails everywhere, even going up to the classroom. To get to the school from the parking lot you have to take a winding path through tress, to get to the parking lot you have to drive over a mile through trees and fields. It's quite remarkable.

I picked her up late on her first day, they actually called me as I was driving to pick her up asking if I was coming to get her. Doh! Thankfully the staff is very forgiving. I was a little stressed out to be late, but driving in you have to slow down to 10 MPH and watch for hikers and animals. As I was slowly rounding a corner I looked to my left and saw, no shit, an 8-point Buck waiting at a crosswalk. Though I am definitely aware they have a large amount of wildlife on the preserve it took my mind at least 2 seconds to register this was a REAL dear, not a lawn ornament (which, living in a village named after a Deer, I see many of). It just stood there and waited at the cross walk while I bumped my way over the second of many giant yellow speed bumps on the mile drive. It immediately changed my internal energy to see this big, amazing animal. I was reminded I was in Nature, not the fast-paced human world. I took a deep breath and remembered that my Decerebralization Lesson this week was PLAY.

Alrighty then. Play it is. I dropped the stress off on the side of the road and kept driving.

I took the slow drive to simply breathe and observe, shut off the internal monologue and parked in front of the preschool entrance. Despite being late, I walked slowly up the tree lined path, past Grandpa tree and into the outdoor classroom that greets you as you walk in. As I got to my daughter's inside classroom I noticed she'd climbed into the lookout tower to wait for me and was busily, head down, fully engaged in play. I now had an ally!



She saw me and began to give the teacher a bunch of dolls and assorted baby gear. Each of the diapers, bottles and other baby items that she'd packed up the 6' flight of stairs were dropped over the rail one at a time. When she climbed down with the last of the baby-dolls one of her teachers let me know that she had taken four up because as K. had told her, "Mommy has four and so I need to take care of four." It's moments like those I remember that play is learning and my kids are actively trying to learn about themselves by watching those around them. I'm reminded to try and set a good example.

We set off after getting her changed into outdoor shoes. We slowly crept around the curving walk to the carpark, taking our time noticing all the leaves as they were twirling through the air and landing on the sun-dappled path. I decided this was the perfect time to make bargains* with myself and involve my girl so I say "K., I have a game! If two yellow leaves fall, we have to hop 3 times" She looks at me with a beaming grin and agrees. Sadly no more leaves fall as we're getting closer to the car so I make a new bargain "OK" I say "If you see three green leaves we hop three times." We count together "One, Two, Three" and hop three times. "OK" I say, "If I see two yellow leaves, I'll give K. a kiss." She giggles as I count yellow leaves and bend down to plant a smooch on her cheek. She tells me about the bugs she saw on her hike today as we continue to walk, hop and make bargains with each other. I have now forgotten the challenges of  earlier in the day and am in full on PLAY mode. Sweet.

We get to the part where the path ends and the carpark begins and see ants crawling, we take the time to inspect them and talk to them. Bending down and getting close. She steps back and one follows her foot. She laughs. I say it wants to kiss her too. She giggles again and we hold hands as we cross the carpark to find our car and drive away.

My girl on her way to preschool.

*In Inga's assignment she mentioned you can make bargains with yourself to get out of your routine and open yourself to new experiences. Bargains like "If the light turns red before I get to it I eat nothing but chocolate till noon", "If my boss calls me one more time I get to go to the park after lunch"...stuff like that. I used this template for my own day of play.