Fostering Emotional Wellbeing: Personal Reflections from an Early Childhood Forest Program

Abstract

 2014 Children, Youth and Environments Children, Youth and Environments 24(3), 2014 Fostering Emotional Wellbeing: Personal Reflections from an Early Childhood Forest Program Magdalena Rudkowski Simon Fraser University Citation: Rudkowski, Magdalena (2014). “Fostering Emotional Wellbeing: Personal Reflections from an Early Childhood Forest Program.” Children, Youth and Environments 24(3): 80-91. Retrieved [date] from: http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublication?journalCode=chilyoutenvi. The sweet scent of a rose… is my grandfather’s warming smile. On the windy trail within a dark, tall, forest… lays my grandmother’s profound wisdom. The sound of the humming wind between the leaves of a powerful tree… holds the comfort of my father. The dandelion seeded within a wild, open valley… is the laughter of my mother. Through the rough texture of an old tree stump… I follow in my brother’s footsteps. Love lies in the sweetness of berries from my childhood. I will always remember a moment from my early childhood. I was a shy, 6-year-old girl, with my curly blonde hair tied up in a ponytail. It was a late morning and the sun was out. Through my mom’s sense of adventure, we climbed out of the groundfloor window with my brother to go on our daily hike. This was in Czerniawa, a town in Poland surrounded by rolling hills, trees and streams of water. As we went out, two small, white fluffy dogs greeted us by barking and running behind us until we began to follow the thin hiking trail. To me, this was an adventure—an adventure to get to our rockets that would fly us off into space. I remember that as we walked, the stream of fast-flowing water captivated me. I knelt down, touched the wet rocks and stuck my finger in to feel the cold water rushing past my skin. The sound of a moving stream still brings me comfort, brings me back to that moment. With my mom walking beside us, we were going to our spot, to our special rocket trees. We sang cheerful, familiar songs and danced while we held hands. Once we arrived, I followed in my brother's footsteps, choosing my rocket and climbing up the tree. I remember the tree branch being horizontally bent, and my feeling of pride arising once I sat on it—my older brother could do it, and so could I. I sat on it like on a rocket and launched into space, turning left, turning right and going really fast. Once finished, we headed back home, following the narrow, dusty trail, and climbed through the window again and into our room. Now Fostering Emotional Wellbeing: Personal Reflections from an Early Childhood… 81 as an adult, I reflect upon these simple adventures I had when I was young, which fill me with warmth on a tough day. I have summed up my early childhood years in the above passage. The forest is a metaphor of my appreciation for my upbringing. Every scent, every stump, every tree and every sound of the crinkling stream is a powerful reminder of the joy, love, challenges and moments of freedom I experienced in my childhood. Fast-forward to my adult years: I am now in the final phase of completing my doctoral work on early childhood experiences in a play-based forest program. Throughout a sixmonth period, I actively participated in this program, observing and reflecting upon the adventures that children had in the forest. I engaged the children in drawing their experiences, taking photos, giving me tours of their play-spaces, and making books about their experiences. All of this allowed the children to tell me their stories of being in the forest, and I would like to use this essay to reflect upon some of my experiences. ***** A large portion of the parents whose children attend this forest program live in the city and work full-time. By enrolling into the program, they have the choice and the privilege to schedule their children’s outdoor play—amidst their karate practice, soccer practice, ballet and so forth. It seems that this scheduling of unstructured time is needed: according to the Canadian Coalition for the Rights of...