Category Archives: Risk

Children can be risk assessors too…

‘Be Careful’ is a phrase that has become all too common in parent-child relationships. Of course we want our children to be safe, to not get hurt and ensure that the decision that they are making are thought through, considered and well executed. However we cripple children’s ability to self monitor and assess risk for…

Building Resilience in Children

When Trudi and I started Educated by Nature, one of our main goals was to create environments and experiences where children could find opportunities for building resilience. We found, through our experiences as teachers, we had seen the rapid decline in resilience, self-efficacy and awareness in children of all ages in our communities. Today, more than…

The Hunt

‘Alright kids, imagine you are a Chuditch*, silently hunting for your prey. Carefully move across the landscape…’ We had only taken a few delicate steps when we were interrupted by a wandering group of fellow wild children, whom, like me, were surprised to come across each other in this bush setting.  They were a group of…

A New Clay Experience

We’ve had clay at our Mud Pies Nature Playgroup in Perth for a while now. It’s been a fantastic sensory experience. It’s slippery, sloshy and squelchy sometimes and other times it is solid and firm requiring strong finger muscles to manipulate it. Perth is such a sandy place that our young children rarely get to…