SpelenMaaR inside winter edition

SpelenMaaR was asked by Eigenwijzer, The Children’s Culture Winter, to organize a SpelenMaaR Winter edition.

Great idea!. On January 3, max 40 children could come play “Winter Building with SpelenMaaR” in the large hall of the local playground Tuindorp – Wageningen.

It was the first time for us to organize SpelenMaaR inside. The children had a lot of fun. We supervised the free play and learned a lot in the meantime.

Some of our learning points:

• The materials were in a very big pile when we entered. Some children were literally startled by that. Too much and not orderly. Next time: prepare material in an orderly fashion. That way children have an overview and can choose.
• We had asked the children to bring their own paper box. Almost all children had a box with them. Then we could think of nothing else than “just throw it on the heap”. That was not stimulating.
• 30 children plus adults 3 hours inside with so much material is a lot. Fortunately, the weather was nice and the kids were able to get outside as well. That was lucky and essential.
• By no means all the kids really got to play. There was quite a bit of scrambling. Only after the facilitators started a game did children come to play along and then take over the game. Initiating play in such a setting seems necessary.