Adventures in Belgium

Dec 11, 2012

By Morgan

I went to Belgium! It was as part of a Youth In Action-funded international training program and followed on from a trip I made to Leuven last February. Time for some adventures in Belgium – through play, of course!

The organizer, Joost Capiau of C.I.S, invited me to help with the training portion, and together we led participants from Macedonia, Montenegro, Belgium and Malta through a range of theories, approaches and experiences towards work in play and games. We leaned heavily on a grid we’d developed together in Leuven because it was such a useful way of showing how such different approaches as ours (educational games and playwork) were still connected. I am writing more on the grid, and some of the theories and experiences we discussed during this week, on my other blog.

The training week itself was amazing and so much fun to do!

Here are some images from the “indoors” portion, when we did group exercises and talked about the various roles and responsibilities a playworker might assume.

Adventures in Belgium 1

 

Adventures in Belgium 2
Here are some from the outdoors, when we practised staging a play space and had some much-needed running-wild time of our own.
Adventures in Belgium 3

 

Adventures in Belgium 4

 

Adventures in Belgium 5

 

Adventures in Belgium 6

More adventures in Belgium

And here are some, from when the children came. The mud fight was pretty epic but soon swept aside by a MONUMENTAL PAINT WAR. They built mazes and forts, played at being monsters and doctors and adventurers, and looked at us baffled when we failed to understand Dutch. Here are some of the children, quickly wiped and handed their snacks, before we put them back on their bus.
 
Adventures in Belgium 7

 

Adventures in Belgium 8

 

Adventures in Belgium 9
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