An Educational Brushpile

Last week my blog photo caption mentioned that the children on the brushpile were learning something. Since then, I’ve had an inquiry wondering just what might be learned there. Here are things I’ve observed:

This is a neighborhood brushpile, perhaps 40 years old, and the core is now partially compost with punky logs running through it. Each year I borrow a tractor and push up the new additions onto the top to keep the pile from sprawling, and in the photo the compost core is exposed on the right side.

Woodchucks love to burrow in behind a pile of fresh brush there, and when I told some children about woodchucks, they wanted to see and touch one. So I located a fresh roadkill and when the kids visited the pile a few days later, he was waiting for them.

The children were inspired and proceeded to dig their own burrow in the punky wood compost, which was large enough to accommodate several of them at very close quarters. They then dug a small back entrance to let in air and light. When I walked past the brushpile a week later, their main entrance had been camouflaged with a layer of fresh green brush they had harvested.

George Woodchuck surveys his domain.

On their next visit, we had a little chat about the possibility that a critter could have moved into their burrow in the meantime and how to safely test this before crawling in.

Peter Woodchuck hides from predators

When neighbors toss brush, branches, or yard cleanup on the pile, it sometimes contains acorns, hickory nuts, or garden seeds, which sprout next spring. On occasion, we have had tomatoes, pumpkins, or squash plants climbing over the pile, and tree seedlings pop up. Some of these seedlings were dug up by children and taken home or to school.

In winter, the snow around the brush is a warren of rabbit tracks, and there is often a hawk perched in a nearby tree scouting for dinner. If children look carefully on the snowy ledges, they can often see the footprints and wingprints of little birds that have burrowed into the brush to spend the night out of the wind and out of sight of the owls.

Sometimes there is also a crop of nettles, which can be an educational adventure for a young kid who doesn’t pay attention to advice. If I anticipate this, I’ll keep a small container of baking soda in my pocket for an antidote, and they learn about nettles and acid/base chemistry.

On occasion, children have wanted a campfire and they figure out that the more recent additions to the pile include nicely dried and flammable sticks, while the older punky damp wood is smoldery. On occasion, it occurs to a young future arsonist that the whole brushpile could burn, and this is an opportunity for discussion about responsibility, which so far has been successful.

So yes, it is a children’s playground. But it also has educational value about how the natural world operates and their role in it. An alert teacher or parent can weave green lessons into their play here. To continue this theme, go back to my Free Range Children blog.