Braving the dark....

As part of our Fear Project we offered the children the opportunity to play in the dark - we have a LARGE room that we can make completely dark - we put on some spooky music and there were torches, small colour changing lamps that were soft and easy to play with as well as some glowsticks...

All but one child thoroughly enjoyed this play - that one child was able to go out of the room with a teacher and talk about how it felt and explore and face their fear (in the afternoon session, requested by the children, this child also participated and also commented that he was no longer afraid of the dark - "Where have the ghosts gone? They are not here anymore")

There was a LOT of screaming - the kind you hear on the roller-coaster and other white-knuckle rides - fear and delight mixed all at once. There was lots of running around with the light sources - although the two globe colour changing lamps tended to invite a calmer play and exploration... I am now wanting to get LOTS more of those lamps as they are such fun...

In the afternoon I had put up photos on the board and on the digital frame of the morning session - and they looked so much more spooky - as my camera had a long exposure as I did not use the flash - these photos were what inspired the children to want to play in the dark again... The great thing about the afternoon session was that we did not make it fully dark - as we had toddlers with us as well - which probably allowed the scared child from the morning able to see that there were no ghosts... it also allowed more children the opportunity to experience the play with dark and light - and those colour-changing lamps were a HUGE hit with the toddlers - they REALLY explored them - how they sparkled on the wall, how you could switch them on and off and watching how the colours changed - sometimes they were the same colour as each other - but most often not!

I think our ears have just about recovered from all the screaming...

ghostly like appearance on photo!

the colour changing ball looks like a snake as it moves across the room

the lamp when still

another fascinating moving light photo

the differences between the movement of the lmaps, the movement of the torches and the movement of the glow sticks

drawing with the torch

a fun exploration of fear - and an opportunity to talk about fear and feel a little braver later...