Snow and Open Space & a question about kids

[Michael Pannwitz]

Today while planing for a large open space at a primary and middle school
the sponsors suggested not to go for 2.5 days but have it rather shorter
because of the kids capacities. Now, i find myself still wondering about the
duration - only recalling 2.5 day events with older kids.

Please share any stories about open spaces with little kids especially in
regard to time.

The last big snow storm i recall here in Berlin was in 1978, we were on some
kind of retreat for families with little kids somewhere out in the forests
of West-Berlin. Remarkable aspect of closed space - due to being closed in
by the wall - large parts of the forests within city limits were saved as
recreational areas & for water safety - they still remain today. So we were
in cabins in the forest in Berlin and got snowed in the last night. Before,
our time was pretty much structured by all kinds of activities and suddenly,
the morning of departure - we had to climb out the windows to remove the
snow in front of the doors. Then shoveling paths from one cabin to the
other. We were stuck for a couple of days. The city suddenly unreachable and
temperatures well below 0F. Everybody gathered in the only large room that
had a wood fired furnace. And from there on it was all play - at least from
my perspective. I remember spending a large part of the day (apart from
jumping out the windows into the snow) with all the kids building towers
with small wooden building blocks with everyone going for the ceiling -
climbing on tables and chairs...

Current observations from Berlin: Its been just around freezing during the
days and well below at night - with fresh icy moon scapes on all the side
walks every morning for the past week. Its a real challenge and slows
everyone down, kind of tiptoeing their way to the next corner - much fewer
people outside - and on the news they show all the hospital halls crowded
with fallen people waiting for surgery. Of course we have the police
distributing flyers reminding everyone to clear their sidewalks, which helps
a lot ;) And some regions are now importing premium seasalt from Marocco to
at least keep the main freeways clear. Be prepared...

All the best, michael jr


On Mon, Feb 8, 2010 at 3:26 PM, Ralph Copleman <rcopleman at comcast.net>wrote:

> Some suggestions about the impact of snow... and open space.
>
> You know how we sometimes say that if you're in open space for a brief
> time, say 4 to 8 hours, it's a very good, exploratory conversation, and that
> if it goes as long as two days, you can get in to action planning, and that
> if you go for about 2 1/2 days it becomes all about action planning...
>  Well...
>
> Six inches of snow pretty much closes up some spaces, but most stay open.
>  Twelve inches (in my part of the world) closes everything down for a day,
> and 24 inches closes it all down for 2 days or longer.  But something
> happens at about the 18-inch mark.  Conventional spaces may close down, but
> new ones open.  People gather in groups in their neighbors' homes to share
> food and company, and talk with each other perhaps in different ways.  One
> e-mail I received said 35 inches (nearly a meter) fell and neighbors
> organized a communal dinner -- and none had ever been in each other's homes
> before.
>
> Say what you will about the deterioration of local community in America,
> the snow storm has opened doors and spaces, and maybe hearts, too, in
> memorable ways.
>
> Ralph Copleman
>
> *
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-- 
Michael Pannwitz, boscop eg
++49(0)162 - 90 88 266

michael.pannwitz at boscop.org

www.boscop.org

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