Independence in CP

You’ve established your continuous provision, and it looks wonderful! As the children start to come into the room and access resources you get excited by their energy. One girl dunks a jug into the water, a little boy begins to make marks using the fabulous crayons you found in the art shop. But wait, that little one is taking the spoon from the sand to the home corner, don’t do that. Wait, why is that child pouring the compare bears into the water tray? Does this sound familiar?

One of the biggest problems I encounter when I talk about scheme/schema and Loose Parts with practitioners is how children will want to move resources around a space. I understand the frustration, though I do not feel this myself. Moving an item from one area to another shouldn’t just be allowed but encouraged. There are obvious limitations more on that at the bottom.

Let’s explore an example:

Imagine little James building a dinosaur city in the sand. He’s pulled some sand to the corner to make a volcano home, he’s set up a pet shop, made roads, added places for gardens – it’s wonderful. (Btw, this is what I used to do a lot myself and I was obsessed!)

James now needs some dinosaurs. They’re in the small world area, he gets them and puts some dinosaurs into the volcano, others in gardens etc. He has to pick the right size dinosaur for the volcano as the opening is narrow.

Next, he wants to source some pets for the pet shop. He decides to use the compare bears from the maths area. No problem. He chooses the blue ones – blue is best btw the way!

The dinosaurs and compare bears weren’t available on the sand shelves. The room leader may have chosen to put some out there eventually, but you can’t fill every area with every resource. Thankfully the room leader recognises the value in allowing items to be moved around. It allows for deeper play, making deeper connections and for problem solving.

Now re-read that. Imagine he wasn’t allowed the dinosaurs or compare bears. Where would his play go? Do you see the limits to the learning?

Exceptions:

I am forever telling people to put setting-based situations in a home context, it really helps them make sense. If you run out of loo roll, you grab the box of tissues (you do, don’t tell me you don’t.) If you are cold in your living room, you bring down your duvet. Just because these things don’t live there doesn’t mean that can’t be taken there and used for a purpose!

Of course, just because a silver spoon could be used for digging it doesn’t mean you take it out into your garden and dig a hole for tree. There are exceptions. And there are learning opportunities to each.

Books don’t go into the water, sand doesn’t come into the home corner, etc. These kinds of rules are fine to have but I recommend you teach the child WHY. If you can’t explain why this might be telling you it’s your preference and this might be limiting the play…

If you’re one of those practitioners who finds this hard, I recommend you just sit and watch for a bit. Watch to see what they do when they move resources. Is there some educational benefit? If there is, is it time to learn what’s best from the children?