Bringing together kids, birds and art
Bringing together kids, birds and art
A new workshop series for a local group of home school families is helping teach children about birds and their habitats, through art
Capacity building -
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The issue
Home schooling is a growing solution for children who are not happy or comfortable in a traditional school setting. One of the key concerns for parents and carers who may be thinking about home schooling their children is often related to the social networks and peer friendships which children have the opportunity to develop at school. Building relationships with people of a similar age is an important part of learning and growing, and its value cannot be ignored for the mental wellbeing of any child.
The solution
A homeschool network is a perfect solution, providing children who are homeschooled with the chance to spend time with other children. It also helps create links between parents who are home-schooling their children, another valuable outcome.
So where does Landcare come into this? Well, networks need activities to bring everyone together, and what better activity than a morning outdoors learning about our native birds, walking through a beautiful natural area, and creating collaborative artworks!
Together with Wagga Wagga City Council, we designed a workshop series which would look at our native birds and their habitats, such as wetlands and woodlands. Each workshop has involved a walk through the area, observing the birds present and what they are doing. We then sit and eat morning tea while discussing our favourite birds, and what aspects of the habitat we’ve walked through are important for different birds. Finally, we provide the children with large sheets of paper and pencils, and encourage them to draw aspects of what they’ve seen.
The impact
The feedback we’ve received has been overwhelmingly positive, including:
“Everyone who attended thought it was a great day.”
“We really appreciate you taking the time to run this for our group.”
The children are highly engaged, and love sharing their stories of birds they have observed on their own properties or while out exploring, since the last workshop. We have another workshop planned, and are keen to continue with the homeschool network in the coming years as well.
Key facts
- 2 workshops conducted so far
- 19 children attended each workshop
- Fantastic feedback from kids and parents