Climbing Trees and Why Everyone Should Do It
Up into the cherry tree
Who should climb but little me?
I held the trunk with both my hands
And looked abroad in foreign lands.
I saw the next door garden lie,
Adorned with flowers, before my eye,
And many pleasant places more
That I had never seen before.
I saw the dimpling river pass
And be the sky’s blue looking-glass;
The dusty roads go up and down
With people tramping in to town.
If I could find a higher tree
Farther and farther I should see,
To where the grown-up river slips
Into the sea among the ships,
To where the roads on either hand
Lead onward into fairy land,
Where all the children dine at five,
And all the playthings come alive.
Robert Louis Stevenson
‘I used to climb trees when I was a kid.’ If I had a penny for every time I’ve heard this I’d have enough money to buy a wood by now.
As the poem describes, there’s magic to be found high in the crown of a tree. I’ll let you into a secret, I still climb trees; I never really stopped. Now, in my middle years, I take great pleasure in being high up with the squirrels and the woodlice and the spiders. People pass below with no idea I’m up above them. In high summer the light is green-filtered and cool. In autumn the hues change and so does the sound; summer’s soothing music is replaced with crackling and creaking. Winter brings views to the blue yonder. From the crown of a lime tree in the nearest woods to my home, in wintertime the sea can be seen glistening in the distance in the chilly air.
We encourage the children to climb trees at forest school. They go up as far as they feel comfortable which isn’t all that high but high enough to sense the otherness of being up high. Some incorporate their lofty location into a game, others like just sitting or standing and taking in the new perspective. An upwards bending hazel trunk can become the prow of a pirate ship, the look-out for a gang of baddies, a balcony for a princess. Very few children never leave the ground. Many start low and climb higher over a series of weeks as they gain confidence, often encouraged by others.
One of the woods we use has a mixture of abandoned hazel coppice, the thickened stems of which form a kind of three dimensional ladder, making climbing easy. Elsewhere we have larch trees, not so easy to make a start on but still just about possible to climb. What I notice is that children climb trees as a natural part of play. They don’t ask if they can, they just get on with it. Sometimes they get into getting on with it to such an extent that they don’t want to come down. Children have a natural affinity with trees.
This school holiday, why not get out in a wood where you know it’s OK to do so, and climb a tree. If you’ve forgotten how to, ask a child to help you. If they’ve never climbed a tree before, explore the magic together.