Cubby house building — more than just good fun
Childhood Memories When I was a child I used to love making cubby houses with my friend Susie who lived in the same street. Whether at my house or her house we would use blankets, sheets, towels and cover card tables, chairs and other pieces of furniture to make elaborate secret hiding places. We would eat our afternoon tea under the covers and take cushions, pencils and paper underneath and be happy for hours.
I can also remember my mum letting my friend Rachael and I sleep outside in a tent in our back yard one night. It was a big stripey fabric tent — not very waterproof — but big enough for us to stand up in. We had a fabulous time feeling very adventurous as we snacked on lollies and enjoyed being cocooned in our tent while the night noises surrounded us.
During my primary school years the teachers allowed us to transform the whole back section of our leafy green playground with a number of cubby houses. Areas of dirt were swept out, pieces of fabric hung, bushes and plants manouvered to fashion an archway, signs made and bits and pieces brought from home to decorate and personalise our cubbies. The cubbies belonged to certain children. I was never lucky enough to own a cubby, but I enjoyed visiting those made by others. Looking back this was quite forward thinking of our teachers to leave the kids to their own devices and to create our own cubby house fun.
Q — Do you remember building a cubby house when you were a kid?
There seems to be something inherently fun and adventurous for children in building their own cubby house.
An opportunity for learning new skills
Not only is building and playing in a cubby great fun, it can also provide lots of learning opportunities for young children.
Some of the benefits and learning opportunity of building and playing in a cubby include:
Creative thinking, problem solving and planning. Once children begin to understand about what a cubby house is and if they receive a little bit of support from an adult at first — there can be all sorts of possibilities and opportunities for creative use of resources, for planning where and how to build the cubby and for figuring out how best to secure the cubby house or how to make it darker, bigger, more comfortable. Children also have opportunities for creativity in design and decoration as they set about building a cubby.
Use of large muscles, gross motor skills, fine motor development, motor planning, physical well being and spatial awareness: As children engage in cubby building they may be manipulating sheets or blankets over the top of poles, branches or furniture. They may be dragging equipoment — using upper body muscles or tying knots and securing ropes — all great opportunities for physical development. They are also thinking about space — figuring out how much room they might need or how big a sheet they may need.
Negotiating, team work and social skills Cubby building can present opportunities for two or more children to practice and learn about team work. Working together to carry out a plan or deciding with peers how to go about building the cubby in the first place. Decisions are made, roles are determined — Who is in charge? Who is leading? Who is following? Children may switch roles depending upon what’s happening at the time.
Language development — talking listening and communication. Opportunities for children to listen and talk with each other as they build a cubby together or play in their cubby. Children may engage in role play — acting out camping or cooking activities in their cubbies or taking dolls or other toys into the cubby — lots of rich opportunities for communication, and the learning of language here. Teachers or parents may also be on hand to support the devlopment of new vocabulary — “tent pegs”, “branches”, “secure”, “knots”, “fabric”.
Resilience, self confidence, a sense of agency. As children manoeuvre large equipment, or balance a sheet atop some sticks — there will no doubt be some set backs. The wind will inevitably blow a fragile cubby down or a rambunctious friend will accidentally knock a structure down. Indeed, when using real life materials, fingers may be scraped, an object dropped on a toe or other bumps and knocks may occur. However, with proper care and supervision — such challenges, set backs and difficulties can actually help children develop a sense of resilience. Chances are there will be greater life lessons for children if we stand back and let children figure out some of thees challenges for themselves, rather than rushing in to fix everything or to sanitise or “child proof”everything before allowing children to get in and play. I am not suggesting that we intentionally and wilfully allow children to hurt themselves or others. Our role as adults is to perhaps provide some guidance, cues, support when needed, without taking over. A small scrape on a finger may be a small price to pay if in the meantime children are learning how to recover from a set back or approach a problem in a new way. The Early Years learning framework for Australia defines the word Agency as “being able to make choices and decisions to influence events and to have an impact on one’s world”. We cannot underestimate how important it is for children to be given opportunities to develop a sense of agency. In our busy adult worlds we can easily forget this and do all the thinking and planning for and about children — forgetting to include them in the process. A word of caution though. Adults still need to be adults. Helping children develop a sense of agency does not mean letting a four year old decide what time he/she will go to bed or asking a three year old to decide whether or not they’d like to have chocolate or scrambled eggs for breakfast. We adults must take responsibility for leading by example, for making tough decisions when needed and also allowing children to make decisions — to exercise agency when appropriate. Yes — it can be hard to get the balance right!
Literacy and numeracy….
We know that children learn best when they are engaged, motivated and enjoying what they are doing (don’t we all?)
In our increasingly competitive fast paced world where children and their parents are over scheduled and where 3 and 4 year olds are being sent to extra curricular pre reading classes (not necessary by by the way), it is perhaps worth a reminder that there is a lot more to reading, writing and arithmetic than learning the alphabet or counting to 20. There are many foundational or base line skills that need to be developed first
For example, the capacity to understand that the marks and scribbles on a page can actually convey meaning. This understanding comes with time and develops naturally. We see children at a young age simply scribbling, drawing, mark making and then as they are read to, and as they see the adults in their world reading and writing, children develop a sense of curiosity about reading and witing and begin to ask questions “what does that say?””How do you write the word fairy?”.
Counting to a great number is no use on its own unless one has an understanding about more and less — that 3 is less than 50 for example. Again, this kind of understanding is best learnt through play — with no specific or direct adult enforced objective. Early numeracy may involve sorting and classifying, or estimating or pouring and measuring — cooking, block building, board games for example — all great early early numeracy activities.
Now back to our cubby building — such an activity can provide a perfect and natural vehicle for literacy and numeracy learning. Children may wish to or be encouraged to first draw their ideas for a cubby house. Perhaps they may make some decorations — drawing or cutting out pictures, making signs — how many windows will the cubby need? How much cloth will be needed to stretch — and how high should it be? Will we make a sign telling people whose cubby this is?
If children are to be successful learners and if they are to successfully manage the transition to school then It is important that they have an optimistic and positive disposition for learning. That is — we want children to want to learn. This engagement and involvement in the learning process is most likely to occur when young children are exercising some sense of agency or autonomy in relation to their learning and when they have the opportunity to do and act as opposed to sitting and listening. Cubby building presents us with may of these terrific learning opportunities.
A final word
The need for shelter has been described by psychologists, economists, and philosophers as a fundamental or primal need. At the risk of drawing a long bow, perhaps in the simple building of a cubby house we are seeing children enact and role play this very basic human need — and in the process learning and developing a whole range of skills and life lessons along the way. So go on… why not build a cubby today?
Felicity Barclay
