Two Cochrane women are combating the pervasiveness of technology with a little fresh air in an effort to give children more time outside.
Two Cochrane women are combating the pervasiveness of technology with a little fresh air in an effort to give children more time outside.
Growing Roots Forest Play - started by Lori Toma and Laura Spruyt - invites children between the age of three and five to start their mornings in the great outdoors as part of a new child care program.
The group is opening registration to its new ten-week program - Forest Explorers - for five to 10 year olds.
The programs run in either 10-week sessions or the full year. Children explore the local landscape, climb trees and get a feel of their physical limits through self-led play.
The new program will complement the existing 10-week program already in place, “Wednesdays in the Woods ” for three to five year olds.
The care program is one of many initiatives across the country that uses natural play -- without toys or electronics -- to educate young children all while fighting childhood sedentary lifestyles and obesity.
Toma said she read a study from 2011, which found that youth spend an average of 62 per cent (8.6 hours) of their waking hours sedentary. Only five per cent engage in physical activity for at least 60 minutes each day.
“I can't speak for individual families, but with the increase in technology over the years, it definitely plays a factor in the amount of time children can free play outside. Things like work, home, childcare situations also play a role, ” Toma said.
Growing Roots operates on inquiry-based learning, Toma explained, which is about being the children's co-learners and facilitating an enriching environment.
“Instead of just standing there and saying this is where the owl lives and this is why it lives there ...We believe in the philosophies of whole child development. So you're looking at developing the hands, head and the heart, ” Toma said.
The program is run at Girl Guide Camp Jubilee where the children are surrounded by woods and the river.
At the start of each session, children are led through a grouping of shrubs and trees - also known among the group as the “magical tunnel ” - and then are given up to 15 minutes for “free ” play, before a morning song.
The rest of the morning's activities are decided on as a group.
Often, Toma said the children will name a place they frequently visit, such as the “Magical Kingdom ” - an area under a big spruce tree - where the children ask to have their snack time.
“If we want to have snack that's a bit further away then we'll plan to have a ‘hike' and we will go directly to our site or we'll meander and explore as we go, ” Toma said.
The benefit to child-led play is the development of critical thinking skills at an early age without the pressure of formal education, a stressor Toma said is becoming more prominent in society.
“We've greatly increased the academic expectations of our young children and have maybe lost value of the importance of play, free play. Child psychologist and child development theorist, Jean Piaget once stated that “play is the work of children ” and in a lot of cases, that important piece of childhood is being left behind, ” Toma said.
“Children are just meant to play and they're meant to move their bodies and be active and develop their gross motor skills and we can't develop fine motor or self regulation or any of those pieces that are expected in kindergarten to Grade 1 without first developing your growth and skills. Outside they get to play, they get to climb, they get to explore, and they get to do it all in their own way without realized boundaries. ”
For more information or to register visit www.growingrootskids.ca or email [email protected].
