As Nature Connection Mentors a lot of our time is spent barefoot. In fact, any chance we get to kick off our shoes, whether it be at our school holiday program (a whole day outside), our afterschool sessions or our school-based incursions, we try to find time to be truly connected to the earth under…
We are starting to get excited about our upcoming term three Bush Inventors’ Club (After School Program)! A favourite amongst children and playworkers alike, this term centers on learning to create, care for, and cook with fire. When founded on the three pillars of respect (respect for self, others, and the environment), teaching fire provides…
Outdoor play is a necessity in the development and wellbeing of young children. For a variety of environmental and cultural reasons, children are being given less and less opportunities to experience free and unsupervised outdoor play. War play has been a part of childhood development for centuries and is seen as a necessity by most…
Nature. Even if it’s the grass in your backyard or plants on your balcony, it’s all around us — even during coronavirus. In an episode recorded well before coronavirus hit us, Maggie talks to nature play experts Gillian McAuliffe and Daniel Burton about the perfect places for growing bodies and minds to play.”
‘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…
At Educated by Nature, we see children. We care about what they are trying to achieve. Our mentors help them discover new skills, resources and extensions to their ideas. Building confidence in children is at the very core of what we aim to achieve. We believe this is why children (and their parents) love our programs….
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…
Building a cubby seems like a simple activity, regularly labelled as ‘just play’. We believe in the power of a cubby and are not fooled by this guise. Children are learning more than we could ever teach them in a classroom setting while they are ‘just playing’. Knot tying is a regular activity at all…
‘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…
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…
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