Keeping children safe involves letting them take and manage risks in their everyday play.
Adults can encourage “good risk” in play directly and by following a few guidelines for grown-ups.
Modelling appropriate risk taking in everyday life
Explain to your child what you are doing, e.g. going a different way to school; your reasoning, e.g just for fun; and assess the risk at the end to see whether it worked out as you’d hoped, e.g. took longer but found a new park on the way!
Talking to children about risk-taking and problem solving in positive ways
Help your child identify potential hazards (dangers), consider their capabilities, and learn to trust their own abilities to make decisions about risk.
Acknowledging your child’s attempts to challenge themselves and manage the risks
“Wow Tom, I’m so impressed at how you climbed the tree as high as you knew you could then get down from”.
Let your child explore how she/he can use the environment around them – climb trees, play in the dirt, make mud pies, roll in the grass, follow the ants, jump waves, bury themselves in the sand, swing on the monkey bars, balance on the fallen log, collect rocks