Our Week in the Forest...
‘You can discover more about a person in an hour of play than in a year of conversation’ Plato
The sound of laughing children and tiny feet running through the forest has become an integral part of Fulham Palace each morning. The children wave good morning to Bishop Porteus high in his tree, stroke the wooden cat and try out the grand thrones before discovering the next new adventure with their friends.
Relationship building has really been at the heart of the children’s play throughout the past few weeks, and it has been beautiful to observe how these friendships have been nurtured through kindness, sharing and empathy. There have been some magical moments this week through collaborative play that have helped our new little forest folk settle gently into their new nursery setting.
The children have also been adapting their play in response to the chilly weather this week, it has been a very physical week full of running, climbing, ducking, leaping, throwing, balancing, catching and of course chasing. They have been encouraging each other to create new ways of using our log pile, transforming them into wobbly balancing logs that span the crocodile infested swamps, stepping stones up to the giant’s castle and mountain peaks from which they can jump and catch the highest tree branches…
We have also been exploring the Palace grounds more extensively to keep ourselves active, throughout our travels we have discovered new trees, some with spikey leaves and others with the most beautiful pink flowers. We spotted wrens, robins and magpies, and even a beautiful orange fox, but the children’s most exciting discovery was a huge fallen tree which we now plan to visit more often, who knows what it will become?
And in between all this activity the children have had time to catch their breath by relaxing in our cosy tent space and listening to some new stories, discussing what they have enjoyed throughout their day, and making up their own fantastical stories to make us all laugh!!
Despite the freezing weather it has been a truly lovely week.
Food in the forest:
Our current menus can be found on our website HERE
Swede, parsnip, honey, butter bean soup- jam packed with veggies!
