Contents
Background to this design
followed by framework
This design is written up using Looby's design web
1. Vision
2. Helps 3. Limits 4. Patterns 5. Ideas 6. Principles |
7. Integration
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Background to design
Around 2009/2010, I volunteered at a local nature reserve in Devonshire Road, a drop in for gardeners on a Friday morning. The person who ran it at the time (Iris) then moved on to set up a community garden in Sydenham at a disused Council nursery in Mayow Park. She was keen to involve all ages and, knowing that I had a daughter of 11 years, suggested that I run a kids club with Suriya, who was familiar with the garden, having helped to set it up. I agreed as I was looking for such an opportunity - working outdoors, applying Permaculture and helping kids to enjoy it.
Aims of this design: Design and deliver a programme of workshops for kids aged 7 upwards to enable them to explore and interact with nature and each other. (Our initial strapline used in publicity was 'fun ways to work with nature and each other' see supplmentary evidence - publicity).
Around 2009/2010, I volunteered at a local nature reserve in Devonshire Road, a drop in for gardeners on a Friday morning. The person who ran it at the time (Iris) then moved on to set up a community garden in Sydenham at a disused Council nursery in Mayow Park. She was keen to involve all ages and, knowing that I had a daughter of 11 years, suggested that I run a kids club with Suriya, who was familiar with the garden, having helped to set it up. I agreed as I was looking for such an opportunity - working outdoors, applying Permaculture and helping kids to enjoy it.
Aims of this design: Design and deliver a programme of workshops for kids aged 7 upwards to enable them to explore and interact with nature and each other. (Our initial strapline used in publicity was 'fun ways to work with nature and each other' see supplmentary evidence - publicity).
1. Vision
Initially, Suriya and I decided on a 90 minute fun (as in, not like school!) workshop, once a month, that encourages kids aged 7 upwards to explore nature - (urban nature), interact with it with care and reconnect with it, if necessary. The principles of Permaculture would be implicit in the workshop and guide our planning. (See 6. Principles below). The workshops were structured but flexible enough for kids to respond to material in variety of ways. A friend who had teaching experience advised us that there was a lack of this kind of workshop for older kids so that's why we stipulated the age range 7 to 13. I later worked with Julia on Wild things Weekend (see Patterns).
The length of workshop was determined by our ability to match the energy of the kids:
a) we didn't know how many would come (could have been up to 16 we had specified on the publicity) and
b) we estmated we'd comfortably be able to prepare 6 activities maximum to fill that time.
We also guessed that if they wanted to stay longer they could just expore the garden with their carers and parents, while we tidied up and evaluated and planned next workshop. (See 3. Limits)
Initially, Suriya and I decided on a 90 minute fun (as in, not like school!) workshop, once a month, that encourages kids aged 7 upwards to explore nature - (urban nature), interact with it with care and reconnect with it, if necessary. The principles of Permaculture would be implicit in the workshop and guide our planning. (See 6. Principles below). The workshops were structured but flexible enough for kids to respond to material in variety of ways. A friend who had teaching experience advised us that there was a lack of this kind of workshop for older kids so that's why we stipulated the age range 7 to 13. I later worked with Julia on Wild things Weekend (see Patterns).
The length of workshop was determined by our ability to match the energy of the kids:
a) we didn't know how many would come (could have been up to 16 we had specified on the publicity) and
b) we estmated we'd comfortably be able to prepare 6 activities maximum to fill that time.
We also guessed that if they wanted to stay longer they could just expore the garden with their carers and parents, while we tidied up and evaluated and planned next workshop. (See 3. Limits)
2. Helps
handout ) 4. Patterns
Permaculture Kids club had been running from February to November at Grow Mayow then 4 times a year at Common Growth, roughly in Spring, Summer, and Autumn. So it made sense to format the design it as a calendar. Then I added colour and modelled it on the Great British Year BBC free Poster Apart from dividing the year into seasons , Julia (with whom I was working on the Wild Things weekend) and I came up the idea separately and simultaneously of clustered the activities around the elements – so I have roughly matched Earth with Winter and Spring, Air with Late Spring, Water with Summer and Fire with Autumn. I thought it would be helpful for children to recognise the characteristics that make up 'us' and 'the world'. I will explain in more detail later! (See 7. integration) |
3. Limits
5. Ideas
Suriya and I, and later Julia and I, had so many! (See slideshow below) Although many of our ideas weren’t implemented, planning a club like this generates heaps of material that could be implemented at a later stage or by somebody else. Ideas for activities that we have used:
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7. Integration
As with other designs, I had implemented the club with Suriya before putting much on paper. On working with Julia in 2014, I had a bit more time to reflect on what the design would look like fully integrated.
Elements (with input from Julia and Suriya) wanted to include in the design were:
/sensing
eyes
– time for thinking/facts/information
mind
– time for responding to info/feelings
heart
– time for doing/action//hands and
whole body
though these sections would not be of same duration and there would often be more than one activity in some sections as many kids tend to love doing and not so much being quiet!
I wanted to incorporate :
As with other designs, I had implemented the club with Suriya before putting much on paper. On working with Julia in 2014, I had a bit more time to reflect on what the design would look like fully integrated.
Elements (with input from Julia and Suriya) wanted to include in the design were:
- The actual physical elements (Earth, Air, Fire, Water) to anchor the activities, plus two more used in the 6 element practice from Buddhism – space and consciousness. Space is just literally space around the activities: a pause, a breather, time to absorb.
- I included ‘Consciousness’ as an element in the design to remind myself tried to keep in mind the purpose of the workshops (ie, engaging kids with nature in a fun way) rather than following the plan rigidly
- Seasonal activities (Creatively use and respond to change, Work with nature)
- Moods? I wanted each session to have a clear sections focusing on
/sensing
eyes
– time for thinking/facts/information
mind
– time for responding to info/feelings
heart
– time for doing/action//hands and
whole body
though these sections would not be of same duration and there would often be more than one activity in some sections as many kids tend to love doing and not so much being quiet!
I wanted to incorporate :
- Tried and tested activities such as web of life game (see 5. Ideas above)
- Earthcare activities such as Suriya's cruelty-free butterfly display, simple garden tasks, planting butterfly and bee friendlies, Observation and Interaction activities such as scavenger hunts, scrutinising soil, bird identification.... Obtaining a fun yield by including songs written and led by Suriya with the shakers and a drum and plenty of physical stuff :using our bodies to act out stories and other kinaesthetic games.
6. Principles
I expressed some of Mollison’s and Holmgrems’ Principles for children on my wordpress blog and adapted them to use as a flier See Permaculture for kids, The principles explained .
The main reigning overarching principle of this design however is Observe and Interact. The sessions all start with observation - of nature and of ourselves, asking 'What's going on now?' and 'how do we feel about that?' which often informs the activities we planned.
In additiion I have applied principles of Permaculture below:
Work with nature
The yield is limited only by the imagination of the designer
Creatively use and respond to change
Apply self regulation and accept feedback.
I expressed some of Mollison’s and Holmgrems’ Principles for children on my wordpress blog and adapted them to use as a flier See Permaculture for kids, The principles explained .
The main reigning overarching principle of this design however is Observe and Interact. The sessions all start with observation - of nature and of ourselves, asking 'What's going on now?' and 'how do we feel about that?' which often informs the activities we planned.
In additiion I have applied principles of Permaculture below:
Work with nature
- Permaculture stems from this principle I believe. We thought about how to encourage kids to work with nature: their nature, other peoples’ nature and nature’s nature. To do that they need to know how nature behaves so each session is based around some aspect of the natural world. (See 4. Patterns)
The yield is limited only by the imagination of the designer
- The yield of ideas generated by this design is probably limitless : there is a wealth of material to use from nature as well as books and other people, plus the children themselves. Some of the ideas we generated were never used but it was fun coming up with them!
Creatively use and respond to change
- We also planned activities that were seasonal and therefore naturally responding to the changes: designing and making your own salad box in Spring and scavenger hunt collages in autumn. See appendix for session outlines.
Apply self regulation and accept feedback.
- We originally planned the workshops for ages 7 upwards as a friend had noticed there are no clubs really for this age that focus on natural world. However we found it difficult to attract a large number of that age group and found that younger kids were coming with their parents so we welcomed that and adapted the activities.
The design is a calendar or mandala around the central theme: Permaculture for Kids ' year. The light blue strands represent Observational activities, possiiblity followed by the purple 'thinking' activities such as fun facts, true or false, q and a. The red strand represents 'feelings' - what are the kids' responses to what they have just learnt? If there is a problem, are there solutions? Then the green strand is the 'action' part of workshop where the kids will maybe carry out activities based on the the Permaculture Ethics. See session outlines in Appendix for details.
The above gallery shows sections of the A2 design for Permaculture Kids Year.... beginning and ending with whole view with 4 corners in between showing Earth, Air, Fire and Water themes.
8. Action
What did we need to do?
What did we need to do?
- Meet to prepare workshops (90 mins)
- Buy
materials/Make materials/ Collect materials ie, leaves/pressed flowers, templates
- Find books for stories/illustrations
- Think up activities/games/draw up quizzes/research facts
- Swap
emails to tweak plans (see 'Session outlines' Supplementary evidence)
- Contact the hosts Common Growth or Frendsbury or Grow Mayow and liaise
- Advertise
(for Grow Mayow)- fliers, online, email lists, Project Dirt. (See 'Publicity' in Supplementary evidence)
- Meet to set up half hour before and tidy up afterwards
- Evaluate
workshops using 4 Action learning questions or PMI (Observe and interact, Apply self regulation and accept feedback)
(See 'session outlines with evalutation' in Supplementary evidence)
What we did .... slideshow of activities, press pause for a closer look. See also Permaculture for Kids page (section 2. Record of Workshops)
9. Momentum
- The fun of planning the sessions helped keep us inspired
- successful workshops where kids and parents obviously enjoyed themselves gave us momentum
- Planning in advance, ie, advertising dates for 4 months on one flier meant we were committed to continue for that period
- being asked by Common Growth and other people (Jane from Goldsmiths Communty Centre) to run workshops
- Evaluating the workshops after each one also helped. (See slideshow below). I usually evaluated each workshop straight afterwards, often with Suriya. We used PMI or the four Action Learning Questions. More detailed evaluations were written on to the outline (an example of Stacking functions) See below for evaluations.
We would always find something that went well from the workshops that inspired us to carry on and things we could build on and improve the next time.
10. Appreciation
- We have learnt a lot about nature, ourselves and each other from leading these workshops over the last 4 years. We have completed 4 seasonal ‘cycles’ and built on the material and evaluations from preceding years.
- As I have already mentioned, planning the workshops and coming up with new ideas was always fun. Suriya always created eye-catching materials and put a lot of energy into preparing for the workshops to ensure they went well.
- At the end of the workshop we have often felt satisfied that it went well and received good feedback from parents and some from the kids.
-
The songs Suriya wrote were the icing on the cake and
very educational and catchy.
- Time spent preparing
The workshops take about 90 mins preparation by way of a planning meeting to decide what we'll do, then there is about 15 minutes drafting a rough outline (see Appendix for outlines) to email other person. It is hard to quantify the time spent collecting materials (such as leaves for pressing) though if I had to prepare a quiz or laminate cards, it could take up to 2 hours - though these materials are obviously re-usable.
- Energy
A lot of energy is required to co-lead a kids club, even when parents and carers present. However sticking to 90 minutes ensured we could change activity at least 4 times, take it in turns to lead and support and have a beginning, middle and end which meant that we could pace ourselves and manage our own energy levels. Ending a successful workshop gave me energy too (see 9. Momentum).
Money
Initially we spent at least £5 per month each on the on materials for Grow Mayow, though some materials were already on site such as seeds and compost. Then Iris (Coordinator or Grow Mayow) managed to find us some funding which covered these costs and allowed us to invest in more materials. (Pencils, items for papermaking, honey for tasting, laminating sheets....). The cost of materials for other workshops were refunded to us or were on site.
- Yield
Luckily Suriya made a contact with Common Growth and we were able to be paid for the workshops from 2012 to 2014. We didn't make money on the monthly workshops at Grow Mayow from 2011 to 2012 (as we were still limiting to 7 upwards and those kids were more difficult to bring in) but still enjoyed planning and leading them.
See also Peer evaluations below for more appreciation
Peer evaluations
By Liz
'I love your permaculture principles for kids they just make sense and are so clear - and you know I think they could be used for adults too!
Under patterns the picture of the calendar is hard to read - is there any way to make it clearer?
I think it's a brilliant write up with the right level of detail to understand what you did and lots of supporting evidence to show what you did
I also really like the way that you have integrated buddhism into your work too
I can't think of anything else to say I think it's really great! I hope that you do some more workshops in the future - they sound fun and when she's a bit bigger I want to bring my daughter along!'
By Suriya
'you could add a bit more about your strengths as a teacher/facilitator re: you often have a calm and very responsible presence which children respond to positively as well as your attentiveness, gentleness and humour. Maybe you could add it to the 'appreciation' section i.e. "positive feedback I've received about my teaching skills includes....."
'I love your permaculture principles for kids they just make sense and are so clear - and you know I think they could be used for adults too!
Under patterns the picture of the calendar is hard to read - is there any way to make it clearer?
I think it's a brilliant write up with the right level of detail to understand what you did and lots of supporting evidence to show what you did
I also really like the way that you have integrated buddhism into your work too
I can't think of anything else to say I think it's really great! I hope that you do some more workshops in the future - they sound fun and when she's a bit bigger I want to bring my daughter along!'
By Suriya
'you could add a bit more about your strengths as a teacher/facilitator re: you often have a calm and very responsible presence which children respond to positively as well as your attentiveness, gentleness and humour. Maybe you could add it to the 'appreciation' section i.e. "positive feedback I've received about my teaching skills includes....."
11. Reflection
Design tools and methods
Looby's web
I think using the design web worked, though I had to think about where I would put in things I would normally include under Evalution in SADIMET or OBREDIMET. I liked having a separate section for Reflections but there is no overt 'evaluation' phase, I spread the objective evaluation across Appreciation, Reflection and even Momentum stages, which worked for me as evaluation happens continuously throughout design cycle anyway. I like the fact that one anchor point is devoted to Appreciation, which puts a positive slant on taking stock. I found the Principles anchor point helpful too, - my design write up had a dedicated space for them rather than just adding the principles on as an aside.
Other stages of the web I equated to SADIM stages roughly - Vision to Survey, Helps and Limits to Survey fading into Assessment and Analysis, Patterns could be linked to Survey but in this design I linked it to Design, Ideas to Design, Principles (all stages of SADIM), Integration to Design stage, Action to Implementation, Momentum to Maintenance, Appreciation (as above, to Evaluation) Reflection to Evaluationand Pause? (no corresponding stage of SADIM). I also like being able to divide the design phase into patterns, ideas and integration -in this design, the ideas were specific details and the integration provided a pattern for them to fit into.
I often used ALQs or PMI after each session with Suriya, and later Julia, to see if there were any ways they could be improved. The main conclusions were around organising activities and being flexible. However, activities that went really well with one group sometimes didn't with another.
Regarding documenting: I could have started alot earlier, and maybe saved time trying to find relevant notes and photos, however the opportunity to document usually comes along in winter for me when less outdoor activity taking place, so that's when I started it.
Principles and Ethics
See 6. Principles above
Ethics
The Earthcare ethic was the most prevalent though for Peoplecare and Fairshares, we devised simple ground rules at Grow Mayow that we introduced at the start of each session and kids would try to remember them or read them from the signs we made. (Sometimes they would wear them round their necks as a sandwich board type thing!) The Ground Rules included 'be your best self in the garden'. (we left them at Grow Mayow so can't show them in this write up).
Progress as a designer.....
Design tools and methods
Looby's web
I think using the design web worked, though I had to think about where I would put in things I would normally include under Evalution in SADIMET or OBREDIMET. I liked having a separate section for Reflections but there is no overt 'evaluation' phase, I spread the objective evaluation across Appreciation, Reflection and even Momentum stages, which worked for me as evaluation happens continuously throughout design cycle anyway. I like the fact that one anchor point is devoted to Appreciation, which puts a positive slant on taking stock. I found the Principles anchor point helpful too, - my design write up had a dedicated space for them rather than just adding the principles on as an aside.
Other stages of the web I equated to SADIM stages roughly - Vision to Survey, Helps and Limits to Survey fading into Assessment and Analysis, Patterns could be linked to Survey but in this design I linked it to Design, Ideas to Design, Principles (all stages of SADIM), Integration to Design stage, Action to Implementation, Momentum to Maintenance, Appreciation (as above, to Evaluation) Reflection to Evaluationand Pause? (no corresponding stage of SADIM). I also like being able to divide the design phase into patterns, ideas and integration -in this design, the ideas were specific details and the integration provided a pattern for them to fit into.
I often used ALQs or PMI after each session with Suriya, and later Julia, to see if there were any ways they could be improved. The main conclusions were around organising activities and being flexible. However, activities that went really well with one group sometimes didn't with another.
Regarding documenting: I could have started alot earlier, and maybe saved time trying to find relevant notes and photos, however the opportunity to document usually comes along in winter for me when less outdoor activity taking place, so that's when I started it.
Principles and Ethics
See 6. Principles above
Ethics
The Earthcare ethic was the most prevalent though for Peoplecare and Fairshares, we devised simple ground rules at Grow Mayow that we introduced at the start of each session and kids would try to remember them or read them from the signs we made. (Sometimes they would wear them round their necks as a sandwich board type thing!) The Ground Rules included 'be your best self in the garden'. (we left them at Grow Mayow so can't show them in this write up).
Progress as a designer.....
- I learnt things don’t always go the way we have planned them. We don’t know who will turn up or how they will respond to workshops! Younger children especially can be like herding cats so some degree of flexibility, cajoling and patience required!! I have realised I quite like it when I plan a workshop and am able to implement 70 % of it though sometimes have had to change plans quickly when an activity we planned doesn't feel right to implement. (Apply self regulation and accept feedback)
- I think the design works well as it has a variety of activities in one session: some of them fairly passive such as story-telling, as for many kids, it is often the first time they come to workshops, they are shy and don’t want to extrovert themselves. (Use and value diversity) The older and bolder children enjoy acting out the stories and entertaining everybody else.
This design has been a bit of an experiment in applying Permaculture to a wider age group. (Maximise the edge and value the marginal). It is necessary to simplify the language of some of the principles though just the language, the concepts work very well with young children.
The word Permaculture is still not widely understood and so many events of this type for kids are called 'outdloor learning' or 'muddy boots' but have some of the same aim. I think Permaculture can be presented in this way to children and their adults without necessarily spelling it out as Permaculture. The aim is to connect humans back to nature in a caring way.
Implementing this design has been hard work but very rewarding - seeing the children's curiosity and desire to engage has been great, especially with the songs, storytelling and other general contributions they have made.
- Overalll I think the design achieved what we set out to acheive. The workshops were always fun (apart from the ones I mentioned below in Do Differently) because the children and carers were up for having fun in beautiful settings with each other, near their homes. We did design the workshops for over 7's but in the end they became suitable for all ages as we'd find a range of ages turning up. Kids definitely interacted at the level they wished to with nature and each other which was also an aim of the workhsop. The feedback we got from parents was also good - they enjoyed seeing their children doing something connected with nature (rather than be on their machines indoors).
- Do Differently?
1. In Summer 2013, we led 2 workshops in Peckham for children of refugees. The contact we had there strongly preferred the parents to stay indoors in church hall to get a well needed break from the children. So we didn’t have parents and carers present to help us with channelling kids’ attention and energy.
We planned to deliver 2 x 2 hour workshops to around 9 or 10 children from 6 upwards.
There were 3 supervising adults including myself and Suriya, however the behaviour of the children without their parents was so challenging I found it a little bit too chaotic and frustrating. More than one child needed a lot of attention and we couldn’t succeed in getting them to work together as a group. They didn’t seem to like each other very much and were not able to relax end enjoy the sessions. One or two of them were physically violent to each other and their were also tears. As the Coordinator said later ,‘we worked our socks off’! I didn’t object to working hard but I felt uncomfortable that we weren’t giving the children a safe environment to learn and play in because their relationships with each other needed a lot more healing input than that we could give.
We were invited to deliver a 3rd workshop by Coordinator which I declined as I felt out of my depth with that particular group. (Which is a shame because all children would benefit from playing outdoors but probably on one to one basis or in much smaller groups first).
2. Having read through the design write up again in March 2015, I would love to have a regular slot teaching Permaculture for Kids, for example in a community garden after school or, in a school during daylight hours. (Without all the school bureaucracy however!)
12. Pause
In November 2014 Suriya and I decided to take a break from Permaculture Kids Club for at least a year and review whether we want to resume it after that. I would like to concentrate on writing it up and finishing my Diploma! It feels right to simplify the range of designs I’m working on in order to finish them! (Even though we agreed we have learnt quite a lot about interacting with children and parents in a workshop setting over the last 4 years - See 10. Appreciation ).
The workshops I planned with Julia may still take place if we can find a venue (Grow Mayow decided they didn’t need any more kids’ clubs at the moment), so am open to that at some point in the future.
In November 2014 Suriya and I decided to take a break from Permaculture Kids Club for at least a year and review whether we want to resume it after that. I would like to concentrate on writing it up and finishing my Diploma! It feels right to simplify the range of designs I’m working on in order to finish them! (Even though we agreed we have learnt quite a lot about interacting with children and parents in a workshop setting over the last 4 years - See 10. Appreciation ).
The workshops I planned with Julia may still take place if we can find a venue (Grow Mayow decided they didn’t need any more kids’ clubs at the moment), so am open to that at some point in the future.
Accreditation criteria met:
2. Actively applying Permaculture over a period of 2 years since completion of PDC. Permaculture Research Institute category: Education (kids learning about nature)and Community Development (bringing people together at workshops)
3. Demonstrating design skills : Looby's web, Observation, Principles and Ethics, Action Learning Questions, PMI
5. Developing your permaculture practice: evaluation and reflection
2. Actively applying Permaculture over a period of 2 years since completion of PDC. Permaculture Research Institute category: Education (kids learning about nature)and Community Development (bringing people together at workshops)
3. Demonstrating design skills : Looby's web, Observation, Principles and Ethics, Action Learning Questions, PMI
5. Developing your permaculture practice: evaluation and reflection