What is Adventure Play?
By Nancy Bower
Play is the only way the highest intelligence of humankind can unfold. ~Joseph Chilton Pearce
In Adventure Play, we play games, of course. And while we play, we nourish the child’s imagination. We challenge children’s bodies to try new skills. We practice ways of expressing ideas and feelings. We practice peacemaking skills such as, “working it out”, when there is a conflict. To sum up adventure in a word, it is –
Funandgamesbuddiescompassionpeacechallengcooperationimaginationfriendshipfun
Notice the prefix and suffix surrounding the root of the word! Play and fun help us to enjoy the sometimes hard work of learning how to be good friends.
Most of your children, by now, have experienced Adventure Play class. Depending on which classroom your child is in, he or she will have Adventure Play for one or two sessions. Toddler classes are 30 minutes, preschool and kindergarten classes are 45 minutes long.
Be Gentle, Be Kind, Be Safe
These are the words I found myself saying to my own children in their early years. When I began working with preschoolers I carried these same phrases into Adventure Play classes. These phrases can guide us throughout life, as friends, parents, teachers, partners and spouses. As a parent of 3 teenagers, I find that Be Gentle, Kind and Safe continue to guide our family.
Be Gentle, Be Kind, Be Safe are invitations. They invite us to be the family that we want to be a part of. They invite us to be members of a community that we are drawn to. They invite us to be the friend that we would hope to find for ourselves.
If I were to add one more guiding phrase to these invitations, it would be: Be Wonder-full
This is not the wonderful that means always being nice, perfect or the best at everything. Rather it is to be full of wonder, to be wonder filled. Wonder-full is about allowing ourselves and others to bring imagination and creativity to the moment. It is about making room for dreaming, curiosity, and inventiveness. It is about being creative and letting your creativity be known to the world. Wonder is the spark that ignites passion and learning.
Team work to make “pigs fly” was an activity enjoyed by all!
As parents and teachers, we can create the fertile ground of gentleness, kindness, safety and wonder from which amazing learning and growth can happen.
Nancy Bower teaches Adventure Play at Winfield Children’s House and other schools in the greater Portland area. She has published two books about Adventure Play and trains educators around the US in this approach. Learn more about Adventure Play at http://www.advplay.com.