bush kinder

Bush kinder is an early education program which has gained strength in the last few years as a way of broadening the horizons of small children by immersing them in a natural environment and letting them make what they can of whatever they find of interest.  It may involve building a house of sticks, getting to know about an animal or insect that is wandering through, or just climbing a tree. It will certainly involve dealing with changing weather.

It is an Australian offshoot of the European Forest Kinder and has, in Australia, created an offshoot, beach kinder, for children who are closer to the beach than to the bush.  The inner-city children may find it difficult to trek out to the bush on a regular basis so they have to be satisfied with park kinder, but if the park is big enough, it can offer more challenges than they would have in their own childcare centre.

The biggest problem seems to be risk management.  Some bush kinder carers argue that if a child wants to climb a tree, then the sensible intervention would be to teach the child how to climb the tree safely.  Others are much more cautious, to the extent that the experience of bush kinder is not much different to the experience of ordinary childcare.