06 Dec

5 Program Activities all Camp Managers Need to Know About for 2019

activities, activity leaders, bushcraft, children, wildcraft adventure activities, boy scouts, bushcraft, forest school, health, kids, mindfulness, minecraft, nature therapy, skills, summer camp, teenagers, video gamers, woodland

Planning your Summer Camp program for 2019? Struggling to come up with new and engaging ideas? Don’t worry, it can be a tricky process, especially when you want to incorporate original concepts to avoid doing the same old thing.

Between managing staff, organising logistics and marketing your camp, coming up with new program ideas can be challenging. We’re here to help, with our list of 5 activities to make summer camp memorable in 2019.

1. A Minecraft™ Inspired Outdoor Adventure

It’s the video game with over 91 million monthly players and a loyal cult following. Kids love it, so why not encourage them outdoors with a Minecraft™ themed adventure? Designed to get today’s digital generation off their screens and back outdoors, Wildcraft Adventure™ takes the best bits from the video game and transforms them into an outdoor experience they’ll never forget.

It’s a brand new way to engage the digital generation in the kind of outdoor adventures that us adults loved when we were kids. This game includes outdoor classics like den building, fire-lighting and scavenger hunts and combines them with video game elements like scoring points, beating monsters and gathering magical items – it’s like living in a real video game. Plus, players will have to use bushcraft, survival skills, teamwork and problem solving throughout.

“Wildcraft is the best activity we have ever found!”
Brenda Sutter, Laurel Tree Charter School, California

It’s designed to be as simple as possible for activity leaders to run with all the tools, resources and guides you need. Find all the details here or watch the video…

DISCOVER WILDCRAFT ADVENTURE PACKS HERE

2. Grab Your Lab Coat & Get Scientific

Kids love mystery and surprise so, creating original and interesting scientific experiments can be a real winner. You don’t need a physics degree make this happen either, just some common ingredients, clear instructions and the necessary safety precautions. Here’s a few cool ideas to get you started:

An erupting volcano Designed to be crafted outdoors for minimal clean up 🙂
Launch an Alka Seltzer Rocket Lift-off with a well loved classic.
Create a Tornado in a Jar Not quite as dangerous as it sounds.
Make a Solar Oven Believe it or not, it all starts with a pizza box. Kids will love it!

3. If You Can’t Beat ‘Em, Join ‘Em: Host Themed Days

Yes, you may have done this a hundred times over – but, add a twist and the kids will love it. Get together with your camp counselors and have a think about recent kids movies and trends. From Deadpool and Marvel to Disney and Lego – there’s always a new craze you can get on board with.

Whether you decide to hold a fancy dress day or create activities based on a theme – the options are endless. You can also easily add educational elements in like languages, geography and performing arts.

4. Incorporate Mindfulness

Mindfulness and wellbeing are hot topics for adults at the moment, so why shouldn’t it be for kids too? With the modern pressures of social media and the internet, children need to learn the power of mindfulness just as much as adults. Schools across the US are increasingly incorporating it into the curriculum through a range of activities, so here’s how you can do it at summer camp too:

Combine Mindfulness with Bushcraft

This practice combines nature and ‘rewilding’ to help kids reconnect with the outdoors. By assisting with nature conservation and learning bushcraft survival skills, there are proven benefits that kids’ mental health can improve from the experience.

Practising bushcraft requires children to adopt a mindful approach to their actions as patience, awareness and concentration are all key to mastering activities like knife craft and ancient fire-lighting.

Pair Up Mindfulness and Yoga

Not only does yoga enhance stability and focus, it also aids relaxation and mental wellbeing. Plus, it’s a great way to take a break between daily activities and inject some calm into your program.

Mindfulness and Meditation

Whether you decide to do a seated, walking or guided meditation, it can have a surprising impact on behaviour and mental wellbeing for kids. Here’s a handy article from the ACA (American Camp Association) on how to get started.

“Kids are accustomed to using their senses to experience life. They look, touch, smell, and even taste their way through the world. This natural inclination toward mindfulness makes teaching kids to meditate easier than we thought. In fact, it’s a no-brainer.” Laurie Palagyi

Mindfulness and Roleplay

Get the kids to become the animals that live in the woods! Why not use roleplay to introduce kids to mindfulness through engaging them with nature? Check out our handy video on how to use animals as a starting point for practising mindfulness in nature. It’s proven to work with kids and adults.

“Animal Form Games invite participants to empathize with animals, to imitate their attitudes, and, to the best of their human-bodied ability in the throes of a game, practice animals ways of moving.” Coyote’s Guide to Connecting with Nature

5. Get Creative with Campfire Cooking

New flavours and foods can be a real treat for kids. Explore world foods, host a mini street food festival and at the same time enhance outdoor cooking skills with new and original recipes. No need to go gourmet with this one, simple yet tasty will be a winner every time.

Here’s a few delicious ideas to add you to your Summer Camp program for 2019:

Mexican Street Corn – a street food classic!
Toffee Apple Slices – a vegan friendly alternative to marshmallows, quick, easy and sweet!
Banana Boats – kids will love packing banans with their favorite filling.
Campfire Potatoes & Chorizo – makes a whole campfire meal.

Sourced from: https://i.pinimg.com

To Sum Up…

Hopefully, these activities will give you food for thought when putting that all-important program together. If you’re still stuck for ideas though, head to Pinterest which offers a goldmine of tips, tricks and activities, perfect for camp.

If you’re interested in the Wildcraft Adventure™ but aren’t 100% sure about how to implement it, contact us here and we’ll be more than happy to give you all the details you need.

DISCOVER WILDCRAFT ADVENTURE PACKS HERE

In the meantime, happy planning!

James & Lea Kendall are the creators of Woodland Classroom. “Through our passion, enthusiasm and experience we help people connect with nature, feel healthier and have meaningful experiences through positive activity and creative play.”

“We are experienced outdoor educators with a background in bushcraft, forest school and nature therapy, who love what we do.”

forest school and outdoor education in wrexham, north wales

24 Jul

WOODLAND CLASSROOM LANDS IN WREXHAM!

We have some VERY exciting news! We are finally able to announce that we’ve gone into partnership with the National Trust at Erddig Hall & Gardens and Chirk Castle, both in the county of Wrexham. What this means is that James and Lea are moving Woodland Classroom up to Wrexham and from September we will be able to bring all our existing popular outdoor clubs, as well as some new ones, to children in the area and offer our outdoor education services to audiences in North Wales, Cheshire, Shropshire, Merseyside and beyond.

James explained his connection with the area; “I’m originally from this neck of the woods where I worked a lot with environmental organisations in Cheshire and North East Wales, so this feels like coming home and I’m really excited about this opportunity we have with the National Trust who have made us very welcome and have been totally onboard with all the ideas we have to offer our activities in the area.”

Our new base of operations will be Felin Puleston Outdoor Centre, which lies on the edge of the Erddig estate on the doorstep of Wrexham town. It’s a great location for locals to be able to access it easily and is currently also the home of the National Trust’s GAP (Green Academies Project) funded by the Lottery which has seen lots of new energy and restoration work go into Felin Puleston with a host of improvements to the venue which makes it perfect for visiting groups who want to learn more about nature.

Our new home at Felin Puleston, Wrexham. Kids building dens with us. The vegetable garden where kids can learn how to grow their own.

We feel incredibly lucky to have full access to this tailor-made venue. The Outdoor Centre includes an allotment for growing vegetables, a wildlife garden, orchard, den building area, indoor function room and kitchen for craft workshops and classroom sessions, and of course the beautiful 1,200 acre Erddig estate which lies on the other side of the gate for the children and groups to explore.

Our Little rangers parent & toddler group. The entrance to Forest Wood at Erddig. Boys learning fire-lighting skills at our sessions.

We also have the River Clywedog on our doorstep along with a wildlife pond both home to a wealth of water life which means that activities like pond and river dipping are going to be very much on the menu.

Susan Jones is the Volunteer & Community Involvement Manager at Erddig;

“We are delighted to be working in partnership with Woodland Classroom. Providing enjoyable and meaningful experiences in the outdoors helps us to connect with nature, improve our mental and physical wellbeing and value the world around us so we can continue to care for special places like Chirk Castle and Erddig, forever for everyone.”

Erddig Hall & Gardens. This stunning National Trust property sits at the doorstep of Wrexham town.

In addition to making the most of the Outdoor Centre, we’re going to be able to welcome groups of all ages to Forest Wood, a beautiful forest school site based in the heart of Erddig’s ancient woodland. Think tall trees, wild garlic and woodland wildflowers. It’s a fantastic spot for woodland learning.

About Woodland Classroom

So, who are we? Well… James and Lea have been running Woodland Classroom in Lampeter, Ceredigion since 2014 where they have hosted schools, organisations, adult learners, after-school clubs and kids birthday parties with a range of outdoor activities including; bushcraft, forest school, traditional woodland crafts, mindfulness and CPD training. All of this and more will now be offered at our new home.

They are also the creative minds behind the hugely popular Wildcraft Adventure™ which takes kids’ favourite video games like Minecraft and transforms them into outdoor adventures that engage children in a host of physical challenges and bushcraft skills which score them point along the way, just like a real video game. There’s even a monster to run away from! It’s been so popular that outdoor activity leaders across the world are nor running the game; from California to Scotland, from New Zealand to Canada. James and lea are planning many more Wildcraft Adventures at their new Wrexham home for the near future.

Woodland Classroom are members of the Institute for Outdoor Learning and Forest School Wales.

James Kendall

James is a qualified Forest School Leader, Social Forester and experienced Woodland Skills Tutor. He has worked widely with children, young people and adults, leading on a variety of outdoor education and environmental projects. He has worked for several well-known environmental organisations and was also Project Manager for Long Wood Community Woodland, the largest community owned woodland in Wales, overseeing management of 300 acres of forest. He enjoys working with schools and communities to raise awareness of the environment, where his enthusiasm for spreading the message of learning through nature comes through. Lastly, but not least, he is currently undertaking a 2 year long course to become a bushcraft skills activity leader with the Bushcraft Competency Certificate scheme run through the Institute for Outdoor Learning.

“As a child, my Mum would bring me and my sister to Erddig and Chirk Castle where our imaginations could run wild with all sorts of play. I never thought I’d get the opportunity to actually work here and it seems fitting that I’ll now be able to offer outdoor adventures and learning for kids coming to these National Trust properties.”

Lea Kendall

Lea has years of experience working with children and young people, including 4 years working in a primary school as a Learning Mentor focusing on the social and emotional aspects of learning and working one to one with vulnerable children and challenging behaviour. She shares her time leading activities for Woodland Classroom with my work as a qualified integrative Counsellor. Lea is also a qualified practitioner of Mindfulness in woodland settings.

“I am a firm believer in the power of nature to be therapeutic for everyone. I believe that play for all ages should be a large part of our lives. My training as a Counsellor worked toward my long-term goal to incorporate nature and play therapy into our future services. I am passionate about finding ways to increase the self-esteem of people and encouraging motivation through positive experience, shared enthusiasm and a nurturing environment.”

Lea is now offering the first of her planned nature therapy courses with two Mindfulness events for adult learners scheduled for this autumn. See our events page to find out more.

We Can Also Travel To You

Not every group who wants our services has been able to travel to us though, and for some schools such travel can be a costly or complicated business, so we’ve always offered the option for us to come to your school or venue and we have hosted many Forest School and bushcraft sessiosn on school grounds, at events, or anywhere that wants us really. Want to know more? Just get in touch.

About our Outdoor Kids Clubs

Little Rangers is a weekly woodland parent and toddler group for children aged up to 5 years which follows the Forest School approach of child-led play and outdoor activities in a welcoming natural space. Activities are based around our central campfire and tots can get stuck into the mud kitchen, build a den, explore the wood or do some campfire cooking. Sessions are also a chance for like-minded parents to meet and share time together whilst their children are at play.

Young Rangers is our weekly after-school club for primary school aged children from 6 – 11 years. Parents drop their kids off with James and Lea where children will get the chance to play off steam after a day in school and take part in guided activities including bushcraft, outdoor games, crafts and campfire cooking.

Pathfinders is brand new to Woodland Classroom, a regular group for Home Educated children and their families. It’s something we’ve been wanting to offer for a long time, and we’ve been asked my Home Ed parents time and again if we could do this. Our move to Wrexham has offered the perfect opportunity for it to start. Sessions will be fortnightly and children from 0-16 will be able to join either our Forest School group where they can engage in child-led play and outdoor activities, or they can join our structured learning sessions where they will get quality tuition from James or Lea in environmental education, bushcraft and traditional woodland craft skills.

We’re hosting a taster session for Pathfinders on Tuesday 22^nd August which is half-price for children and adults to come and see for themselves how this new club will work. If you’d like to find out more about the taster session, just CLICK HERE.

To find out more about our new kids clubs based at Erddig, and to take advantage of ‘early bird’ booking discounts just follow THIS LINK.

Even More Opportunities at Chirk Castle

The ‘woodland classroom’ amongst the ancient trees of the Chirk Castle estate.

Wrexham county is quite unique in that it hosts two major National Trust venues just within 15 minutes drive of each other. Not only will be offering our services to groups at Erddig but just down the road is the equally amazing Chirk Castle with it’s 480 acres of gardens and estate including deer parkland and ancient woodland. It’s a perfect venue for outdoor learning and we’re looking forward to getting stuck in and welcoming groups to our sessions.

Jon Hignett is the Visitor Experience Manager at Chirk Castle for the National Trust;

“We first started working with Woodland Classroom in April 2015 when our estate was used as the venue for their very popular Wildcraft Adventure sessions, using the clever template of explorer/builder type video games to engage with children in the outdoors. We could see from the first meeting that it would be a popular activity, and it has been a very effective partnership allowing experienced professionals to use Chirk Castle’s estate to help to move, teach and inspire young visitors and connect them with the outdoors at a young age. We’ve collaborated on a few projects since then, and throughout James and Lea have been wonderful to work with, positive, engaging, and committed. We’re eagerly looking forward to what future collaborations might bring!”

Chirk Castle & Gardens, hosts over 480 acres of parkland estate within which we will be running our outdoor events.

What the Future Holds

Not only will we be offering our tried and tested activities for children, our the plan is to expand our work with adult learners also, making Felin Puleston Outdoor Centre a real hub for environmental education for all ages. We plan to offer training to adult learners in the following subjects:

Bushcraft, Tree Identification, Greenwood Crafts, Woodland Management, Mindfulness, Eco Therapy, Nature Awareness, Foraging and Leathercraft.

So, it’s exciting times for Woodland Classroom and we can’t wait to meet all the new people we will be working with.

Right, that’s enough typing for now… we’ve got a whole house full of stuff to move.

If you’d like to find out what we could offer you or your group at Woodland Classroom, then please get in touch. You can email us at hey@woodlandclassroom.com or phone James and Lea on 07876 794098.

10 Apr

How We Trebled Our Outdoor Education Business With Just One Lesson Plan

activity leaders, wildcraft adventure health, kids, minecraft, video gamers, wildcraft

We went from struggling to fill our events to selling out within 24 hours, all due to this one kick-ass lesson plan that left kids desperate for more! This lesson plan allowed us to grow our business, reach new audiences and increase our income. In this short case study we’re going to show you exactly what we did and why kids addicted to video games were choosing instead to unplug and come on our outdoor activity days.

The lesson plan is called Wildcraft Adventure™ and we’ll explain exactly what that is later, but first let’s take a look at the amazing response that it got from parents.

When we first posted our Wildcraft Adventure™ event on facebook we reached 46,957 people, without spending a penny on advertising. Using this lesson plan, just one event got us 2,446 responses and 578 total ticket clicks on the event page!

Over the next few events running this lesson plan we continued to get impressive figures for audience engagement. Combining these with our first event we’d generated over 4,000 new leads on facebook, again without spending a single penny.

In fact, we did even better than this a few weeks later, the same event, using this lesson plan, at a different venue reached over 200,000 people organically on facebook! Again, no money was spent on advertising. Parents were advertising our events for us through word of mouth.

We also got free coverage in the national press from The Week magazine and Wales Online and the best thing is, their journalists contacted us!

With all the interest that this lesson plan generated we grew our mailing list by over 40% in just a few days! Parents didn’t want to miss out on future announcements for Wildcraft Adventures™.

Also, not only were more people subscribing to our newsletter to hear about future events but we were also smashing the industry average ‘open rate’ for newsletters. In the education industry, the average percentage for subscribers opening an email from a service provider is 17.34%. With the success of Wildcraft we were getting a massive 68.18% open rate! That’s impressive by any standard.

On top of all that we increased ‘likes’ on our facebook page by more than 34% over the period we announced Wildcraft.

Source: facebook insights, 1^st Dec 15 – 1^st Feb 16

As a business, positive word of mouth is the most powerful advertising you’ll ever have. Hundreds of parents shared our events, invited their friends and spread the word for us. This of course, hugely increased the reach of our business and raised awareness for Woodland Classroom and all the other services we offer.

THE LESSON PLAN THAT MADE THIS POSSIBLE

Hopefully by now we have your attention so we’d like to take this chance to introduce ourselves and give you a bit of background as we’re sure you’re wondering how we got to this point.

We’re James & Lea and between us we run our own outdoor education business in Wales, UK called Woodland Classroom. We work with parents, schools and organisations to engage children in the outdoors. We’re passionate about getting kids connecting with nature and having positive experiences through creative play.

It was spring 2015 and we were sat planning our summer programme of events, struggling for new ideas and wondering how many activity days we could realistically fill.

We already had a core audience of parents and kids who were on board for the types of regular activities we provided; bushcraft clubs, forest school sessions, wild play and outdoor pursuits. But we knew that there were so many more families who were not engaging with our business, in short we wanted our business to grow. To do that we needed a way to reach all those parents who were struggling to get their kids interested in what we had to offer. These are the kids who would rather be on their consoles than playing in the woods. That’s where this lesson plan came in, but we couldn’t predict the huge response that it would receive.

“Today’s children are spending an average of seven hours a day on entertainment media, including televisions, computers, phones and other electronic devices.” American Academy of Pediatrics

Like so many teachers and activity leaders in the outdoor education industry we’d read Richard Louv’s eye-opening book Last Child in the Woods which warns of the rise of ‘nature deficit disorder’ in today’s children. Parents were telling us that they faced an uphill struggle, as there’s such an addictive quality to video games that restricting screen time can cause big arguments in the family home. The more parents we spoke with, the more we heard about this recurring problem.

All this lead to one question; “For those kids who are spending too much time glued to their screens and have little interest in getting out into nature, how do we engage them in a way so that they choose to go outside?” the answer suddenly hit us… “Simple, we take their video games outdoors!”

Let’s be clear, this didn’t mean that kids would be sat on their tablets, playing on-screen games in the woods with us. Our idea was to take their favourite video games and transform them into outdoor adventures that would also have them learning about the natural world without even realizing it.

So, we did A LOT of research. We watched and spoke with children playing video games, identified the most popular titles, then picked out the common themes and features in those games. One game that stood out particularly was Minecraft, which we’re sure needs no introduction. Since being launched it’s sold over 100 million copies. Having ranked it the 6^th best video game of all time, Time magazine said of Minecraft; “Has there ever been a game as impactful as this one?” Not only is it hugely popular with children but it was also perfect as a basis for creating outdoor adventures. Rather than try and compete against the video games, we decided we needed to harness their popularity.

It was Autumn 2015 we unveiled Wildcraft Adventure™ to the world and the response was incredible! At time of writing, we have sold out EVERY Wildcraft event we have run.

The tickets for our first events sold out in less than 24 hours and we then spent 3 days answering the phone every 5 minutes to tell potential customers that we were sorry but tickets had all gone. Talk about demand outstripping supply. We didn’t waste these new leads though. Because of all the interest in Wildcraft Adventure™ we were able to rapidly grow our email list almost overnight. We knew we had definitely hit on something.

Throughout 2016 we ran as many Wildcraft Adventures™ as we could fit in, around our outdoor after-school clubs and other Forest School events. At the time of writing we’ve hosted 46 of these events across Wales, reaching 860 children. That’s a massive 5,160 hours of outdoor playtime for kids, when they might otherwise have been indoors playing video games. We’ve got many more planned for the future too.

WHY IT WORKS!

Our Wildcraft lesson plans have been such a huge success because they provide a solution to the problem that many parents are having, the daily struggle to get their kids away from their tablets, iPads and consoles to spend more time outdoors.

“What an amazing experience for my son. Like many parents I worry about the time he spends on electronic games and the fact that I have to beg and bribe to get him outdoors. Not so with this genius idea to use popular computer games to tempt him into activities that I knew he would love if he would only give them a chance. When asked if he wanted to go again, my son’s reply was “no, Mum. I HAVE to go again.” Emily Carne (parent)

“I haven’t seen my son (10 yrs old) so animated in a long time. He talked about his experience for two hours solid and now is designing his own ‘real minecraft’ in a book ready to go out in the woods to do it with his friends. I cannot recommend it enough, it’s back to when I was young and no computer games existed, but it’s pure genius to use video games as a basis to start from, the children are already hooked before they even start! Brilliant!” Suki Morys (parent)

“Such a fantastic antidote to the ever increasing creep of the screen.” Hannah Cutler (parent)

AN ON-GOING SUCCESS

We’ve had 100% positive feedback from kids and parents and it’s really put our business on the map. We also found that kids who had been on our Wildcraft Adventure™ were then booking onto our other events. Going forward, we have a larger pool of returning kids and we’re building great long-term relationships with parents who trust our brand.

“Ryan had a fabulous day. He got home and immediately wanted to build a den and a fire. Before coming I had tried to get him to join in a forest school day but he said ‘it wasn’t his thing’. However ‘would you like to go on a Minecraft style bushcraft day?’ And he couldn’t sign up fast enough, he was so excited he couldn’t sleep the night before and you certainly didn’t disappoint on the day.” Jacky John (parent)

“My two had a great time at the Minecraft Bushcraft day, so nice to see them turning off the video game and getting some fresh air and fun! Great, great day, they would go again in a heartbeat!” Laura Murphy (parent)

We have had children returning 4, even 5 times to the same event and Wildcraft is also proving to be a great gateway activity for kids who are new to the world of outdoor pursuits.

“They haven’t stopped asking can they come again. They were so inspired that they will be joining a local bushcraft group.” Lisa-Mare Hayes (parent)

The success of Wildcraft enabled us to both quit our part-time jobs to realize our dream of running Woodland Classroom full-time. We have been able to follow our passions, make a living from them and have now booked a month-long honeymoon in beautiful Thailand.

The next step in our story was creating Wildcraft Adventure™ as a digital lesson plan that we could make available to other activity leader and teachers to run at their own venues. It’s a growing community of outdoor education centres, summer camps, schools, holiday clubs and freelancers who have been sharing in the success of the game. Let’s hear from some of them…

“We’re really excited about the Wildcraft Adventure… I was really inspired by what you guys are doing. We’re looking for ways to get our kids out of the classroom, playing together. Your game gives us the perfect vehicle for mixed-age, cooperative, outdoor fun.” Brenda Sutter, Laurel Tree Charter School, California U.S.

“We are FULLY BOOKED for both our Wildcraft events and are very much looking forward to it!” Helena Louise Broadbent, Forest Explorers, England

“Wow! What a full on, wild and adventurous day for our kids AND leaders in the woods. Learning new skills, making friends, exploring, building, crafting, cooking and getting muddy… THIS is what real gaming is all about! Really glad we used the pack as it has saved us so much lesson planning and resource time and it is something we will go back to using all year. Good value for money.” Holly James, KidsGroWild, Scotland

“Wildcraft Adventure is a great way to get children away from the screen and in to the natural environment. The children were fully immersed in the game… They loved every minute of it!” Jackie Meager, OutLET Play Resource, Scotland

As a gateway to the world of Wildcraft Adventure™ we have created a special, simplified and fast-paced version of the full game called Wildcraft: Mini Game, which can be played over just a couple of hours. Anyone can run the game, no special training is required and everything you need to know to run this lesson plan is included in the package.

“I have been endeavouring to incorporate more outdoor education activities into my classroom in the last few years. I just purchased your Wildcraft game…what a great idea. I am going to save it for an end of the year celebration activity so that the kids can use all of their newly acquired bushcraft skills. Thank-you for sharing your expertise and passions with the outside world…this teacher across the pond certainly appreciates it.” Susan Brown, Teacher (Grade 3), Canada.

If you want to try Wildcraft Adventure™ for yourself then click the link below to check out our Wildcraft: Mini Game. We think you’ll love it.

YES, I WANT THIS WILDCRAFT LESSON PLAN

If you want to find out more about Wildcraft Adventure™ you can check out the video below.

YES, I WANT TO FIND OUT MORE ABOUT WILDCRAFT ADVENTURE PACKS

05 Apr

We’re in JUNO Magazine!

activity leaders, children, forest school, Little Rangers, wildcraft adventure forest kindergarten, forest school, health, kids, parent & toddler, parents, toddlers, video gamers, wildcraft

We’re thrilled to have been featured in the latest issue of JUNO magazine, talking about the success of our Wildcraft Adventures and the benefits of outdoor learning for children. JUNO aims to promote a natural approach to family life. Our article “Into The Woods” explains how we persuaded children to turn off their screen and come outdoors.

You can also read about us elsewhere in the magazine as we tell our story of hosting Woodland Walks at Underneath the Stars Festival in Yorkshire. The magazine has a whole feature on upcoming festivals in the UK which are family friendly and eco-minded.

There’s also a great piece by Danny English from Communitree where he explains how a connection to nature is key to the health and wellbeing of children. In fact, the magazine if full of good stuff to be honest.

JUNO is a natural parenting magazine that inspires and supports families through its range of features, columns and artwork. Established in 2003, it is published six times a year, in February, April, June, August, October and December. The editorial is broad, covering all aspects of family life for all ages. JUNO is loved by many readers for its articles that share personal experiences and reflections, and for the beautiful and striking images and illustrations from a range of artists.

JUNO offers fresh perspectives in this fast-paced technological world, creating a non-judgemental community for those who are keen to follow “a natural approach to family life”. There are columns on home-education, empowered birth, teens and nutrition; interviews, craft and recipe ideas and a mix of features that can help readers make informed choices as they journey through the challenges of parenting.

JUNO is available through WH Smiths, independent retailers, online at www.junomagazine.com and as a digital edition.

You can read the issue on iTunes too, right HERE

You can also grab this issue of JUNO at Exact Editions HERE

All subscribers receive free access to the full back catalogue of issues in digital format.

Thanks to Saffia and the team at JUNO for working with us and for making us look good 🙂

If you want to find out more about our Wildcraft Adventures as seen in the article, then just follow THIS LINK

Lea

12 Feb

Autism & Wildcraft Adventure – How Gamer Kids Chose to Unplug & Play Outdoors Without Argument

activity leaders, health, Uncategorized, wildcraft, wildcraft adventure autism, forest school, health, kids, minecraft, parents, teenagers, video gamers, wildcraft

Something quite unexpected happened when I started hosting our outdoor activity events for kids. We started getting an increasing number of enquiries and bookings by parents whose children were on the autistic spectrum. The event that caused this unexpected but welcome interest was our Wildcraft Adventures. I wanted to find out why this was happening.

Children today live in a world where screen based technology and instant information is everywhere, it makes me feel quite old sometimes. The lure of video games is getting so strong with young people today that some writers are referring to this as the new drug of the 21^st Century. Listening to parents talk about the battles they have with their children when trying to reduce their screen time it reminds me more of a heroin addiction rather than a popular game enjoyed by young people.

“Kids love the shiny tech as much as the rest of us. The ubiquity and pervasiveness of screens across every aspect of our lives has happened with astonishing speed with limited disconnect anymore between on and offline. This is voted as the number one barrier to kids playing out across the whole network from parents to organisations. How can we make sure we’re aware of our screen time and we find balance by making time for WildTime, offline, outside, liking other stuff like plants, trees, the sun, the rain and all the cool creatures? How do we help them navigate all this technology?” Project Wild Thing

No wonder children love video games so much, they can transport you to another world and you are constantly rewarded for your efforts. As adults and parents it’s our responsibility to help our children strike a balance between technology which is (quite understandably) attractive and the real world of social interactions and nature. I think one way we can do this is through inspiration. Igniting the natural urge to play in every child’s mind. That is how Wildcraft Adventure™ came about, but more on that later.

I’ve spoken with a few parents about their experiences managing their children’s screen time. I was shocked to learn of one parent who threatened to turn off the WI-FI as a consequence of some behaviour only to become frightened that her 15-year-old son would physically attack her. I was also surprised by one mother who was shocked to see her 10 year old son had wet himself while playing Minecraft on his iPad for the first time.

The first child mentioned above is dyspraxic and the second child (it is thought) has autistic spectrum disorder. These two children have learning differences and I believe that they are prone to get ‘hooked’ on popular computer games like Minecraft and Terraria, but so do many other children without learning differences. I really wanted to explore why.

Minecraft is a worldwide phenomenon. Having sold countless copies. It’s a game that children with ASD seem particularly attracted to.

Something about the format of video games really engages kids in the make believe world of computer games. Children rarely take complete responsibility for their actions and there’s usually an adult keeping their little worlds moving along. Kids have so little control in their real lives and decisions get made for them all the time. So, to be given the power to build a world that is totally of your own design, where all decisions are made by the child, their own preferences and choices, must be such a refreshing change and escape for them, no wonder they find it hard to come back to reality. Is this the big attraction of non-competitive, world building video games like Minecraft?

In our outdoor education business, my partner and I created an outdoor adventure game called Wildcraft Adventure™, which is based on popular video games, using lots of common themes that feature in kids favourite games. It has been a huge success with almost 100% positive feedback from kids and parents. We have also had some amazing feedback from children on the spectrum and their parents. These particular children normally find interacting in teams really difficult.

In our Wildcraft Adventure™ game the children get split into teams (known as ‘clans’) and they compete for points in a variety of outdoor challenges. The clan with the most XP (a common gaming term referring to experience points) wins the game. Thought the emphasis is definitely not on this competitive element, but more on teamwork and shared play.

We have been told by many parents that anything competitive can be a challenge for their child who has ASD but this has rarely been a problem in the Wildcraft Adventure game. There is not a prize for winning and the game is about collecting resources and completing challenges which earn you XP. The emphasis is on earning XP rather than winning the game, the gaining of experience and new skills. The game suits children who are competitive and non-competitive. While some children will focus on finding the most precious and well-hidden resource to earn them the maximum amount of XP, the other children will focus on creating a space that uses the imagination, like building a vegetable garden, which will also earn them XP but is less about competition and more about creativity. Each style of play is rewarded and rewarding in itself. If there are two different types of children in the same clan then they can go their separate ways without getting into conflict with one another. Each team member can pick and choose their own preference of play within the game, this helps group cohesion.

One session that we ran was for a Home Education group of 20 children with 6 parents attending also. There were both high and low functioning children with ASD. Within the group one child had been taken out of school because of anxiety, another child with cancer, another child who didn’t speak any English and also a child who had just moved to Britain from the USA and didn’t know anyone in this country.

The day went extremely well and we had some great feedback off the parents. One of the children with ASD managed to stay for the whole day when normally he goes home after just half a day, his Mum was so pleased. At the point he did get upset, he was given an iPad to calm him down in which he played Minecraft but every so often he would engage again with the game and was mostly settled in the woods for the whole day.

All the children had fun and engaged with the game. There were a couple of melt downs but parents were there to help calm the child and they resumed play quickly and without incident.

What struck me was that the children all spoke a common language, the video game language, so there was common ground for everyone to understand, which even crossed real-life language barriers. Whatever the need of the child, there was an understanding of the concept of the game, but instead of sat indoors stuck to a computer screen they were outside getting fresh air, exercise, socialising and learning new skills.

UPDATE (Jan 2018): Having had such a hugely positive response from parents of children with ASD to Wildcraft we have since developed the ASD Friendly version of the game which uses specially created game componenets presented as a social-story rather than reams of text. The children love it and this has also proved to work well for children with other learning diffrences including dyslexia.

Our Wildcraft Adventure days (which have been such a hit with video gaming kids) have now been transformed into a shorter, simpler, fast-paced outdoor game that anyone can run with a group of kids. It’s called the Wildcraft: Mini Game and it’s available from our website.

You can find out more by following the link below.

Thanks for reading,

Lea

Lea Wakeman is an outdoor activity leader and founder of Woodland Classroom, based in the UK. She is also a qualified Counsellor and has worked as a Mental Health Mentor.

CHECK OUT THE WILDCRAFT MINI GAME

22 Jan

WILDCRAFT – MAKES THE HEADLINES

activity leaders, children, wildcraft, wildcraft adventure bridgend, bushcraft, forest school, kids, minecraft, south wales, video gamers, wildcraft

Our Wildcraft Adventure has caught the attention of the biggest national news website in Wales. We’d been looking for a way to engage young people in activities in nature, particularly those kids that might not be attracted to a traditional Forest School activity day. Computer games are, of course, hugely popular with so many children and our Wildcraft Adventure uses this popularity to get these kids interested in a day in the woods. Parents understand the benefits of outdoor play and know that being out in nature is good for the body and soul. Ultimately, we’ve been able to reach more people with this important message and we hope that the kids who attend our events are inspired to keep playing outdoors by continuing their adventures in their own backwoods.

It was great to get the call from a journalist at Wales Online wanting to hear all about our adventure days. She reckoned it was, “quite possibly the most fun you could ever have in a forest.” Lets face it, once the kids are outside their own creative minds takes hold and they’re off, in a world of imagination and natural play, taking in fresh air and getting exercise, whilst Mum and Dad get the satisfaction that their kids are getting some of that quality outdoor time they enjoyed back when they were children themselves.

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