Forest Kids
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<strong>Forest</strong> <strong>Kids</strong><br />
East of Vancouver, children at a Catholic school kindergarten<br />
in Abbotsford donned rain suits and rubber boots this year and<br />
spent hours exploring creeks and trails nestled in the shadow of<br />
the Fraser Valley’s mountains.<br />
New Brunswick’s first nature preschool is launching this fall in<br />
Sussex.<br />
The trend is even taking hold in the heart of New York City.<br />
And if they can make it there ...<br />
It’s fair to wonder, though, what forest kindergarten could<br />
possibly have to do with inner-city schools. It’s one thing to picture<br />
your youngster collecting stones on the shores of the Pacific<br />
and quite another to imagine what they might stumble upon in a<br />
downtown park.<br />
One answer can be found in east-end Toronto at Equinox Holistic<br />
Alternative School. There’s no forest in sight, or even a ravine.<br />
But in the schoolyard or local parks day after day, the kindergarten<br />
kids spot bugs and birds’ nests, and watch the seasons change the<br />
trees. While it doesn’t advertise itself as such, this urban version<br />
of nature kindergarten has been quietly taking children outdoors<br />
since the school opened four years ago on the site of Roden Public<br />
School.<br />
It fits right in with what Power is hoping to encourage through<br />
her new association, <strong>Forest</strong> School Canada, launched under the<br />
umbrella of the Child & Nature Alliance of Canada. Power notes<br />
that with 80 per cent of Canadians living in cities, it’s a concept<br />
that has to be adaptable.<br />
“<strong>Forest</strong> school is an ethos,” she says. “You don’t actually have to<br />
have a forest.”<br />
And children don’t need to be in Algonquin Park to see squirrels<br />
or cloud shapes and feel the wind on their faces.<br />
The philosophy can be applied to a grassy schoolyard corner of<br />
plants and trees that children visit each week. It could be treks to<br />
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