Roydon Downs Bush and Farm Walks is located 45 minutes from Tauranga. Allport Rd is 6km past Paengaroa on SH33. The farm is home of Jill and Jeff Brann. They are committed to preserving the land, the native bush, the waterways and the fauna for all to share and appreciate.
Why do we go beyond the gate:
Children’s experiences of environments – natural, social, cultural, and virtual, are very different from those of just one generation ago. Their choices seem endless with far more material possessions and personal opportunities, freedoms and rights than at anytime in the past. There is mounting concern about the consequences of lifestyles that focus on materialism, technology and individualism. It is our children and future generations for whom the implication is most profound.
"There’s no way that we can help children to learn to love and preserve this planet if we don’t give them direct experiences with the miracles and blessings for nature.”- Anita Olds
,,,,"To accomplish this, children need regular contact with natural environments that offer them opportunities for play and exploration, where they can explore and bond with nature, rather than the paradigm of recess on manufactured play equipment in a sterile or manicured landscape area. Rather than playgrounds, children need to be offered naturalized environments, the wilder the better, where they can interact with nature and the animals and insects that inhabit it. Children need to be given daily access to outdoor natural environments for extended periods of time.
Schools, early childhood educators and teachers need to free themselves from the paradigm of giving children indoor play and learning and manufactured outdoor playgrounds and instead allow children to reclaim the magic that is their birthright—the ability to play and learn outdoors through exploration, discovery and the power of their imaginations in intimate contact with nature. It is only through such positive experiences in outdoor nature that children will develop their love of nature and a desire to protect it for their future and late generations." -
This extract was taken from "Nurturing children’s biophilia"
Developmentally appropriate environmental education for young children
Randy White & Vicki L. Stoecklin
