Sticks are such versatile playthings, and so readily available.  Using them for play can help strengthen a child’s fine and gross motor skills as well as their balance and coordination.  Their use can also help develop a child’s muscle tone, spatial awareness, body capabilities.  Fire up your imagination with these suggestions next time you have a stick handy. Make a…

Want to encourage your kids to spend more time outdoors and in nature? If you can’t get out to the park or bush, don’t worry!  Nature is all around us, whether we live in the city, suburbs or country.  You can experience all the great benefits of nature play in your own backyard.  Here are some nature play ideas and…

Do you remember playing in mud as a child?  How the mud felt squished in between your hands or feet and the sounds it made as you jumped in or patted it?  The different types of brown colour it could be?  The wonderful earthy smell of it?  How much fun you had immersing yourself in playing with and in it? …

Did you know that babies learn about their world through their senses? Nature can provide all the learning babies need. Incredibly, nature play is the ultimate sensory experience for your baby. As parents, we may often feel pressured to buy toys that will help enhance our child’s development. We don’t need them all. We can provide natural, low cost activities…

‘We’re going on a bug hunt, we’re going to find some small ones…’ Going on a bug hunt with children is one of the most enjoyable activities you can do outdoors and the best part is, is that it is free and a different experience every time. It also gives children, a deeper understanding of, and respect for, the mini-worlds…

‘There’s no such thing as bad weather, only inappropriate clothing’ Sir Ranulph Fiennes Do you let your child play outside in the rain or when it’s cold or even in the mud? Playing outdoors in the rain is a childhood experience that is like no other and one that children totally immerse themselves in. Rain droplets falling on your tongue,…

Nature can be daring and it can be silent. It can be wild or gentle, gloomy or glorious. There is no one way, to be in nature. Patterns come and go, just like ‘we’ change from one moment to another. Our children sense this intuitively and crave the freedom for total immersion in their play and learning, especially now in…

Motherhood has changed me in ways I could have never imagined. It has shaken and tested me like nothing else. Yet at the same time, I have also felt love in it’s purest form. The love for your child is like no other. This period in isolation has brought up some pretty big emotions for me. How do I continue…

Have you ever just stopped and watched your children play? And by watching, I mean really observing them at a whole new level. Their interactions, their movements, their wild spirit. It’s something that is so unique to childhood. It’s that natural instinct that animals have to move and play freely and which children also have if given the opportunity, time…

Every Easter long weekend, we pack up the car and our camping gear to head out on our annual family road trip to the Grampians! Like many of us, our plans for Easter have dramatically changed due to the Coronavirus restrictions and my kids are hanging out to do something fun and adventurous. The thought of not being able to…