Login / Register · View Bag

Remember This: Parent Project

“No boundaries. There wasn’t directions. There wasn’t go and do this and then go and do that – you could just go and do what you wanted…” (parent)

‘Remember This’ was part of a wider project at a Children’s Centre in Leicester. Also working on the project were members of TheVERYidea, Louise Bardgett, Matt Shaw and Barbara Jones.

The project was focusing on developing open-ended approaches to learning through exploration and discovery. We offered resources, ideas and experiences which would help parents and practitioners create child led, positive and interactive experiences and environments themselves.

This phase of the project for me was getting to know the parent-carer forum group who wanted to discover imaginative and creative approaches to learning with their children.

From experience I had learnt that the best way of doing this would be through the parents being creative themselves, by exploring materials, discussing their findings and achieving the ‘immersion feeling’ – that is being so absorbed in something that they would be transported to a different level. Children do this all the time…

It was very interesting for me to work with a parent group without their children as we had time to thoroughly explore possibilities and talk about them. We found out that open-ended resources provoked more imaginative play than something like a toy car or a doll. Parents named our part of the project ‘Remember This’ because they were trying to remember what it was like to be a child and how it felt…

“I think also we lead busy lives so I think it’s actually nice to have our own space and our own privacy almost to just do what we need to do…” (parent)

There were several sessions – exploring musical instruments, using modroc, investigating smells, using clay, sewing cardboard and working with large scale brown paper.

For one of the sessions, I offered them some 35mm glass slides inwhich they could trap very flat and small materials. They enjoyed sitting around a table together making such small creations and being able to view them close-up with the viewers. The awkward part for them was that I asked them to say something about their slides. This was very difficult for some people. I made a film for them which was shared with the wider project participants at the end of this phase of the project…

Each week I would record feedback from the group and then transcribe it pretty exactly as it was, then print it out and take it back to the group. They loved seeing their own words written down and would always looks to see where their words were…

“I like the fact there’s no right and wrong. You know as a parent and with all the things that are going on – there’s a right way to do it, there’s a wrong way to do it and I’m so conscious of it all the time… and then you come to do something like this and it’s just like right, there it is – get on with it – coo brilliant – like kids in a sweet-shop. I think it’s really nice to be able to do that.” (parent)

“Yeh I feel a bit like that really. It’s just nice to, you know, lose yourself in different ideas rather than cleaning and you know oh just silly little things… really just saying you know I always feel that when my children are not around that I’ve got it clean cos I feel like if I don’t, I just being a useless part in life, you know. So it’s just been nice to chill out really…” (parent)

“…Too many rules even in the art class. Oh I think there was too many rules. I didn’t agree with my art teacher so – she said, you know, you’ve not got it, you’re not artistic and… because in school you’ve got your, you know, things to follow, haven’t you? Your criteria and I think that’s wrong… cos everyone’s creatively different aren’t they…” (parent)

Another session where we did sewing cardboard we got totally absorbed in making this big cardboard box into a ‘music-box’ with all sorts of stuff going on which we’d sewn onto the sides. The best bit about it was we found out that it made a really good bass sound. Two practitioners and a parent just improvised this little ditty with me. The box was then used time and time again with the children using the centre. It was made out of recycled stuff and string…

      Cardboard Box

Plus – I couldn’t resist putting this film up – it was amazing to find such a good sound from just one cardboard box!

I was invited to continue with the group during the next phase of the project phase ‘Telling The Story’. I made a book documenting the process of that project which shows parents trying out their ideas on children with time to experiment themselves and a creche provided to enable them. By this time the parents were so taken up with the idea of researching that they felt able to offer their children a totally empty room to see what happened…