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Actually, Through The Rules And Games Of The Society And People They Grow Up ...

Actually, through the rules and games of the society and people they grow up with (Bruce, 2004 p.3) children uncover their identities, memorise various movements, explore the environment, learn to co-operate with others, shape their creativity and improve skills in information recalling. According to Dylan, Josh, Ben and Daniel, their favourite activities are climbing, riding bicycles and scooters, playing balls and toy-cars. Undoubtedly, all these activities need enough space and freedom of action. This especially regards boys who can concentrate and persevere for longer outside (Bilton, 2005 p.5). While the indoor environment limits children's movements, the outdoor environment provides children with more space and more opportunities. For instance, boys may be involved in building (as is just the case with Daniel and Dylan) or painting outside, fully ignoring these activities in the indoor environment. On the contrary, some children (e.g. Nadia, Ciara and Anna) prefer to perform these activities inside; as the data reveal, this mainly concerns girls who appear to be more calm and imaginative than boys. Other observed children (e.g. Holly) like to play and learn both inside and outside; actually, their choice is determined by the kind of activity and individual factors. These are children with double personalities; in the indoor realm these children may be taciturn and may be involved in reading, writing or drawing, while in the outdoor realm they are lively and usually play volley-ball, basketball, football or other games with their friends. For instance, during the interview Dylan claims: I like being outdoors [as] lots of space to run around and we can have fun. I like the digging and looking for warms.

Although children admit adults into some plays, four observations and the interviews demonstrate that children sometimes prefer to play with their peers rather than with adults. For instance, when children are asked Who do you like being with at school? almost all participants name their friends (girls mainly prefer to interact with girls, while boys prefer to interact with boys), except for Daniel and Ciara who give a definite answer: everyone. Obviously, some children are more independent than others and they may gradually distance themselves from adults, as is just the case with Josh and Dylan in the observation 1. In this respect, it is crucial for adults to understand children's striving for freedom and separation. In fact, those adults who are too preoccupied with rules or too obtrusive will lose a possibility to successfully interact with children and teach them in the outdoor environment. In this case, children may explicitly or implicitly repel the adult interaction. As the observation 1 depicts, Adult A makes an attempt to help a child who is going over a bridge, but the child claims that he can do without help. When Adult A approaches Dylan and Josh, proposing help, they answer: Later.


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