Bubble wrap off: kids go back to nature

Media coverage: Herald Sun, 20 October 2011

There’s a great piece in today’s Herald Sun about Mission Australia Early Learning Services attempt to reconnect children with nature after years of “sanitised play”.

The Herald Sun reports that a generation of over-protective parents are so worried about their children getting dirty, tripping on pebbles or falling out of trees, they have developed "bio-phobia" - a fear of nature's risks.

"There's a lot of irrational fear about what could happen to children," said Mission Australia Early Learning Services National Manager Marie Howard.

"And a lot of these children are living in flats or apartments, or McMansions with very small backyards, and their parents don't let them play outside.

"Children aged up to five are at their most important stage of development. Their learning environment, both indoors and outdoors, is critical in shaping their future health, learning and social ability."

Ms Howard said nature-based play let children engage in spontaneity, risk-taking, exploration and discovery.

Thanks to a generous $640,000 grant from The Abbott Foundation, Mission Australia is naturalising seven Early Learning Centres around Australia, which formerly belonged to ABC Learning.

Trees, grass, vegetable gardens and wooden play equipment are sprouting, and AstroTurf and plastic playgrounds are being ripped up at a growing number of centres, replacing plastic climbing frames, synthetic toys and blue-carpeted walls.

Mission Australia’s newly completed Springvale South centre now incorporates vegetable gardens, a digging patch, two sandpits, wooden mobile play equipment, a stage, trees and bushes. The other centres will be finished by mid 2012.

Read the story in today’s Herald Sun.