Getting muddy encouraged at Dundee Township's new Wahoo Woods play area

A dirt trail may run through the Dundee Nature Park, but at Wahoo Woods this path is meant to be veered from.

Hayden and Clare Leib did exactly this as the brother-sister duo ventured toward a leaning tree beside a large muddy puddle, the aftermath of a recent storm. Hayden, 9, and Clare, 7, had a goal – to create a raft to float across the rain-made pool.

The mission would be equal parts muddy and daring, but, despite this, their mother, Erin Leib, a Gilberts Elementary School teacher, sat on a bench nearby with no intention of intervening. She wanted to let her children problem-solve on their own.

“This is what childhood was for me. I got to go out and I’d walk through the woods. You just imagine things and plan things,” Leib said. “And they don’t get to do that anymore.”

Leib’s approach aligns with the philosophy of the nature park located in the wooded, 50-acre Library Springs Natural Area behind the Dundee Library, 555 Barrington Ave., East Dundee. It’s an area meant for open-ended play.

When Dundee Township Supervisor Trish Glees announced on the park’s opening day in May – an event that drew a crowd of at least 200 – there were no rules, she meant it.

“We tell parents, ‘Just sit on a bench. You want to take pictures, take pictures, but sit and let them figure it out,’ ” Glees said. “Worst case is, yes, he could fall off the tree, but I think that’s an OK thing.”

The Leib kids’ freedom came with a bit of apprehension. After several questions of approval, followed by Leib’s consistent answer of, “If that’s what you need to do,” the two eventually caught on and ran with the opportunities before them.

Leib said she spent many years thinking they weren’t safe enough to just go.

“And now I’m like, ‘go,’ and they’re like, ‘What do we do?’ ” she said.

The idea for Wahoo Woods came from Dundee Township Trustee George Johnson, who also ended the long search for the park’s name after pointing out a type of tree in the park – a wahoo tree.

A seven-member committee eventually formed and worked as a task force to complete the project.

Katie Meyer, the Dundee Township open space coordinator and a committee member, took a special interest in the task, remembering her own adventurous childhood.

“Kids are in school seven hours out of the day and then go home to the computer,” Meyer said. “[Wahoo Woods] is so good for them, using muscles and math skills.”

During the summer, Meyer made mud pies with children at Wahoo Woods and was surprised to find out many of them had never made the pies before, a common activity she embarked on as a child.

“This is vital for children, for their health, to play like this,” Meyer said. “[Children] are told not to get dirty.

“Even at school recess time, what do they have. They have pavement, a set-up playground.”

Getting muddy is encouraged at Wahoo Woods. Meyer and Glees said they continually had to remind parents there are no rules on opening day.

Meyer, as well as Glees and other Dundee Township officials involved with the project, heads out to Wahoo Woods multiple times a week, mostly to make sure structures are safe, but also to see how the park changes daily.

“This [park] is continually evolving through the spaces and the children who come here,” Meyer said.

Beyond the paths and climbing stones, the park has a shed containing bones, stones and nests found at the township’s various open spaces. Geared toward children ages 3 to 8, the play area has hay bales and hay bale tunnels, art and music areas with hollow logs for drums and log and stump balancing.

Slabs of rock serve as a canvas in which water and dirt can be used to create temporary pictures.

Outside of what the township provided, the rest of the park’s layout is the work of the children who play there. Children have brought scarves and rope to hold sticks together for forts, and a swing was made from branches and thread.

Glees said she saw two kids eating lunch on a tree that arched over the walkway, also known as a rainbow tree, reminding her of a famous picture of construction workers eating lunch on the framework of a soon-to-be skyscraper.

Glees wants to see how the winter months affect the park’s attendance. She said all the structures will remain in the same place, but, with a sheet of snow, it’ll be a completely different kind of play.

“I’m hoping for a great snowfall. I can image all these snow forts being built and tunnels through the trees,” Glees said.

Another benefit of the park, she said, is the collaboration and teamwork she sees among kids.

“You’ll see two, three kids carrying a log, and you just watch them,” Glees said. “But they’ve gotta figure it out, how to get that log in place and then move it.”

On a recent summer day, Clare and Hayden learned to work together as they looked for a way to float across the muddy water.

Throughout their process, Leib remained a bystander, even watching Clare struggle to use a wooden pallet as a raft.

Despite Clare’s continual looks to her mother for aid, Leib encouraged her to keep going, hoping her daughter would gain problem-solving skills.

The mother knew the slits on the top and the openings on the sides of the pallet would make it impossible to float with any applied weight, but she decided this lesson would be better received if her children learned it for themselves.