The Benefits
of the contacts with Nature
“There is a garden in every childhood, an enchanted place where colours
are brighter, the air softer, and the morning more fragrant than ever again.” —
E. Lawrence
At Kiddywiks we are well aware that the
benefits of nature for child's development are endless. Because nature is ever
changing, it provides countless opportunities for discovery, creativity, and
problem solving. The natural world inspires children to think, question, make
suppositions, and develop creative minds. At Kiddywinks we have big wonderful
outdoor spaces including a terraced vegetable garden, big gardens with olive
trees and a forest.
Forest School Sessions
Kiddywinks Forest School sessions
take place in our woodland setting. This experience is safe, regular and
repeated.Trust is central and the focus is on the holistic development of the
child. During our sessions learning is facilitated through play based and as
far as possible child-initiated and child-led experiences.
“All the world is my school and all humanity is my teacher.” G. Whitman
Kiddywinks Vegetable Garden
“Gardening is the art that uses flowers and plants as
paint, and the soil and sky as canvas” — E. Murray
In growing our garden we are supported by an agronomist who works
regularly with our children and teachers. Children experience at first hand
everything is happening around them. They enjoy totally and deeply only what
they know and understands. They respect, protect and defend anything they
loves. In the Forest School pedagogy the seasonal rhythm and the natural
phenomena are very important to develop an understanding about how the world
works and our vegetable garden plays an important role in developing this
awareness in our children. They have fun, play and develop self-confidence by
spending time in the garden planting and growing, preparing and using their own
food. Most children love digging in the soil, getting dirty, creating things
and watching plants grow. Planting and growing gardens is like digging and
finding treasures. Our students can watch things grow, smell the different
aromas, plant, take care of seeds, water plants and participate in cooking
activities.
The tecnique we have chosen to adopt is synergetic gardening which is a
consolidated nature-centred practice
through which soil is fertile and the crops are good without the use of
fertilisers or pesticides.
Synergetic gardening is based on the attempt to facilitate the
biological processes of nature where the soil is the life-giving substance for
the plants. A healthy and protected soil is attractive for micro-organisms,
useful insects, enzymes and bacterias which contribute to healthy crops and
help in creating an harmonious and fertile environment.
The cultivation on pallets helps to realize above-ground flower beds
which are more functional for younger children. At the same time the
possibility to create sinuous shaped pallets rich in different flowers and
aromatic plants contributes to create a space where aesthetics play an
important role in discovering the wonders of nature.
Another aspect originated by the observation of nature is actually based
on the combination of different vegetables, fruit, aromatic plants and flowers.
Plants have synergetic or opponent relationships . This means that some
of them cooperate and some hinder each other. This is due to some
characteristics of plants which can attract useful insects and alienate
dangerous ones.
The combination of different species is
very useful to have a biodiverse garden able to protect and heal itself. But it also becomes an effective educational
tool thanks to the principle of cooperation and not competition linked to it
which can be vehicled to children while they are working in the garden.
The synergetic garden immersed in nature
facilitates natural learning and helps children to build an environmental
awareness.
Activities in a synergetic garden tend to show the strong connection
between the free expression of children self-motivated learning and self-fertility
of the soil.
In the end a Synergetic garden represents a small universe made up of
millions of elements, micro-organisms, plants, animals and of course active and
environmentally friendly children.
The educational benefi ts and development of new skills and knowledge
include:
- Understanding - as children learn about cause and effect (for example,
plants won’t thrive without water, weeds compete with plants etc).
- Self-confidence - from
achieving their goals and enjoying the food they have grown.
- Reasoning and discovery - as they learn about science, botany,
nutrition and simple construction.
- Cooperation - including shared play activity and teamwork.
- Nutrition - learning about sources of fresh food and healthy food.
- Cooking - Preparing food, using utensils and the science of cooking.
- Safety and hygiene - In preparation of food, use of tools and
utensils, washing foods and hands, eating safe foods from nature.
- Creates a sense of belonging – working together with others and maintaining
connections to their home life’s and the environment that surrounds them.
- Reflects and shapes Identity – Use of cultural foods and seeds.
Creates a homelike environment.
- Children learn skills that integrate with several subjects, such as math,
science and social studies, physical education as well as several educational
goals, including personal and social responsibility.