[Radical_childcare] Minutes from Sunday 12th meeting

feministchildrearing at riseup.net feministchildrearing at riseup.net
Tue Jul 14 12:01:08 BST 2009 

[from Tumbleweed]
cool, also:

- just quick reminder that this list is open for anyone to join (approved
by the list moderator of course but sometimes the person is not 'verified'
or even known to us) and so we should keep any sensitive/detailed
information away from this list (this is a reminder for myself also!). We
need to think about how we will deal with this issue i think.

- i will email the statement to this list on wednesday eve so that people
can change/add to it on the thursday and so on friday we all should be
happy with it.

- the forest-school-inspired activities i can do are:

(this is an approx example)

Thurs (all ages)- Help decorate your kidspace! Setting up a free-play
environment curtain (an ongoing display contributed to by kids to learn
about our environment and reducing waste), and other decorations etc

Fri (ages 3plus but flexible)- the magic of Elder (part 1): learn about
the ancient Elder tree, drink juice from its flowers, and make your own
pencils from its wood.
(Plus: Whittling freeplay)

Sat (ages 3plus but flexible)- the magic of Elder (part 2): learn about
the folklore of Elder, make beads/necklaces from its wood, and colour your
necklace using Elder's own natural dyes.
(Plus: Whittling freeplay)

Sun (all ages)- Leafcrowns and Rainbow bracelets: using what you can find
around the kidspace area decorate a crown or bracelet.
(Will be adaptable depending on the site)

mon/tues- i will see what i have left of my supplies and energy!

Each activity may run for 30-60mins depending on the kids. The best times
for me would be prob 11am-12noon.

I will try to bring enough elder with me, but will depend on how many kids
turn up and if there is any spare elder on site! also the elder needs to
fresh so i need to have done all the elder activities by saturday to be
safe.
If anyone wants to bring in some elder for me, then that would be great.
for the elder magic i also need lots of potato peelers, some penknives and
a couple of hacksaws- obviously i will have to make do if this isnt
possible but can this info be passed onto cc insiders? i will need to know
prior to thursday if this wasnt possible.

I also will need at least one helper (pref 2 as i have a young child)
please contact me on tumbleweed_freed at riseup.net to sort this out, or if
you have any ideas.

All of the forest-school-inspired activities are not only crafts in
themselves, but always have educational links to our environment and human
action. Children learn by doing, therefore an abstract concept like
'climate change' is only understandable to kids thru hands-on activities.
Are any of us doing the climate change workshop? I would like to link with
them to bring in activities to help kids understanding of these issues
(this is if they havent already done this already- if its sorted then
wicked)

xxx







 Radical Childcare Collective meeting 12/7/09
>  
> Present: Anna Davies, Anna, Annelle, Brunel, Gemma, Jon, Kaden, Maggie,
> Molly, Una.  (Apologies to children who’s names I failed to find out.)
>  
>  
> Almost the whole meeting was focussed on the climate camp Kidspace that
> we’re helping to organise.
>  
> First meeting
> We’ll have a general Kidspace meeting on Friday 28th (probably in the
> early afternoon) which will be a time to get as much input from kids and
> their carers as possible about what they want the Kidspace to be.  It
> would be good to get an experienced facilitator along to that meeting as
> well as someone with experience of communicating effectively with kids of
> all ages to get the most out the this meeting.
>  
> Kids’ action
> Some people are interested in organising a kid friendly action towards the
> end of the camp.  This could include a happy colourful exciting march
> through London to a climate-change-is-affecting-kids type target.  It
> could also include planting a tree somewhere.
>  
> The political importance of childcare
> We’re concerned about the lack of enthusiasm around providing stuff for
> kids and their carers.
> Action point: Gemma to write a short statement based mainly on stuff from
> the Raising Some Hell zine about not leaving your friends behind and the
> whole community taking responsibility for childcare.  Gemma will send it
> round to the list for a quick group edit before it is finalised.  This
> statement will be read out at the next climate camp gathering, by either
> Anna Davies or Annelle.
>  
> As well as this there’s a plan to do a workshop for adults about these
> ideas.  The workshop would basically involve facilitating a general
> discussion on childcare issues within “the movement”, not leaving our
> friends behind and what we can all do to draw attention to this.
>  
> Notice board
> We’ll put up a Kidspace notice board in the welcome tent which will draw
> attention to what’s going on.  It will include a rough programme of
> what organised activities are happening each day.  It will also include
> plenty of space for people to write up needs and offers of support with
> regards to childcare to facilitate parents/carers getting to the workshops
> they want to.  We’ll probably also put up a suggestion about
> parents/carers camping close together so they can conveniently share
> kidsitting arrangements in the evenings.
>  
> Climate Camp Kidzine
> We plan to gather all sorts of pictures, games ideas, recipes and diary
> entries together from the first few days of the kidspace and publish them
> in a zine that can be coloured in at the end of the camp.  The plan is
> for someone to get it printed on the evening of Sunday 30th (or first
> thing on 31st if it’s not open then) and have it all assembled to be
> enjoyed by everyone on the 31st sometime.
> Action point: Anna Davies to speak to Bob at the printing co-op about
> using their facilities and whether they have a collating machine that
> staples stuff too.
>  
> Resources
> We agreed that we’d like the stuff we gather for the Kidspace to be as
> creative and multi-use as possible i.e. not toys that can only be used in
> one way and are often useless once one piece is missing but rather lots of
> natural objects and versatile construction and crafts materials.
> Action point: Jon to send a list of resources round the list included
> things we already have and things we’d like.  This list can then be
> forwarded to other lists to help us gather all the stuff we’d like.
>  
> Activities for the kidspace
> Between us we have lots of cool activities we can run and at the camp
> there are bound to be lots of other people coming forward with their own
> activities they’d like to facilitate.  Here’s our list so far:
>  
> -         Felt making with Anna
> -         Bee making with Anna
> -         Leaf crowns, elder whistles and other forest school
> activities with Gemma
> -         Flag making
> -         Kite making
> -         Bread making and biscuit making with Brunel
> -         Circus skill share with Jon
> -         Bike maintenance for kids
> -         Climate change workshop for kids
>  
> This list will be submitted to Maddie for inclusion somewhere in the main
> programme, partly in the hope that this will attract more kids to climate
> camp this year.
>  
> Collective Meeting
> We decided to have a meeting of the radical childcare collective at
> climate camp as a way to make ourselves more visible and to attract more
> people to the group.  Time and date to be arranged.
>  
>  
> Yarlswood family
> The group would like to show solidarity with Steve and Juliet Umoru
> who’ve been recently deported from Yarlswood to Nigeria.
>  
>  
> Next meeting Sunday 2nd August 1pm in London Fields play area near the Pub
> on the Park.
>  
>
>
>

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