Children and youngsters, invent their own games and associated rules. Before that, they should consult and negotiating with others, they should indicate what they self find important and where their boundaries are lying, they have to solve conflicts and make compromises, and they are full in to the organization, without interfering of adults
It's spring and it feels good to hear children's voices outside again. Because what is nicer than play outside? But playing outside can also be very instructive.
It is not only good for physical development but also for the personal and social development is very important.
Running, jumping, cycling, skateboarding, rock, dragging branches, pulling a cart, playing football: playing outside children are physically more active than inside. All that exercise is not only healthy, but also helps children to practice their physical skills and develop. confidence. They know the capabilities of their body and mind. It is not only good for physical development but also for the personal and social development is very important.
Their motoric development gets a boost and the brains are fully stimulated, causing all sorts of new connections are made.
Play and exercise is the best way to learn about the world and yourself. If you want to jump a wall, you need to estimate how high that wall is and calculate your risk.
Or maybe they break a branch; that teaches you not everything is equally strong. If you let go of a ball on top of a hill, he rolls down. The steeper the slope, the faster the ball rolls. Playing with water or sand and all kinds of buckets and trays children learn about size, shape and volume. These are super instructive discoveries for young children!
Learning with all the senses. Especially preschoolers Their use all senses to learn. Get outside, there are plenty of opportunities. Do they see birds, butterflies, snails, the cat of the neighbours. They hear the wind rustle the leaves door, the siren of the ambulance.. They smell the fragrance of flowers and mown grass and the smell of rain on a summer day. They feel how sand feels and how a ladybug tickle on their hand. Even Tasting is outside on the agenda: the taste of a raindrop? And hey, why is a peanut butter sandwich outside so much better than inside? By playing outside often comes more fantasy than watching games from within.
Communication and vocabulary
For the children it is nothing more than just playing, but if you look closely, you see that they learn a lot on the social-emotional area. They learn good communication and further build a larger vocabulary. Super fine is that children can romp outside, running and screaming - what is inside usually not allowed. They not only get lost their energy, but they also learn that you have to adapt your behavior to your surroundings. Inside you use your "inside voice" and will not run outside you can use your "outside voice" and is running just fine!
Adventure learning
As long as there is adventure, there is movement. As long as there is movement, there is development.
Many young people act inadequate and unsatisfactory in this complex society. These experiences have negative effects on behavior. The Adventurous learning is characterized by coming up with a positive experience. I is focused on personal growth, and aims at the physical, cognitive and social development to influence youth positively. |
Empowerment is the key for overall guidance
The main concern is to confirm the young people in their core strengths, and to extent a lesser replenishing deficits. With core competencies refers to the particular characteristics and abilities of young people. Core qualities can be used ideally to similar negative behaviour and to be discussed from positive intentions. The young people learn during the active and intensive activity’s sorts of skills they need in everyday life. Confrontational manner young people understand their own behaviour and their limitations therein. Then they learn in a different way to deal with their problems and shortcomings. By emphasizing the skills and strengths of young people is re-frase on their capabilities and search for (new) future prospects.
The guidance aims to let young people gain the experiences that give them a real picture of their capabilities. From there, they can create new perspectives development, which are feasible and lead to self-determination and self-enforcement social, relational and social fields.
Specific objectives:
- Identify that there are positive intentions behind the seemingly negative behavior
- Reinforce the positive aspects of youth
- Confrontation with concrete behavior that led to negative consequences
- Increasing options
- Learn to use effective coping strategies
- Building trust in their own capabilities
The guidance aims to let young people gain the experiences that give them a real picture of their capabilities. From there, they can create new perspectives development, which are feasible and lead to self-determination and self-enforcement social, relational and social fields.
Specific objectives:
- Identify that there are positive intentions behind the seemingly negative behavior
- Reinforce the positive aspects of youth
- Confrontation with concrete behavior that led to negative consequences
- Increasing options
- Learn to use effective coping strategies
- Building trust in their own capabilities
Assumptions:
- Young people are accountable for their actions and their own behavior in life.
Problems from the outside can have a role, but do not take away the responsibility.
- We work with personal and group goals, which are drawn by the youth
themselves
- Young people are their own resource and thus they tried to find solutions inside themselve.
- Emphasize that life consists of making choices. "You can not, not
choose! "
- Learning feeling of 'old shit': this gives the younger insight.
- Entering into confrontations with behavior so that young people come to
self diagnostics.
The adventurous Learning chooses behavior as targets for learning. By going directly to questions on behavior and new behavior arises an experience from which we can learn. This creates a counselling situation, wherein a learning process will be put in.
Upon arrival, the young are often 'unconsciously incompetent'. Young people with their confronting behaviour they become 'aware of their disability. " The learning process should identify new behaviours that have deficiencies elimination. The young people learn to be "consciously competent". Then he must acquiring this new behaviour and gain positive experiences with it. On This way he is "unconscious competent. In order for the adventurous learning strokes should some basic conditions be satisfied.
These basic conditions are the following:
- Challenging environment: Willing adventurous Learning the youth provide the ultimate learning experience, it is
necessary to bring them into a situation that is totally different from the
daily living conditions. For many young people it takes a totally different context.
- Specific activities: The Adventurous Learning is action orientated.
- Changes: During the activities visible new behaviour develops among young people. The unknown and unpredictable of the new situation challenges the youth to demonstrate skills that they do not submit to the day in daily life, because they have learned that to make use of other skills. The Adventurous Learning takes place mainly in the context of a group. The developments in the group have a strong impact on the participants. Group Changes: During the process the group makes , as individual participants, development. Both individual developments as the group developments are closely watched by the supervisor. Each group will be made agreements that form the basis for Adventurous Learning project. This results will be wrote down in personal journals, divided in specific competitions, which are different for each participant.
Problems from the outside can have a role, but do not take away the responsibility.
- We work with personal and group goals, which are drawn by the youth
themselves
- Young people are their own resource and thus they tried to find solutions inside themselve.
- Emphasize that life consists of making choices. "You can not, not
choose! "
- Learning feeling of 'old shit': this gives the younger insight.
- Entering into confrontations with behavior so that young people come to
self diagnostics.
The adventurous Learning chooses behavior as targets for learning. By going directly to questions on behavior and new behavior arises an experience from which we can learn. This creates a counselling situation, wherein a learning process will be put in.
Upon arrival, the young are often 'unconsciously incompetent'. Young people with their confronting behaviour they become 'aware of their disability. " The learning process should identify new behaviours that have deficiencies elimination. The young people learn to be "consciously competent". Then he must acquiring this new behaviour and gain positive experiences with it. On This way he is "unconscious competent. In order for the adventurous learning strokes should some basic conditions be satisfied.
These basic conditions are the following:
- Challenging environment: Willing adventurous Learning the youth provide the ultimate learning experience, it is
necessary to bring them into a situation that is totally different from the
daily living conditions. For many young people it takes a totally different context.
- Specific activities: The Adventurous Learning is action orientated.
- Changes: During the activities visible new behaviour develops among young people. The unknown and unpredictable of the new situation challenges the youth to demonstrate skills that they do not submit to the day in daily life, because they have learned that to make use of other skills. The Adventurous Learning takes place mainly in the context of a group. The developments in the group have a strong impact on the participants. Group Changes: During the process the group makes , as individual participants, development. Both individual developments as the group developments are closely watched by the supervisor. Each group will be made agreements that form the basis for Adventurous Learning project. This results will be wrote down in personal journals, divided in specific competitions, which are different for each participant.
Performance
Outrac is an organization who develops outdoor activities for personal and team development. To implement this plan, there is sought an alliance with a partner who is specialized in landscaping and building playground. This partner was found in the person of Gardens of Geerdink. Together we searched for a new form of playground. This new playground should make claim on:
- Creativity; - Ability to solve problems; - Communication training; - Collaboration; - Take account of another. |
The projects that we develop, we start at the front of the range every time, namely the question WHY, for WHO and HOW? If these questions are clear and we can get started with the design and often joint design. After the molding phase, we arrive, after the necessary negotiations, in the realization phase. Again, we often work with end users. Consider cooperating days, volunteer commitment, special workshops, etc. We have have been accustomed to the commitment and political dealings with volunteers in carrying out projects. Every project is for us a completely new challenge. Material differences spots are different, new forms of cooperation, etc.
For every individual participant/kid we deliver a personal journal, in which they can write down there personal goals for every activity and competentions they want to work on.
For every individual participant/kid we deliver a personal journal, in which they can write down there personal goals for every activity and competentions they want to work on.
What are the competencies?
A competency is something that a person can be good in. Someone, for example, potentialy, can be a really good carpenter or cook. But how do you measure whether someone is a good carpenter or cook or can be? On that there is no single view. Usually, we are looking at one or more of the following factors; skills, knowledge, attitudes, personal characteristics.
The four aspects of competencies
• Skills (may), skills are activities that you are good at and
typically learnable. • Knowledge (know), knowledge says something about what you know (such as education and language) and is principle learnable. • Attitude (want) attitude says something about your motivation, attitudes, preferences and values at relative to work or training. • Personal characteristics (his) personal characteristics says something about your character, who you are and more or less constant. |
Overview of key competencies and bottlenecks
Important competencies:
- Posture - Communication - Cooperating - Ensuring quality - Skills continue to develo - Problemsolving |
Major bottlenecks:
- Posture - Dealing with conflict - Can make choices - Assertiveness - Problemsolving - Communication |
The competencies where we focus on:
Social competence (SC)
Social skills you need everywhere,. The participant must at least possess social skills. Examples of this are; attitude, communicate, collaborate, dealing with conflict, etc.
Research has shown that participants in particular have a lot of difficulty with social skills. Employers indicate that mostly miss the lack of social skills.
Research has shown that participants in particular have a lot of difficulty with social skills. Employers indicate that mostly miss the lack of social skills.
Develop competencies (OC)
These competences are related to the ability and desire to develop their own competencies.
Evaluate results
Have the insights gained in the outdoor activities impact on the daily (working) practice? That question must always be central. Outdoor is a means, not an end in itself. Facilitator and participant must constantly account for reach and achieve more results.
Gerrit Onstein, Outrac, Jochem Geerdink, Tuinen van Geerdink
January, 2017.
Gerrit Onstein, Outrac, Jochem Geerdink, Tuinen van Geerdink
January, 2017.
This publication reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.