Brakey Woods… We are Back!

Monday 29th March 2021 finally arrived, it feels like it has been a long wait to see our friends to meet and to have fun in the woods. Lockdown, feels like it has gone on forever and today Growing Together Developing Early Years, welcomed back our Brakey Wood: Parent and Nature Group. And if I may so say myself what a wonderful session the first one of 2021 was.

The sun was shining, the birds were singing, the ladybirds, worms and even a red velvet mite we found and out in force. Children were playing, parents were nattering, coffee was drunk and even hot chocolate (and no one seemed to mind Pauline forgot to pick up the cake – I promise to make it up to you next week!). To quote a dear friend Debbie Duck (my forest school inspiration – well one of them) ‘the wind was blowing and blew away the cobwebs of our souls’.

Just what we needed in these uncertain times, I chance to be social, to connect with each other, to connect with the wonders of the environment around us. To see the changes of the woodlands since we were last there in December, to smell the smells of spring, to see the budding trees. To see our children carefree, smiling and laughing, playing, learning, and having fun.

We did ketchup bottle painting, squeezing those bottles and exploring marks was a great opportunity to build on our gross motor skills and develop the muscles in our hands as we squeezed the bottles. We shared books, played with playdough, built relationships, explored natural objects, we explored our natural environment. It is fair to say that learning was in abundance.

I wanted to share with you, why did a launch our parent and child and nature group. It is not about the money, although obviously we are a business, but it is because I wanted to nurture the connection children and families have with nature. Richard Louv in his book ‘The Last Child in the Wood’, talks about how our children and society is suffering from a nature deficit disorder. This is because we have lost our connection with nature and it affects all three aspects of our well-being, physical, emotional, and social.

Our nature connection is something valuable, it is the relationship we have with the world around us with our natural environment. It is something that I believe really needs to be nurtured, watered, and supported to grow. It is vital to our health and well-being and now more then ever this is a priority. This is my priority with our group to help develop children and family’s connection with nature, which will help nurture resilience, critical thinking, autonomy over learning and relationships with others.

I cannot wait for our next session on Easter Monday, we will follow on the children’s interests in bugs. We will celebrate Easter and go on an Easter egg hunt. To book your space now please click here.