Bush Magic Adventures in Mt Keira is helping kids to ‘go bush’, drawing on research into play-based learning and neuroscience to provide a fun and challenging experience that kids love.
Images Kelly White, Blanc Content
For people of a certain age, memories of childhood consist of sunny days playing outside in the street, local park or, if you were lucky, in our wild bushland. Summers seemed long and filled with walking to the corner shop for ice cream, exploring the local creek, building cubby houses where you could make a secret world just for your gang of friends and playing at the beach.
We all had yellow raincoats and gumboots so we could walk to school in the rain and jump in puddles along the way. Being inside was reserved for sick days, nighttime and very bad weather. Maybe our memories are selectively ideal and maybe it wasn’t always perfect, but more than the hard or difficult times, these are the times that stick in our memories and make us smile.
Founded by two local mums, Simone Potter, a qualified teacher and school counsellor and Katrina Venables, an experienced outdoor educator, they are using their combined 40 plus years’ experience to bring an exciting program called Bush Magic Adventures to Wollongong.
Being in nature for unstructured play, child-led enquiry and learning survival skills helps children make sense of their world without the need for lectures or even detailed instruction. Instead, facilitators provide opportunities for children to explore the world around them in a safe way.
Taking risks is okay and a lot of emphasis goes into personal responsibility, recognising and assessing risk, feeling the sensations of emotions including fear in your body and making informed decisions about whether they pursue that risk or not.
A great benefit of this approach is that when children learn to manage risk taking at a young age, and in a relatively safe environment, they can make mistakes and find their limits. They learn to listen to their bodies and their ‘gut’ before making decisions and before the risks have major consequences such as when they are older and driving in a car with their friends.
Free play also acts as a kind of informal ’therapy’ where children can act out scenarios and relationships in make believe games to find out how different ways of interacting feel and practice social skills.
Learning survival skills such as fire lighting, cooking, shelter building and animal tracking helps children to feel mastery over their world which adds to their confidence. Working together in community teaches them that everyone is valuable and has something to contribute and how the group is impacted if someone doesn’t pull their weight.
“After a day at Bush Magic, children often don’t want to go home and they are always excited to come back.”
The feedback received from children and parents has been overwhelmingly positive and often focuses on how even over a short involvement in the program, children are more resilient, less anxious, more confident and happier.
“After a day at Bush Magic, children often don’t want to go home and they are always excited to come back. Children who start the program feeling timid and anxious develop confidence, even learning to like previously feared creepy crawlies once they learn more about them and come across them in their natural habitat,” says Simone.
“We aim to meet children where they are and to work with their interests. Our day program consists of a mix of homeschooled children and children from mainstream schools and runs on a Wednesday and Friday.
We also have an afterschool program and a school holiday program, both of which are very popular and book out quickly.”
The program accepts Active Kids vouchers. For more information go to bushmagicadventures.com.au or follow @bushmagicadventures