E20. Breaking Down Some Common Misconceptions About Nature Playgroups
Episode Description
In this episode, we’re talking about nature playgroups, why we’re so passionate about them, and some of the misconceptions people might have when they go to attend one. So, wondering if nature playgroup is for you? In this episode, we answer that question.
👉 Discussion Points
What is nature playgroup?
Aimed at 0-3, immersed nature, not skill building. Includes seasonal song time, seasonal story time, seasonal craft or activity and a focus on free play with friends in nature.
Our playgroups are centred around what children need, not what parents want
This means we provide minimal activities for many reasons: because our focus is on free play in nature, because children at this age would rather cut a ball of wool into a million pieces than use it to craft with, because children don’t need any resources to learn and entertain themselves, because we want children to use this time to socialise and because providing less resources provides opportunities to develop essential social skills such as sharing
We have also learnt that providing less resources and focusing instead on nature actually equals less fights over resources. You can’t resource a playgroup for 20 children, particularly when it’s mobile. But more importantly, our nature playgroups are all about free time and exploring nature in a supportive environment with friends, not focused on arts and crafts.
Many crafts are too complex/not developmentally appropriate for this age group, they do not have the dexterity to manage many tools. We provide small achievable tasks on purpose so that children feel a sense of achievement when they are able to achieve them. When an adult has to finish a craft for a child, it sends a message that they are not capable/able of achieving the task and if this happens regularly, children often lose interest in doing any of the activities provided, assuming they won’t be able to do them themselves. It can perpetuate a sense of failure, rather than independence.
Similarly, we prefer open-ended resources so that children use their creativity and imagination rather than step-by-step activities that end in replicas of the same end product. We focus on the process (of learning) over the end product. For example, the practise of hole punching and threading leaves onto a necklace leads to chats about colour, shape, size, pattern and sizing that are more important than finishing the necklace.
If the set-up/pack-up of a craft activity outweighs the time/value/learning of the activity, then it’s not worth it.
We can do this ourselves (go the creek/beach) for free
Absolutely! You can! Anyone can. We 100% encourage this. One of the reasons we offer playgroup is in the hopes that parents will meet other like-minded parents and feel empowered enough to get together and go out in nature for free.
We want to see more groups doing this but unfortunately, we just don’t see it. We’ve found that often activities aren’t valued if they’re free and often people need to pay for activities to commit to them (ourselves included), particularly going out in nature in ALL weather.
We also value women’s labour, and want to provide employment opportunities for SAHM’s in a child friendly work environment.
We also love contributing to a circular economy, where we are employing women who are then going on to invest their income in local, green economies. We can help change the world by instigating change in our micro-economies and financially empowering women.
Village building
While our playgroup and activities are child-centred, they also come from our innate desire as parents/mothers to be surround by a village of like-minded parents.
Parents often join nature playgroup for their children - but stay for themselves as they realise that being outdoors in nature with friends is just as good for them socially, emotionally and physically as it is for their children.
We are a tiny, local, family run business and playgroup is not a great return on investment for us in regards to effort versus profit (in fact we were losing money running it until this year when we finally put the price up to reflect what it costs us to actually run it). And that’s ok, that’s a choice we made because we believed (and still do) that Nature Playgroup is an essential service to the community and we will continue to provide it for as long as we can staff it, or until Councils begin to provide the service for free to the community as they are doing in some areas.
We want to caveat that if you run a playgroup and you run differently to how we run then we of course still 100% back you and what YOU do. We run the way we run because of what we have learnt in the years we’ve been running and it’s what works for us as a small business and mobile playgroup that employs SAHM and doesn’t have a site/storage. You will be doing what you do for your own very valid reasons.
Summary
So to summarise, our nature playgroups focus on building essential social, emotional and physical skills through free play in nature. We follow a loose rhythm because children learn best when they are able to follow their own interests. We provide very simple nature crafts because crafts need to be developmentally appropriate with minimal help from parents for them to achieve success. Children want to be able to do and make things independently. We focus on process over product and we aim to build a village of like-minded families in the hopes that we will encourage more families outdoors, more often.
👉 Wildlings Forest School Contact Details
👉 Freebie:
And if you’d like a little inspiration to get outside enjoying nature, click here to get our FREE Nature Scavenger Hunt printable.
👉 Did You Enjoy This Episode?
If you enjoyed this episode and the Raising Wildlings podcast generally, we have a favour. Please take two minutes to subscribe, and to write a rating and a review. You can do that on Apple Podcasts right now by clicking here. If you are an Android user, you can follow the podcast on Spotify here and Google Podcasts here. Those actions will help the podcast reach more people, and we would be truly grateful. Thank you so much.
