During free time, parents got to know one another and shared their experiences. The kids were free to play as they wished. A mixed-age group of children played a game they invented using a volleyball. Two five-year-olds found joy in running up and down a hill and looking for toads along the edge of a forest. A third group collected camp chairs and got comfortable with books. These play groups continued on for over an hour - a focused and creative playtime that none of the adults wanted to interrupt. It became clear that this moment was what being outside surrounded by nature is all about. The freedom to choose where to go and what to do based on your own desires.
This kind of freedom is one of the things that makes Young Scientists Club so unique. Our activities are largely directed by following the interests of the children. I get requests to play camouflage, go looking for caterpillars and to hike down a trail that runs alongside the Menomonee River. It’s hard to find a single activity that satisfies such varied desires, but as a group we come together to find an agreement on how to balance different interests. We’ll go from an experiment in the community garden plots to a high energy predator and prey game in a field and close with a read aloud story on our building’s rooftop garden. These kinds of experiences cultivate both a sense of inquiry and a capacity for cooperation in our Young Scientists. And those experiences are fuel for the children to return home and seek out their favorite outdoor activities on their own time: to become lifelong appreciators of the “outdoor awesomeness” that they find when they’re at the Center.
