Let Them Climb Trees!

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Did you spend much of your childhood climbing trees? Did you know that 1 out of 4 Australian children have never climbed a tree and that this quintessential childhood experience is banned in most of our educational settings? In this episode talk about why sharing the view with birds from the branch of a tree is so beneficial for children!

In a 2011 study by Planet Ark on Childhood interaction with nature 1000 parents were surveyed. One of the disturbing findings was that only 20% of children today are engaged in tree climbing. It appears that children just don’t climb trees anymore. This is unsurprising as we have seen the dramatic changing face of our educational settings with things such as soft-fall and height restrictions severely impacting the ability for children to climb anything, let alone a tree.

Benefits of climbing trees:

1. Focus and concentration
2. Hand-eye coordination
3. Problem-solving skills
4. Self-esteem
5. Overcoming fears
6. Trust and team-building
7. Body confidence
8. Building physical strength
9. Setting and achieving goals
10. Respecting nature 

How to support children when they are learning to climb:

• Look for easy trees to climb with low hanging branches 
• Avoid the ‘be careful’ schtick. Offer more meaningful advice such as, ‘Do you feel safe right now?’ or share your observations, ‘That branch is not thicker than your arm, do you think it can support your weight?’
• Remind them to check the surface of the ground beneath should they fall and to remove any rocks/sticks below their fall path
• Teach them to always have three points of contact at all times
• Try not to rescue them. Be their emotional coach instead
• Check for dead branches before putting your weight on a branch
• Barefoot climbing is safer than with shoes as they have better grip

BUT WHAT ABOUT THE RISK?

• It feels like a risky thing to allow our children to do. A survey of over 1600 parents who let their children climb trees revealed that 2% had fallen from a tree and broken a bone, with even less receiving a concussion. The greatest injury was scrapes. Meanwhile 3.5 million American children received medical treatment for injuries sustained during organised sports.
• There is risk in everything that our children do. Whilst there is a physical risk of injury, there is a physical risk of our children sitting inside and playing video games, heck there is a risk of children just tripping and falling on the pavement. 

Free Downloadable
To grab our free 'What to say during risky play' printable head to wildlingsforestschool.com/free-downloadables. 

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