What the forest means to the child,
and what the child means to the forest?
This blog is part of the Children’s Forest – Wandering with The Forest Preschool research project. The project is carried out at the University of Turku with funding from the Kone Foundation. The research explores the meanings children find in the forest and the forest preschool activities.
The wanderers in the project are the children, the forest, the researcher with the preschool group, and the artist as the storyteller of the journey. In this blog the artist publishes fictional stories created based on the material collected by the researcher. The stories depict the nature of the relationship between the children and the forest. The stories are published almost in real-time during the data collection phase. Scientific publications based on the data will be linked here later on as well.
Forest Preschool
Forest preschool refers to preschool education organised in the forest. The preschool group spends the majority of its time in the forest throughout the academic year. The group typically has access to a hut or lean-to in the forest, and the forest area is usually located near the daycare centre so that the children can seek shelter in case of thunderstorms or extreme cold. In the forest the children learn, eat, play, and spend time together.
Data Collection
The project’s main researcher Sara Sintonen spends 2–4 days a month with the forest kindergarten group for one academic year. She makes observations with all of her five senses, records children’s plays and creations, and keeps a diary of her observations. During the year Sara will gather material from 20-40 days.
Story
Illustrator and children’s book author Emilia Erfving collaborates with Sara. She serves as the narrator of this blog. Emilia goes through the material collected by Sara. She cuts and glues similar events together, removes and adds small details, and fills in the blanks with imagination. This way, the children’s forest, the researcher’s observations and the narrator’s imagination merge into one story. A story where reality, interpretation and fiction intertwine into one captivating narrative.
Team
Sara Sintonen is a Professor of Early Childhood Education who works at the Faculty of Education at the University of Turku, teaching early childhood education at the campus of Rauma. / www.sarasintonen.net
Emilia Erfving is a children’s book author and an illustrator who has published five books. Before pursuing a career as an illustrator, Emilia worked as a community artist and an art teacher. She holds a Master of Arts degree from Aalto University. / www.emiliaerfving.com
Forest Preschoolers are a preschool group in southern Finland, consisting of thirteen children and three adults.
