Brincar, Corpo e Lugar: Repensando os Espaços da Infância

Added: 2026-05-20

[00:00:10]Hello everyone. I'm Vivian Ferninto.

[00:00:14]I'm a professor at University of Brazilia working with early childhood education. It's my pleasure to welcome you to this dialogue between Brazil and Norway. Today we invite you to think with us uh about something that may seem simple at first, children's place and children's play. But when you look more carefully at this topic, we see that it brings important reflections about childhood space, imagination, autonomy and education. This conversation is part of our working in PLA, the reading and writing early childhood education program, a Brazilian federal program that uh supports the professional development of early childhood teachers in Brazil. It's also part of our plus research collaboration between the University of Brazilia and the University of Stabang. As we go through this dialogue, we invite you to remember your experience as teacher and as children as well. Now, it's my pleasure to introduce our first speaker, Dr. Siv Civ Sinova works at department of childhood teacher education at the University of Stang in Nori. She specializes in physical education and her research studies children's uh bodily experience meaningful places in kindergarten and also children's is faces. It's a pleasure to have you with us. Welcome Sova.

[00:01:52]>> Thank you.

[00:01:54]>> Yeah, thank you Vivana for your introduction.

[00:01:58]Uh and in this uh cultural dialogue today we will talk about meaningful places for children in kindergarten and we will introduce the term children's places and uh we will give examples of how children can find their own places in kindergarten and in their leisure time.

[00:02:20]Next so I can start with my presentation now. Thank you.

[00:02:25]Uh as Viviana was uh telling you I teach in um physical education at the university in Stalang. So I am uh assistant professor there. And uh from a physical education perspective, children's bodily way of being and participation in play should have a large place in kindergarten.

[00:02:48]And central to children's own culture is allconsuming play in which they are present and engage with their whole body and all their senses.

[00:02:59]Physical active play is about physical activity in a playful context and beaten the key underlines a play as a meaningful act and and that includes also physical active play.

[00:03:15]Then we can go to the next slide please.

[00:03:17]Thank you.

[00:03:19]Uh the importance of having meaningful places for children is highlighted also in the context of kindergarten.

[00:03:27]The researcher Kim Rasmusen distinguishes between places for children and children's places.

[00:03:35]Places for children are made by adults while children's places are places that children have developed themselves often through play.

[00:03:45]To develop a relationship with a place, one must have many experiences there.

[00:03:51]The place is crucial in children's play.

[00:03:54]And it's by experimenting with the possibilities and limits of their body that a child becomes familiar with a place.

[00:04:05]Rasmmanson refers to natural places when he gives example of children's places.

[00:04:12]These can also be places that are created by adults but the children have further developed them and made them their own.

[00:04:21]Further children's places are described as places children can inhabit from their own point of view.

[00:04:30]Here they can find peace and there are good opportunities to be fully present and enchanted by the play.

[00:04:40]The Swedish author Afrin once said, "I wish today's children played more than they do because those who play as children gain a richness within them that they can draw from throughout their lives."

[00:04:58]Then we can go to the next slide please.

[00:05:02]The French philosopher Malo Ponti highlights the body as an important s source of knowledge. He is particular concern with the sensory experiences and the perception of them in an interaction with their surroundings.

[00:05:21]Matson claims that there are some fundamental motives that guides children's bod exploration.

[00:05:27]Children move because they seek sensory experiences. They also have a urge to move in different ways and to be creative and to experience this excitement.

[00:05:41]Sandro and Guhalt also underline in their study the important of children's curious play with the aim to understand children's experiences of free play in the nature. They see children as active explorers and playful agents that embodying and creating knowledge, skills and understandings of themselves and their life world.

[00:06:08]Then we can go to the next slide please.

[00:06:15]And I think maybe we can go to the next slide as well. Thank you very much.

[00:06:21]Activity and movement in a place are important for understanding and developing the identity of a place.

[00:06:30]Maret Luning a Norwegian researcher which which has written much about children's outdoor play refers to Ralph who talk about the identity of a page place which is deter determined by three components.

[00:06:45]What the place is like physically the activity that take place there. for example, physical active play and the meaning the place have for you.

[00:06:57]There is a big difference between just being in a place and being in a place and sensing everything that the place contains.

[00:07:06]Children's fantasy world is crucial to meaningful places.

[00:07:11]When it comes to imagination, it is not just something that is located in in the brain, but imagination is in the body.

[00:07:20]in the bodily senses, in the hands and in the feets.

[00:07:25]We have to be open to bodily and imaginative world of children.

[00:07:31]Further fussing talks about the children's magical play that just happens which neither the children nor the adults can fully control.

[00:07:43]She also refers to Steinhalt who talk about self-forgetfulness play.

[00:07:49]We get caught up in the play and lose ourselves in the play.

[00:07:54]Here lies the freedom, fascination and risk of play.

[00:08:01]We risk selfforgetfulness and losing our normal self-control.

[00:08:08]In the illustration you see in the slides here, the sand pit invites the child to play with buckets and pales.

[00:08:15]The slide has its tongue sticking out of offering speed and excitement.

[00:08:21]The playhouses stand on their hands ready for acrobatics. And the tricycle has been giving wings and the swings are in a very good mood waiting for the child to jump in.

[00:08:36]Here there are great opportunities for lose oneself in this landscape of play.

[00:08:44]Then we can go to the next slide.

[00:08:48]Mus Martinson found in their studies that secret places represent an important quality for children's play both indoors and outdoors.

[00:09:01]According to the children, particularly meaningful play is often going on in these places.

[00:09:09]Secret places are a part of the physical environment that could not easily be visually controlled or approached by the staff and are well known as small hidden areas that add a particular value to children's playgrounds.

[00:09:28]One may say that secret places in the children's opinion do not really exist for the staff because these hidden areas are only known to themselves.

[00:09:39]In general, secret places are seen as important for children's experiences of independence and control.

[00:09:50]Then we can go to the next slide. Thank you.

[00:09:54]So what are the role of the early childhood teacher then when it comes to facilitate for children's places?

[00:10:02]It is stated that the Norwegian kindergarten shall meet children's needs for care and play, provide children with opportunities for play, life expression and meaningful experiences and activities.

[00:10:17]From an evolutionary perspective, play often have been interpretated by adults to create meaning for them and to develop children.

[00:10:28]Play is a way of life for children. They express themsel through play. It is crucial to take the children's perspective into account in the pedagogical work with finding good places for children.

[00:10:43]Yeah. Then we can go to the next slide.

[00:10:48]Wolf highlights one man's term pedagogical tact when she talks about showing attention and thoughtfulness around children's play. The early childhood teacher must adapt their way of being and vary their participation based on their perception of what the children and the play needs.

[00:11:09]Sometimes it involves a restraint while other times a more active participation is needed.

[00:11:18]Further, Wolf talks about protecting, confirming and enriching children's play.

[00:11:26]Protecting the play means caring for it with the purpose of securing and maintaining the play.

[00:11:35]When children find the early childhood teacher attractive to interact with, they have good opportunities for communicating supportively and help creating, protecting, and develop children's playful interaction and peer relationships.

[00:11:54]Confirming the play can also mean acknowledging the play. The confirmation can be expressed through emotional engagement both physical, vocal and verbal.

[00:12:07]BA describes the interaction patterns as spacious when children interact and express their thoughts, feelings, and action as equal subjects.

[00:12:19]Spatial interaction patterns seem to confirm children's experiences and enhance children's vitality.

[00:12:29]Narrow interaction patterns that involve a lot of control or cor corrections seems to limit children's opportunity to confirm their life worlds.

[00:12:43]Enriching the play can in various way contribute to further develop children's spontaneous play.

[00:12:50]In some situation, especially where children struggle to enter the play, it can be crucial that the early childhood teacher can participate, take initiative and invite to play.

[00:13:03]Enriching play can involve providing varied exploratory and rich environments and by creating shared experiences for and together with children.

[00:13:17]So in the next presentation with Heisa, you will be provided with examples of how children can create their own places and how the prey develops and take new terms.

[00:13:30]So thank you for your attention and I will give the word to Heisa and her presentation.

[00:13:44]Thank you, Senova, uh for your powerful presentation.

[00:13:49]Um your ideas about secret places and teaching uh practice help us to see children's play not as something to control but as something to observe and support.

[00:14:03]Uh now we are moving from the kindergarten context in Norway to a school context in Brazil. It's my pleasure to introduce our second speaker Pelisa is a pedagogue and has a PhD in education from University of Brazilia.

[00:14:20]She work as a public school teacher with young children and also as an assistant professor at SEUI. Her research is based on the sociology of childhood and children's geographies.

[00:14:35]Very welcome, Heisa.

[00:14:44]Now it's on. Thank you very much, Vivie.

[00:14:49]Uh hello everybody. So it's a great pleasure to speak with you today and talk about this theme and share my reflections with Senova and all of you.

[00:15:03]So the work that I'm presenting today please Marcus could you put my slides on the screen. So let's start with Yeah, that's it. Thank you very much.

[00:15:22]So the work that I'm presenting today emerged during the final stage of my PhD when I undertook part of my doctor studies at Queensland University of Technology under the supervision of professor Susan Deny that that was in 2018.

[00:15:44]And for this presentation, I have rei revis revisitated and extended that research by incorporating more recent observations from my own pedagogical practice last year. The title of today's presentation is exploring children's geography in in the city and in the school.

[00:16:13]So in during this presentation, so I I would like to invite you to reflect on how children active produce meaningful places in city and schools and how recognizing this these places can transform our understanding of protagonism and educational practices.

[00:16:44]Next.

[00:16:45]So all the examples I bring today come from Brazilia, the capital of Brazil with that is located in the federal district. So as it's shown in in the map. So Brazilia is a modernistic plain city designed by Lucio Costa and inaugurated in 1960.

[00:17:13]My my PhD research is grounded in the sociological studies of childhood as Viviani just said and from that I understand children as active social agents and as experts in their own lives. I also draw on creso to understand that space it's a concept an abstract con concept and geometric while place is a space infused of meaning and from this perspective I understand children that children are capable of transforming ordinary spaces into meaningful places through their social practices is in terms of my methodology. My PhD research adopts an ethnography approach inspired by research in children's geography.

[00:18:18]I during my research I accompanied individual children for seven consecutive days in daily in the daily movements participating in their routines act activity.

[00:18:34]So these journeys were tracked using Google maps and later each child took part in an interview and collabor collaboratively created a map of the city using Google Earth.

[00:18:52]So this process allowed me to understand the city from the children's own perspective, moving behind adult assumptions about their experiences.

[00:19:06]And now let's let's start with Jolie's case. So at the time I did my research, Jolie was 9 years old. She lived with her parents and two sisters in the north wing of Brazilia. The episode I will discuss occurred on Saturday, August 26 of 2017.

[00:19:34]So on that Saturday, several children were playing outside near Jal's building and adults were sitting on benches nearby.

[00:19:47]I was there talking to Jolie and her neighbor Selena approached us asking about me, who I was and what I was doing there.

[00:20:00]After I explained the reason I was there, the girls eventually decided to share something very special with me.

[00:20:11]They shared the the trick club. So they took me to a fus tree close to where we were. They explained me that this was where they met to talk about important things. It was a secret place for them.

[00:20:32]The girls hide small objects between the leaves and branches such as broken dolls, little toys, handwriting notes.

[00:20:43]These objects were material not material valuable but symbolically powerful.

[00:20:52]They were markers of belonging. As you can see on the slides, Jolie is just up to the tree hiding. And then you also can see the objects that they used to hide on the secret tree club. So when the girls went up to the tree, the fles tree was no longer a simply vegetation in the public guard garden. It became their place.

[00:21:26]So a few days later during the interview, Jolie explained me how the tree club began. She described how the group had previously created the clubs in other trees around the public garden and eventually they moved to the current fus tree. This movement across across trees demonstrated something important.

[00:21:54]The club was not defined by the physical tree itself, but by the children's collective agreement and shared meaning. When I asked her if she used to go to the the club, the tree club, she answered me that she only go there on Saturday and holidays.

[00:22:19]And when I asked whether she ever went there alone, she said, "I sit there just to wait people to come." The simple sentence is powerful.

[00:22:33]The tree was not mereily a high a hidden spot. It was a social anchor. It was a place of expectation of encounter. So the club only exists when the the girls gather together to sit there and talk about their important things.

[00:22:58]From this eography case, two main analytical reflections can be drawn.

[00:23:06]First, Julie together with her friends showed how children actively create their own per cultures. The fus tree which was which at first was simply simple a random tree in a public space became something much more meaningful to them. It became a place to gather, talk and hide objects.

[00:23:38]Through their interactions, the girl gave new meaning to that space. They hid objects they they found there, shared meanings and name it their tree club.

[00:23:53]In this way, the tree stopped being just any space. It became a special place shared shared by the children's relationship, imagination and shared experiences. It was a place where children could participate in their own per cultures culture often outside the direct gaze of adults.

[00:24:23]Second, it was important to consider how public spaces are frequently seen as unsafe or not intended for children.

[00:24:35]However, Jolie and her friends showed us a different possibility.

[00:24:42]They were able to play outdoors in a spontaneous and self-organized way.

[00:24:49]Perhaps because other children and adults were also present present in the super block space. The girls felt confident to make the environment their own. This remind us that children are not passive users of space. They are active participants capable of transforming spaces into meaningful places through their interactions.

[00:25:22]So this first example talks about how children transform public urban spaces into meaningful places. However, children's places do not occur only in gardens. They are also present present where children inhabitate daily life particularly in school.

[00:25:48]What I would like to show you now are two examples from my own pedagogical practice with children age seven and eight years old from my last class last year. These images invite us to expand our understanding of children's geographies within school environments.

[00:26:12]On November 19th of last year, 2025, I asked some children I asked some of the children a simple but a powerful question.

[00:26:28]Where is our special place at school?

[00:26:32]And why is it special?

[00:26:36]First, I asked John Miguel and he answered me. When I'm playing, I can hide here. As you can see, he's on the corner behind the bushes.

[00:26:51]At first, the response may sound simply simple, but analytically it is profound. He's not just describing a physical action. He is expressing control, authorship over visibility and the ability to regulate his presence within the social field. The bushes, the fence, the corner of the schoolyard.

[00:27:24]These were not designing designed as a hiding places. Yet he transforms them into one. This is precisely what we observed in the tree club. Children appropriate adult design environments and reassign meaning to them according to their own needs, desires, desires and paracultures.

[00:27:53]Hiding in this context its agency. It it allows experimentation with presence and absence. It creates mystery, imagination, and autonomy.

[00:28:11]The second example is the one from Mara Stalum. So I asked her the same question and she pointed out the space between the fence and the courtyard in the hallway. and she answered me, "I like it there because I stay alone and I go there to think."

[00:28:37]Her response adds another important dimension to children's places.

[00:28:44]Not all special places are about hiding or playing. Some are about solitude.

[00:28:53]Some are are about thinking. For her, this is a place of reflection, a place to pause and to regulate her emotions and thoughts.

[00:29:09]Then when we bring together Jean Miguel's hiding place and Maria Stella's thinking place, we begin to see something deeply significant.

[00:29:22]the same schoolyard, the same institutional environment, and yet two completely different lived experience.

[00:29:33]For Jean Miguel, the bushes become a place of hiding, imagination, and control over visibility.

[00:29:43]For Marisella, the hallway becomes a place of solitude and reflection.

[00:29:50]These experiences help us understand that school space is never simply given or fixed. Instead, it is constantly interpreted by children through their own perspectives and needs. What adults may see as ordinary, ordinary or neutral, children read through their emotions, intentions and possibilities.

[00:30:21]At the same time, these spaces are negotiated.

[00:30:26]Children negotiated with the material environment with school routines per pairs and even with invisible boundaries established by adults.

[00:30:40]Through these everyday negotiations they reshape the meaning of space and redefine how it can be used.

[00:30:50]And finally, school space are emotionally inhabitated.

[00:30:57]They carry feelings that transform architecture into lived experiences.

[00:31:03]This reveals something fundamental.

[00:31:07]School space is not experience experienced uniformally.

[00:31:13]It is interpretated, negotiated and emotionally inhabitated in distinct ways. What appears architecturally neutral becomes personally meaningful.

[00:31:28]It school therefore must be understood not only as an educational institution but as a live geography of childhood a territory cons contined through children's bodies movements silences and choices.

[00:31:49]And perhaps this is where our responsibility as teachers deepens to recognize, respect and protect the places children create within the spaces we design.

[00:32:09]And as we conclude this conversation, I would like to make a last point by bringing everything together. the tree club, John Miguel's hiding place and Maria Stella's thinking place and connected directly to our work work in Prolle.

[00:32:32]We have been discussing children as producers of places.

[00:32:38]But what does this mean for literacy?

[00:32:42]What does this mean for reading and writing and more? How does this connect to our theme for early childhood at the public schools?

[00:32:54]And our theme is walls and it is not only about taking children outside. It is about removing symbolic symbolic walls. It is about recognizing that learning does not happen only at desks under adult control. When a child hides in the bushes, she is reading spaces. When a child chooses a quiet hallway to think, she is composing meaning. When children create a tree club, they are writing a collective narrative in the landscape.

[00:33:49]Then before children write on paper, they write and read the word. As Paulo Freddy remind us and the word includes three fences, shadows, corner, edges. If we ignore children's places, we risk narrowing our understanding of literacy because literacy is not only about mastering written code. It is about it is about producing meaning and meaning is special.

[00:34:33]So thank you all for listening.

[00:34:38]Thank you Heisa for your rich presentation.

[00:34:43]Uh your work reminds us that children are not only in space they also create them. It was inspiring to hear how children create meaningful places in the city and also in the schools. Thank you.

[00:34:58]Now, Heisa and Sinova, after listening to what you shared with us today, we would like to reflect on a few questions. First, you both uh spoke about children as creators of space uh creators of places.

[00:35:17]What changed uh when teachers truly recognize children as authors of space?

[00:35:24]And second, how can uh we be more open to children's body experience and the imaginative world in kindergarten?

[00:35:35]Who want to to respond first?

[00:35:41]I think Sonova can go first as she presented first then I can I can answer.

[00:35:48]Let's let's talk about the first question.

[00:35:53]>> Can uh do want I repeat or >> Yeah. Yeah. Because you were talking about the children who create their own places. That's the first qu question.

[00:36:04]And I I think it's so interesting when I look up on how the often the researcher we are adults and we want to understand the children's world but often we read a lot and we go to books and without thinking of the children's voices themselves and be out there as you has been out there and looked at where are they going where you like a guided tour you are with them out on these playgrounds and you ask them in very powerful as you said an important question where are your important places in your because they are so much if we talk about kindergarten they are long days in these kindergartens and they use a lot of their times there so of course it's so important that they are allowed to be to influence their everyday life and often we maybe forget a little bit about that and we often go to the already developed knowledge which is developed by adults which also is of course important but we often forget some voices here. So I think it's so important to bring these voices together both the knowledge that we have developed and also get more of the children's voices together. So I I have used in my teaching um Allison Clark she has developed a method to to get the children's voices more so we can hear those voice voices better. So she talk about a methodtology called the mosic approach where she talk about the children goes out and take photographs of their surroundings. They are gu they go with them on these guided tours. they are interviewing the children and they they they are so it's so um enriching the the knowledge we have about children's uh play and children's holistic development.

[00:38:05]So I I really love to hear about your work, how you have been with the children and and put these perspectives together the so so it's really exciting the quotes when the children are really just telling genuine about their everyday life and they are playful that their way of being like they play and they create meaning in their surrounding and of and often we get so I think sometimes you also focus only on the place for example we just start to analyze a lot of what's going on in the the place and but we forgot a little bit that there there's an interaction here between also the children um uh influence the place and how they get touched and touched also the inter the interaction between the surrounding and the child uh and and an example here For example, in Norway we it's winter time uh here right now and we just got snow in Stavanger. It's seldom that the snow is coming here to town and if you have like a what do you call it like a drone if you have taken a picture from above a bow and see the children playing there you will see how they um interact with their surrounding with the snow. you will see the patterns, the mesh works, how they play into these uh uh environments and so so so the the environments are not only a backdrop for the children they are also influence their places and that must be a really good feelings that they mastery their surroundings their body they can go into it and feel secure so I think there is something really grounded in it something that has to do with identity and creating themselves and and get to be agent as you say in the world. We both were talking about this agency and then you have to be touched as you you said I would feel this emotion you have to to uh to be in these uh interactions uh often through play they make the play come alive. They they uh yeah they they the places they and yeah they go through the play and make stories they go together and play and fantasy the magical play. So here there's so many things that uh that are combined with this agency factor that is really important for for the society when they are supposed to manage all these things we are living in our surrounding with.

[00:41:00]So play is in a very serious business.

[00:41:03]They are doing very important things when they are playing. So they are Yes.

[00:41:12]>> So thank you so and that that that must be a very nice experience to look at children's track with the drone and see where they have been the snow. That that must be very nice. So I'm curious about that now.

[00:41:32]>> Yeah. So send send us uh photos or the article that talks about it. I I would like to to see that.

[00:41:43]>> I will send you. So they I think I've been in and observe these uh children playing in snow in winter time. So they talk about this interaction that are a little bit uh abstract when you read about it in the literature and what does this mean but when you see it among the children when they are doing this it's really yeah you you have the understanding of how this looks like when they are interaction with the with the surrounding as for example the moral to you the French philosopher were talking about you get to know yourself you get to know your surrounding.

[00:42:22]So it's really visible then.

[00:42:27]>> Yeah. So and then that's very important for us as teachers to recognize that children are sp authors. They are not just moving around like zombies. They're not going there or to the other side because we are telling them that now it's time to go there. But they have intention. They have you know feelings they they they are involved in the play in their players in their playing and they they h and I think that's very important. They have meanings they create meanings. So when we look at them with these possibilities, so it's space stop being something fixed or something that that only works for one purpose. But then it allow us to recognize that >> things can change, spaces can change. So under like I this this year I'm in a early childhood uh class and then some of the children likes to sleep under the table because we have this time to rest.

[00:43:49]>> So under the table then is not a normal space. They they make it a special place so they can relax and have their own time by their own. and some would sleep there and that's how they are they are connecting to the this this class space and how they are organizing what they feel. So that that's very very important for us to look at those small things that happened every day at school and recognize what children is doing and where they are going, why they are going there and what is special about that place.

[00:44:40]>> And it's so interesting to see that they have of course different needs to different times. So it's not only this place is for this child and these places. So they always uh renew these places occurring to th though their own needs. So and sometimes they need to be alone as you were saying. They need to think about things. Maybe they have to yeah they have to yeah feel like they have control over some situation and maturess in some think about what happened right now. So there's so many needs during these a day like this. So the children needs to adapt to or and and you were talking about regulation of feelings and it's so important that they um experience a spectre of feelings like from all of the spectre from uncomfortable feelings to really enjoyful feelings like the there's something about being a strong robust person when you Yeah.

[00:45:49]Right. Rena has feelings.

[00:45:52]>> Yeah, sure. And then I think we are just touching the second question and answering it at the same time. So when we think about how can we remain open to children's body and imaginative ways of experience the world is just what we were just talking about. So uh we when we pay attention we just see that through movement through their sensations through their feelings they play in the imagination they are leaving that space in kindergarten. And what we need to do is actually to slow down and observe how they are in nabitating this space instead of just you know tell them don't go under the table to sleep because that's not um the right place.

[00:46:49]But then we allow them to create this meaning and we we let them because that's nothing wrong.

[00:46:59]It's just a new way to use this space.

[00:47:03]>> Yeah. And the smallest children in kindergarten up to the oldest children in kindergarten, they have different kinds of play and to recognize different play situation. And sometime maybe with the youngest children, we can overlook some kind of play. So they have like routines when they're running forward and backward. they are going with this uh hiding games and they are having a lot of play that maybe we we can overlook a little bit and not support in some kind of way. We just stop it and we don't want to have noise and stuff but it's so important to recognize different ways of um interact with the the surrounding.

[00:47:44]Yeah, >> thank you His Nova. Reflecting on space and how children inhabitate and transforming them, it's essential. It I think it encoura pedagogical practices that foster children's agency and promote uh the activity and meaningful participation. I think it's so important to think about these topics um with the early childhood education in mind. Thank you. And to uh finish our conversation, could you think in someone who has influenced uh the way that you understand play, explore the world, and experience different places?

[00:48:33]>> Go on.

[00:48:34]>> Should I go on? Because it's funny because when I was younger, I didn't go to kindergarten. My mother was home with us. We were three sisters. So I have actually never been in kindergarten. So I started when school started. Uh so but I I was um reflecting of is there someone who have have an impact on how I see the world and how the playfulness and how you explore your surrounding.

[00:49:00]And I was I was thinking of my grandma actually I remember some that we were staying with her sometimes and she was just taking us outside like you said. is just in the garden or some it was not like far away but we were just walking around there and and she was so calm and I think she was so present very present in the moment with us uh without talking so much but she was really like bodily present so we felt secure and we we could explore our surrounding uh and she could support us because she was not taking over our experience that was a good way because we we're allowed to to have these different faces. We we started with yeah to explore and experience and after that maybe we can have some reflection around it. I remember she supported often with stories you know about the place maybe some local stories she was maybe bringing in some natural materials. So so and and she held up the curiosity we wanted to do more of them.

[00:50:07]Uh so I remember just the way we were out with her I think and there was a situation I was coming home I I think I was approx approximately four years or something and my mother was in the kitchen and making dinner and she had wrote in a book from when we were younger she had wrote some everyday stories when to remember our childhood and it fell a piece of paper out of that book when home at my place here one Okay. And I read that little piece of paper and I I felt so it was so magical because she said I had been out with grandma when I was four year and we came in and she was in the kitchen making dinner and I came and I had picked some stores just outside and I say look mother I have picked you some sunbeams and I think that is something about how we talked about our surroundings how we lived into the surrounding and just were in the presence here and now and uh felt it and got get touched by it and took it in over us and and there was a safe person also with us there who could just be there in and um guide us and and so I just when I read that piece of paper now when I'm old I felt so there was something emotional cameing over me like a bodily memory or something I felt something in my body when I read that note. So I felt like I have been an agent when I was a really young girl where I went around and yeah just taking in my surrounding and I I'm just now when I'm have my own song I can I take myself I I do the same thing when I'm out and suddenly I find something when I were at the beach I find a stone that would shape like a heart and then I bring it home to him and I I do the same I talk about it and we make stories about it. So I see it affects me also when I get older in my identity development. So there's something and when she not living anymore my grandma but when we when she died we can see she had wrote a lot of poems about her surrounding nature when she was writing letters to friends and near family. She was expressing her through these experiences she had in her local surroundings and that's is probably something I think I have brought further and took with me as a adult like there's something you feel uh not like a stranger in your surrounding but you get connected and interactive so that I think there's there's something there I feel it's um that have made an impact on me as a as a child and I I can still remember it now.

[00:53:10]>> Such beautiful memory >> because and you were talking about Paul which is in Brazilian paragod. Yeah. And you were talking about how we read like not he had probably said something about not only read the word but also read the world. And then I think we are more into the the first tense experience. We are out there and we are making our own. We have ownership to our own experiences.

[00:53:39]And then it makes sense. Everything around us make it makes meaning for us.

[00:53:44]But I think a problem today with everything going on with this with lots of techn technology and stuff. I think we get a lot more stranger to our own surroundings because we often see it in through technology or laminated paper look there and in books and we're not are hands on like with our sensory and when we feel it and I think there is some of the problems with being an agent in their own in our own life like we have we need more of these first tense experience and being directly contact with lots of our surroundings. I think >> true. We need more hands. We need more we need to feel more right. So when we were talking about these um uh these when when Senova asked us to think about someone who had uh influenced our way to experience outside to to move outside.

[00:54:49]So I then then she she wrote us about her grandmother and then I I was thinking about myself during my childhood that we we didn't have any technology here and I also didn't go to kindergarten. I actually went to when I was I went I went just when I was um six.

[00:55:15]Yeah. For not not the whole year. So I I went just for a few months and so I could I was home and I could have a lot of play time during my my childhood. But my father, so he he had a strong impact on the way he has a strong impact on the way I understand play and on the way I love nature because he he was very patient and he he would take us to hide our bicycles and to go through one place to another. And I was we were three children at home. So he he would take the three of us. So my young sister, he would hide with her. But then my older brother and I, we would go on by ourselves and with him just through usually we would go from our house to my grandma's house.

[00:56:21]and he used to be very funny and he would play with us on on along the way.

[00:56:29]So he was very active. So he he also liked to play football and he he took us to those places and he would let us to run. He would go fishing as well. So my brothers and I, we could go looking for worms and sometimes we would catch, we would fish also small fishes for him.

[00:56:59]And those were simp simple moments but very meaningful because he he wasn't making us scare of nature or scare of the streets but he was taking us to the nature and then through the streets and he was you know very very open and and he was helping us in in all those those moments and I I then I just remembered when he was here on this January he he came to visit us and he was still the same because then he was helping my my daughter my one year old to to climb up the ladder. She's just born and he was teaching her how to climb the ladder. And then my husband, he was very scared and he was like, "That's not something for her age." But he was there holding her and explaining her how to to climb. And I was I was relaxed because I knew that's the kind of thing he would do with us. And now he's doing with his granddaughter.

[00:58:17]So my my father is definitely that person who in say who helped me to live more freely in outside let's say like >> and there's something with the world it's open up like you there's so nice when the when the world is open up to you and you have lots of possibilities so and then you also are open to the world and you can have all these experiences is be touched by the things going on.

[00:58:53]It's uh so uh great to think how uh those memories with your father Heisa and with your grandmother Senova are so beautiful and touching because it for me um remind me to think and reflect about what kind of reference we want to be for our children. like you said, you you repeat with your son something that your grandmother do did with you. So, it's so beautiful thinking this way.

[00:59:31]>> Well, thank you, Heisa and Sinova. I don't know if you want to to say something more before you finish our meeting.

[00:59:42]>> No, I'm happy on what we have spoken. So thank you Senova again. Thank you Viviani and I hope you all enjoy these reflections.

[00:59:55]>> Yeah, do you want to see something? Thank you very much. And I think it's so interesting to to see to collaborate with across the countries but there are so many universal uh things we want the kids and us to experience. So I think it's so nice to to see the meeting points and then we can work with same uh frames for uh making the surroundings nice for both us and the children. So thank you very much for inviting me to this.

[01:00:32]>> Thank you. Thank you again.

[01:00:34]>> Well, we are now uh coming to the end of our meeting. Before we finish, we would like to invite our prole teachers to reflect with us on the AVAC platform.

[01:00:46]There you will find some questions about today's presentations and we hope you have enjoyed this meeting. Thank you all for being with us and bye-bye.