How easily can B find her way from one place to another? We play with written instructions and general navigation and struggle finding things in random trees. Wayfinding by bike proves by challenging and exciting.
It’s the start of another grey week in February and I’m in need of a new idea. The weather remains cold, cloudy and uninspiring. The half term break is coming up soon and I want to rediscover the excitement for challenges we had in January. I try and think laterally and hit on the idea of wayfinding – or working out how to get from one place to the other. It’s not occurred to me to do that with B before but she’s old enough now that she’s starting to need to do this (she’ll be walking herself to school from the Autumn). She also really enjoys it when she gets a chance – which isn’t actually very often when I think about it. What would happen if I made her lead and gave her an objective to get to?
The more I think about this the more I like it as an idea. I’m pretty sure she’s going to like it too. What I don’t know is how good she is at it already. I don’t know how much she’s aware of the places around us and how they interlink. A few years ago she was completely clueless. She’s definitely far more aware now but the fact remains that, as she’s generally walked everywhere with an adult, she’s never had to find places on her own.
317 – Trying out some wayfinding. Verbal instructions.
Monday 17 February. Cloudy. 5°C
I start off with something short to test her. We’ve only got fifteen minutes or so. I find a way out of school we don’t normally go and tell her she has to go left, right at the road and then take the first left… then she has to find the park (which is at the end of the road she should be on). In the park I’ve hidden a toy in a pocket of trees she was in for the treasure hunt (challenge 348) a few weeks ago. I tell her she has to find those trees again.
She heads off with purpose clearly enjoying herself. I walk a bit behind and help her with the roads. She has no problem finding the park (“I knew it was here”) and negotiates her way to the trees easily. By the time I’ve got there she’s found her prize. She’s really enjoyed herself – and I have too. It feels like there’s a lot of potential in this. It’s got elements of a treasure hunt but requires minimal set up time and it’s getting her navigation skills working. We both agree we’re going to do it again tomorrow.
318 – The second wayfinding challenge. Written instructions.
Tuesday 18 February. Cloudy. 6°C
The next day I’m pondering what to set her and where to take her. We’ve got a bit more time but realistically not more than 45 minutes or so. I liked giving her verbal instructions yesterday (we’re heading towards more listening challenges) but I realise if we’re going a long way she’s probably going to need to have something written down. I look at the map of our area and work out a way I can get her to walk a long way round, that she won’t have done before, to the playing fields. I write out basic instructions (turn right, walk to the end, turn right, turn left, take 1st right etc). There’s a programming tool they use at school that does a similar thing with animation so I think I’m on safe ground.
When she gets to the playing fields, I plan to leave a note in a tree for her to find. That note gives a looser direction – find the lane and go to the little park. She found this lane a few weeks ago when we were making bird whistles (see challenge 336) and was really excited about it as it quickly links one park to another one. I’m hoping she’ll remember where it was and find her way – it will need a bit more initiative and active thinking than just following the written instructions will.
In the other park I leave another note identifying the location of chocolate (my back pack – I’m hoping no one will move or find the notes in the short time between leaving them and us finding them again but I’m not trusting chocolate to a tree). I go the quick way to both parks and manage to set it up in about ten minutes.
B is excited about this one and ready to lead the way. She’s critical of my directions though.
B: “What do you mean turn right, then turn left”. She mimes turning her body to the right and then turning it to the left.
Me: “No it’s a direction. When you get to the end of the lane you have to turn right and keep going till you get to the next junction, then you turn left”.
B: “Well, why didn’t you write that then?”
I’ve copied the map a bit too blindly and have put right turns on roads that curve, so she doesn’t notice she’s turned. I reckon that’s part of the process though.
B zones in on the park: “I know where the park is!”
I had wondered if she would. It’s a different park than the one yesterday and we are walking on paths that we wouldn’t normally walk on to get there so I wasn’t sure how good her overall mental map of the area was. I think it’s actually a lot more developed than I’d realised. I plan, next time, to think about putting her in a place and just telling her to find somewhere – rather than giving instructions. I know she won’t be able to do this like an adult would yet, but I suspect she could have found the park from the lane we were in… For now I go for a mislead
Me: “I don’t say which park. There’s lots of them. It could be any”.
Ten minutes later and it’s clear we’re heading to the park she thought we were, and she loses motivation. “Why did we go that long way round?!” She’s still looking for a right turn she doesn’t need because she hasn’t noticed the road curved round. “You’re rubbish at instructions. We don’t need to go right.”
I’m interested to find, that once in the park, the vagueness of the instruction ‘find a tree at the far end with a note in it’ is not appreciated. I thought she’d find that fun but I think spooning her instructions on the way have made it feel hard to have less guidance. I help her find the note but then she’s cross that I gave it away and she didn’t get to find it.
The more open instruction to find the lane goes down a treat. She heads off in the right direction but isn’t 100% sure where it is. When she finds it, she’s happy again and arrives in the little park in a very good mood. She struggles to find the note in the tree though. I thought it would be obvious as there’s only one big tree and one nook in it to put a note in but she needs help to find that one too in the end and is cross about it.
We went home still happy with wayfinding as a concept but with a better idea of what works and doesn’t work. Next time I’m definitely going to give her less specific instructions (turn right, 1st left etc) and more general ones ‘find your way to the playing fields’. I’m definitely going to work more on hiding things in trees too. She loved the treasure hunt a few weeks ago which had specific clues to look for but finds randomly hunting for things harder I think. I’m planning to ponder tasks that will explore that a bit more. I’m also going to get her to direct me instead. She wants to do that and I think it will give me a better idea of what she can and can’t do right now.
316 – Using the cut willow on the Christmas tree den >
< 319 – A more active sort of scavenger hunt
308 – Wayfinding by bike
Thursday 27 February. Sunny. 9°C
Ten days on from the first wayfinding challenge and it’s become one of B’s favourite things. After trying it in London (see challenges 313-309) we’re home again. It’s a gorgeously sunny Spring like day and B wants to get the bikes out and try wayfinding on those. We’ve established by now that her ability to find her way somewhere she goes too often is pretty good. What she wants to do today is see where she can get too on her own without any guidance. We used to do this on bikes when she was younger and it normally meant an hour going round and round the streets nearest the house. I’m curious to know if she can get herself futher now.
We head out and I let her go first, keeping an eye on her road safety skills as we go. She’s immediately much improved on last time, making her way to places she hasn’t cycled too before. She has a lot of of fun going down roads we don’t know well and seeing where she gets too. We don’t set an end destination but just play, exploring cul-de-sacs and frequently going back on ourselves.
We’re out about 90 minutes and I learn quite a bit more about what she can and can’t do. Her sense of direction isn’t very good and she needed help to work out the way home. She learnt quickly how to look for clues like cul-de-sac street signs. She’s learning all the time and I’m pretty sure, with her current obsession with the subject, she’s going to improve very quickly.
There are some definite pros of wayfinding by bike but some big cons too. The pros are that you can go further quicker and make faster decision and if you get lost it’s pretty easy to backtrack. The cons are definitely road safety. B is generally risk averse but also doesn’t like being corrected and her instincts aren’t quite good enough on roads yet. We end up arguing and she vows she never wants to go on the bike again. I resolve next time, to get her somewhere where she can avoid roads as much as possible but have free reign to explore.
< Looking for nature play ideas and opportunities in North London (313-309)
