Nature play In My Backyard
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Climbing trees, exploring the bush, swinging on the clothesline or playing backyard cricket.
These experiences are recalled fondly by most adults, but playing outside—unaided by electronic entertainment—is something that’s becoming increasingly unrelatable for children as we spend more time indoors.
“I think what happens is that staying indoors becomes habitual,” explains Nicole Sadlier, Regional Coordinator – Early Years at the Bluearth Foundation.
Nicole is one of the driving forces behind In My Backyard, a pilot program designed to connect families with young children (from birth to five years) with nature play in their local area.
“When I started doing playgroups a couple of years ago, I found that most playgroups met indoors, but I really wanted to be outside, and so did my child.”
Drawing on her background in adventure tourism, Nicole started her own playgroup: Sticks and Stones Nature Playgroup.
“I found there were a lot of people out there who wanted to have their children playing in mud, getting messy and having that connection with outdoor play, no matter what the weather was.”
Nicole then began working with the Bluearth Foundation delivering a project that centred around young families getting active.
“What I’ve been finding is that a lot of people want to do this, but don’t always know what to do when they are outside. That’s why we’ve started our In My Backyard project, to help people make that connection.”
The pilot program will run for 10 weeks, and involves facilitated neighbourhood nature play sessions in suburbs across Tuggeranong and Belconnen.
Following some nature-inspired yoga, participants will venture out for some child-led exploration activities and enjoy nature crafting and outside story time.
“We’ll do things like going on gathering walks and looking for insects and animals,” explains Nicole. “Our first session will be Twigs and Twine which is all about spring.”
“There’s lots of birds building nests so we’ll go and collect lots of different nesting materials and then we’ll come back and build our own nest with clay and sticks to take home.”
Not only will the sessions teach families how to get active in nature, but they also encourage development in children.
“There’s so much sensory development when you’re outdoors—the texture of grasses, barks, and sticks. If they don’t get that exposure really early, then it feels unnatural to them later on, because they’re not used to that huge wide variety of different sensory feelings.”
“When our kids play outdoors, they climb up trees and rocks—it’s about trying new things. Falling over and getting back up builds resilience, and we know that’s really important for children in their early years and can affect how resilient they’ll be later on in life as teenagers and as adults.”
In addition to the facilitated sessions, parents will also be given challenges that they can complete at home.
“Part of the program is to really help people to create their own opportunities for nature play. Each week we’ll give them a little challenge, something short that you can do during the week. For example, going out and wandering around your street to see how many birds nests you can find in the trees. That way, you’re going for a walk, getting out of the house and finding out a bit more about what’s happening in your street.”
The challenges will hopefully work towards Nicole’s long-term vision for nature play to become part of people’s daily lives.
“Ideally, we become obsolete and the community has reconnected with nature play and children are given more independence, playing in the street and in the bush again, and everyone being ok with that.”
If you’re put off spending time outside by the cooler weather, Nicole says it’s all about changing your approach.
“We have this thing in Canberra where we think in summer it’s too hot, and in winter it’s too cold, so we tend to go indoors in what we think are extreme weather conditions. Really, in summer you just look for a nice shady, breezy spot, and in winter you find a sunny spot that’s protected from the wind.”
20 events are scheduled in local parks, playgrounds and nature reserves over the 10-week period from Wednesday 12 September to Thursday 15 November. Most sessions are aimed at children from 18 months to five years, with several special Baby Play sessions for children under one year. Register your interest and find out more on the In My Backyard Facebook page.
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