As we head towards our annual Into the Wild Day camps for teens, we’re having a think about what Forest School and being outside in nature, can offer the older children in your life. Other than the obvious getting them out of your hair for four days(!) we’ve identified three reasons why getting them to join us in the woods this summer might be amazing for them!
Learn New Skills
When we were thinking about a provision for young people during the summer holidays, we knew that it needed to be different from our Holiday Clubs which encourage a whole heap of free play for younger children in our beautiful sites around Devon. That’s when our genius head of Forest Schools, Nick Murphy, came up with the idea of them building a Forest School site from scratch! Over four days, they will be equipped with all the skills they need to transform a bare woodland into a comfortable camp.
Day one sees them setting up the camp, learning how to make a fire pit, seating and shelter. Day two sees them practising their firelighting skills before getting stuck into some top class campfire cooking. On Day three they will get to grips with tool work skills and mindfulness as they practice some carving. Finally, the final day sees them engaging in some complex woodland crafts and playing some team games to round off the week.
During this time, they’ll learn new skills, develop existing ones and hopefully come away with some new interests that they can pursue over the coming years.
Meet Like Minded People
Does your teen feel like none of their friends enjoy being outside as much as they do? Perhaps they like to keep moving and use their hands but feel like most of their peers are more stationary? Or have you moved to the area recently and they’re still searching for their people?
Then this is a fantastic opportunity for them to meet some other teens in the woods with shared interests and passions. We keep these sessions small to ensure that there is the opportunity for the young people attending to really get to know each other, form connections and hopefully, make friendships.
Gives them a break from screens
According to research from 2023, the daily average screen time for teens globally is 6 hours and 58 minutes, which is a staggering large portion of their waking hours! Between using screens for educational purposes, social media to connect with their friends, and watching entertainment, there’s a lot to captivate our teens through the medium of phones, tablets, laptops and TVs.
Many parents report feeling worried about the amount of time their young person spends in front of a screen and our Into the Wild Day camps are the perfect antidote for this, even if just for a few days. By unplugging and disconnecting from the manic online world for a while, attendees will have the chance to slow down, connect with nature, themselves, and others and feel the positive mental health benefits of doing so.
We’re so excited about these sessions, running in the beautiful Larkbeare Woods on the Escot estate, for the next two weeks. We’re also delighted to be able to accept a range of childcare vouchers, including Tax-Free ChildCare, in the pursuit of being as accessible as possible. Head over to Into the Wild Day camps to find out more and hopefully we might see your teen in the woods soon!
Author: Hannah Durdin, Content Officer & Forest School Leader
Date: Wednesday 7th August 2024
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