7 Benefits of Bush Kindy

Exploring nature offers children boundless opportunities for play and connection with their environment. Freshwater Christian Kindergarten is located on a lush tropical 40-acre Campus that includes a freshwater creek and rainforest. These beautiful surroundings enable our kindergarten students to explore nature during our Bush Kindy Program.

What is Bush Kindy?

Although the program is planned the sessions are designed to be flexible. Clear expectations and boundaries are put in place to facilitate children allowing them to take controlled risks and engage with the environment in a supervised manner. The main benefit for children playing in the bush is that natural environment allows them to be creative and imaginative thinkers.

These skills are very crucial for developing 21st Century skills such as; critical thinking, creativity, collaboration, communication, information literacy, flexibility, leadership, initiative, productivity and social skills.

Two mornings a week Freshwater Christian Kindergarten run an outdoors program called ‘Bush Kindy’. Held at a variety of bushland sites on the College property the sessions run for approximately 2 hours (includes Morning tea). 

In our classroom children constantly play with toys. This is great, however, when children are at bush kindy without toys it gives the children further opportunities to play with each other. This involves the children frequently relying on communication, which develops as they use and hear it.

Benefits of Bush Kindy

1. Increases independence and perseverance
2. Builds a sense of autonomy and wellbeing
3. Development of gross motor skills and physical fitness
4. Fosters empathy
5. Builds positive approach to learning
6. Provides manageable risk exposure
7. Enables better sleep

Why Bush Kindy?

Bush Kindy approach comes out of significant international research, initially in European countries and now spreading throughout the world, about the importance and value of nature play for children’s health, wellbeing and development. A key element of this initiative is that children engage in regular, extended periods of unstructured play in nature environments.

The research has discovered that children experiencing weather fluctuations, creating their own play with the resources of the natural environment, building and practising self-management skills and just being immersed in nature are significant to this Kindergarten approach.

Natural environments provide a rich setting for children’s play; however, Bush Kindy is more than just allowing children to play outside. Research and pedagogies are critical to the effectiveness of the program. For example, Danish Forest Preschools state the following 7 principles that are significant in underpinning their program.

7 Principles that are significant to Bush Kindy

• A holistic approach to children’s learning and development
• Each child is unique and competent
• Children are active and interactive learners
• Children need real-life, first-hand experiences
• Children thrive in child-centred environments
• Children need time to experiment and develop independent thinking
• Learning comes from social interactions.

These principles reflect the principles embedded in the Queensland Kindergarten Learning Framework and the Early Years Learning Framework, the curriculum that informs our program at Freshwater Christian Kindergarten. 

Children taking control of their learning journey

During the Bush Kindy program, educators take on a facilitator role in children’s play and learning. Children are encouraged to make their own play, using their imaginations, prior experiences and the resources available within the environment. While educators may prompt, question and encourage children, they maintain a delicate balance of appropriate scaffolding and safety, while also allowing children the freedom to experiment, solve problems, invent, negotiate and take risks within the boundaries. 

Minimal resources are taken down to the Bush Kindy area, encouraging children to make use of what they can find and create their own games. Some equipment will be taken to the site, such as safety equipment, mats, water and a portable toilet facility.