Visiting Canada

This week I have spent time with some fabulous children in Toronto, Canada, as part of the P.I.N.E Project, whose mantra is ‘be more, need less.’ I had two great days in glorious sunshine with their ‘Coyote Pups’ groups - children aged 4-6 - learning more about plant ID, including wild edible species. We also played lots of games, which I’ll be teaching you on my return and perhaps my favourite moment with one group was taking ten minutes during one of our afternoon sessions for a ‘sit spot.’ Children went off into their own spot, a place that they knew and where they could observe nature in some form, whether it was the river, plants, trees, or just sun, wind, and clouds. The children were encouraged to use their animal senses and let go of thinking, almost like a form of meditation. 

During the afternoon I spent with the older children, the ‘Fiery Foxes’ group, we used Dogbane to make cordage (natural string.) Circle games were also played at the beginning and end of the session, involving the whole group and often involving lots of reflective thinking - just like Wise Owl!

The highlight of the week was spending a day with the ‘Adventure Out’ program, which I shall write a separate blog post about soon... However, for now, I will end by saying that P.I.N.E sets out to promote resilience, independence and a respect for our natural world, values which are shared by our forest school approach.