Are learning outcomes needed at a toddler group?

Recently I went along to an outdoors group that I discovered via Facebook. It was held at a local country park and seemed like a lovely idea to get out with Daniel and Emma.

We do go out regularly and like to puddle jump in the rain. When I woke up however to heavy rain I wasn't too keen on going along to the group.

Daniel had woken up in a really grumpy mood; tears, tantrums the works. I decided that we might as well get our waterproofs on and head out; thinking he might be distracted by things at the group.

What a mistake. He sobbed the whole time. I had to carry him across to the group where he stood crying. Another mum tried to distract him for me and get him to play with her boys, but he was having none of it.

The organiser came across and had a chat. I have met her before at a local playgroup where she used to help out. She is lovely and what I would describe as 'artsy and floaty'. She has a different slant on things to me and likes things to be quite organised (or so she says...). She is a childminder I think and has a wealth of experience and knowledge of childcare and education.

However, I find myself struggling with some of her ideas and in particualr, the notion of organising play for toddlers with specific learning outcomes. I think there can be structure in terms of trying to prompt things and moving from activity to activity (ie Play, tidy up, juice and biscuit, songs, goodbye), but at the end of the day toddlers will do what they wish to. With the best will in the world Daniel will not paint pinecones if he doesn't want to. He will not sit for songs if he doesn't want to. I can try to encourage it, but toddlers are willfull things!

Sleepy Emma in the R&R

Anyhow... We had a chat about the playgroup and how she felt it lacked structure... and then seeing Daniel was uspet took him and offered to get him a 'bic bic' and some 'ju-juice'. Now, I am not massively precious about Daniel eating biscuits and the such but I restrict them for when he is at playgroups. It was 09:50am, and not a time of day I would want him eating snacks at. He also only drinks water and milk so I was a bit unhappy that he was handed a cup of blackcurrant juice. I also had to smile when Daniel didn't have a clue what bic-bic was... it's a biscuit.

To be fair to Daniel he held onto his biscuit; he didn't eat it as he wasn't hungry and he tasted the juice and declared that it wasn't water. But how would you have felt in that situation? Do you think she should have asked me if it was OK for him to have a biscuit and juice? I don't know; I felt a bit uncomfortable with it and didn't feel I could take them away from Daniel given he would probably cry even more.

Soggy biscuit time

Anyhow, Daniel was having none of it activity wise. There was a lot of mud stomping and painting of pine cones. Once those activities finished we gathered under a canopy to read a story (the group has a phonics base and the 'phonic' was 'i' at this session). The story was Itchy Bear and the children had an instrument (see the i....) to shake when the word itchy was read. It was basically kids shaking their instruments and not listening to the story. Daniel really enjoyed this bit of the session.

For all the talk of needing structure to groups this particular group felt like the most unstructured one I have ever been to! Don't get me wrong it was lovely and the other parent's and carers there were welcoming but I am not sure the children learnt any of the expected things.... it seemed like a good excuse for them to jump up and down in mud, collect sticks, have biscuits and cake and read a story. All of which are great and have their own merit; but I struggle with the notion of it being one great big learning activity, especially on the phonics side of things.

The group has a blog and when I read the reflection of the session it didn't tally with my experience there at all. For instance what I interpreted as children jumping up and down in the mud was described as 'mud ink' and the children were jumping to carefully print on the sheet. Maybe they were; I'm not so sure.

Maybe it is just me; but does a group need learning outcomes? For me, Daniel and Emma will have plenty of time once in education to learn and have targets and outcomes. I don't think they took anything away from the group other than perhaps realising that if you keep hold of a biscuit in the rain, it will go very soggy. And that's no bad thing.

Daniel eventually enjoyed himself when he heard the story being read, and the pictures below show him stomping in the puddles as we went back to the car. But did he learn about the letter i (ink... ingredients.... itchy.... instruments) I don't think so. Did the group fail because of that? No. I don't think it did.

What do you think about things like this? Is it just me?