Bush childcare… so simple, so rich, yet so rare
Details:
11:00 – 11:50 am
6th of December
Room: 1S 210
Kate Walsh
From bush adventure therapy to motherhood, I thought I’d left behind my career and passion. When our community childcare nearly imploded, I found myself working there – and learning what early childhood education was.
The early years of a life provide a foundation of life; they are crucial and deeply influential, even if we don’t remember them once we’re big!
I realised that playing outdoors in the mud and rain, and changing many soggy sets of clothing, was important bush adventure therapy – even if it was as simple as jumping in puddles.
Last year we relocated to our local school and discovered that small children don’t need fences around them to provide a boundary. Together we roamed the school’s large outdoor spaces and children thrived, happy, calm, responsible. With a team who loved being outside, we realised that it was time to start a bush kinder and bush childcare.
Bush kinder is growing in popularity, and rightly so. Bush childcare seems unheard of! When researching how to do it, I couldn’t find anywhere to tell me how it’s done.
We looked into the basic responsibilities a childcare has, realised that these could easily be translated to natural spaces, and decided to have a go.
Using our local school as a base, we have discovered that bush childcare is special, accessible, and rich. It is also wonderfully simple. The children are their best selves. The learning is deep and flows naturally. We – the educators – are inspired.
About the Presenter
My life was all about intentional, quality time in the outdoors. Working at Mittagundi and Typo Station, the simple life and the opportunity to enhance therapeutic experiences though time in the bush made sense to me; I did it well.
Ten years ago I became a mother, and that identity was thrown away. I missed it. I also loved being a mother. When our local community childcare neared collapse, a couple of friends and I found ourselves running it – a steep learning curve, we had no experience or qualifications! From the start we had a dream of offering bush kinder.
This year we have started bush kinder and a bush childcare program. This is simple yet deeply rich. Bush childcare doesn’t seem to exist elsewhere? Yet it’s wonderful and inspiring
