The Sierra Club is launching a free summer camp program that involves total immersion in the outdoors, regardless of the weather. The P.E.I. Wild Child Forest School is building off a previous program that took children out of daycare to play outside for a few hours.
“The forest school, all of our programming is outdoors for the entire time, rain or shine. The main components of forest school are repeated access to nature over time, and it’s very child-led, child emergent, it has very low staff-to-child ratio so we can include lots of elements of some risky play and letting kids explore the woods and explore their curiosities about anything in nature,” program coordinator Hannah Gehrels told CBC.
The forest provides enough cover to protect the kids from the elements, and tarps are provided for exceptionally bad weather. We know that getting kids outside is beneficial for their health, helping to develop critical thinking and problem-solving skills. It’s also a great way for kids to get creative in their surroundings.
“There’s lots you can do when it’s raining, with mud kitchens, you have buckets to play with the water, and all sorts of things. Also, of course, building forts, so that would definitely be probably high on the kids’ interest list.”
So, where can we sign up?
