Fit Kids Clubhouse: Clubhouse Balance: A Box and a Playground

Friday

Clubhouse Balance: A Box and a Playground

Sometimes people focus on one teaching theory above all else. Some believe that absolutely nothing of something, or everything of something else, is the only way to go. I prefer balance. Drawing from so many different theories and practices, we find our way around here somewhere in the middle. I believe it is possible to give something, without taking away something else. In this case, a playground. The argument presented to me was that a playground, with all the "bells and whistles", would vanquish the need for a Preschooler to simply use their imagination when playing outdoors. I was able to test this theory, with a box.

It started the day the Clubhouse Kids found a box. Well, actually I found the box and made it readily available for them to find it.

First, they took to decorating it. Eventually it was covered in every thing from puffy paint to chalk and watercolors. For awhile that's all they did,
color the box.

Then one day they decided to move it.

"Under the tree, by the bush. It's a secret!"

Apparently the location wasn't secret enough though, so another day they decided to "hide" it.

They were covering it in sticks, leaves, and rocks. Enter the word of the day: Camouflage.

They went on for awhile, gathering materials from all around them and covering the box.

Using their new found word, camouflage, over and over again.

"I camowflojeddd it!"

They did some pretty great work too.
Take a look...

You couldn't find that from outer space!

The box became a hiding place, a spaceship, a race car, and a planet.

Yes, they climbed in and were on another planet. They even taped "aliens" on the inside of the box.

I never once said what the box was, or should be. All I did was leave it in the grass.

Then one day they decided to name the box.

They took the time to write all of the letters of the box's new name right on the "door".

The name?

"HTREHHHTE"

Don't ask me to pronounce it, I get it wrong every time.

They climb in and out, sometimes one at a time and other times sharing the space. Sometimes they all stand around it and pretend someone/something is in there.

"Shhhh, it's a Lion cave. Listen..."

Not too long ago I heard a lot of noise coming from the box.
Cautiously, I approached.

You never know what HTREHHHTE is up too.

"We're on a roller coaster!!!"

The box wasn't moving.

It's a box I left out on the grass, and they did all the rest.

They used their imaginations, they took turns, they shared space. They wrote letters, they learned new words, they created an adventure. They laughed, squealed, tossed themselves around and simply had a good time.

They did all of that while this was 40 feet away.