When the children returned to our Little Birdwings Bush Kindy program after Cyclone Alfred, some greeted us with "We have the power!". They meant their homes had electricity again, but in that moment, I couldn't help but think—yes, they DO have the power. They have the power of resilience, the power of play, and the power of the people who held space for them during a challenging week.
resilience
How to Nurture Resilience by Celebrating Your Child’s Struggles
As parents, it’s hard to watch our children struggle. We want to nurture resilience, protect them from discomfort and frustration, stepping in when they face challenges. It’s a natural instinct—to smooth the way and keep them safe from emotional or physical hardship. But are we holding them back from learning how to be resilient? We … Continue reading How to Nurture Resilience by Celebrating Your Child’s Struggles
Respectful Ways to Help Children
As parents, caregivers and mentors, our role is to provide support in a respectful manner, allowing children to tackle challenges on their own terms. For sure, it's often easier to do things ourselves, than to allow our enthusiastic, but unskilled, two-year-old to do it. But should we? When do we help, and when do we encourage persistence? What is the best way to help children? What's so bad about helping, anyway?
The importance of handcrafts for brain development
Just as it is impossible for us to work without immersion in nature, handcrafting is one of our cornerstone practices at Birdwings Nature. The process and the product of handcrafting and creativity are part of who we are and how we relate to our world. It is part of how we move through our seasonal shifts with the children and how we celebrate the gift of childhood.
What does risk-taking really look like in early childhood?
One of the biggest hurdles to outdoor play is understanding the nature of risk-taking. We have found that the most challenging daily risk-taking children will experience in our nature immersion programs has little to do with wild nature play at all. Snakes, fire-work, water-play and tree-climbing are not as challenging for children as putting on … Continue reading What does risk-taking really look like in early childhood?
Getting enough nature play?
We want our children to have a special, care-free childhood filled with special memories of family moments and playing with friends, just like our own was. We know it is a priority to make sure our children have free play time outside, but our lives as parents are so busy and childhood is increasingly scheduled, so that it is now difficult to ensure our children are getting enough nature play. Finding the balance between the pressures of modern living and our own values for freedom, creativity and play can be a real challenge families.
The challenges of childhood are meant to be tricky.
Challenge is meant to be a bit tricky. Challenge stretches us and asks us to find our more about ourselves. Challenge encourages us to reflect on our capabilities, our effort and our motivation. It hones our vision and it uplifts us when we finally realise that now we can do it, when we couldn't before. Remember when that was hard?