Why Forest School?
As children spend more and more time indoors engaging with technology, they are becoming proportionately distanced from nature and active outdoor play. The negative health impacts, both physical and emotional, for children who do not spend enough time engaged in unstructured outdoor play is receiving increasing attention from many authors and health organizations as illustrated by the 2016 Position Statement on Outdoor Active Play and the more recent 2024 Position Statement on Outdoor Risky Play.
Children need access to the same play opportunities that were a normal part of childhood in the past, and are still essential to healthy childhood development today. To climb trees, to catch frogs, to relax in the shade of a tree on a hot day. To feel a bit uncomfortable, and learn resilience by discovering that they can pick themselves up and keep going. These are foundational, essential experiences that cannot be replaced by screens. Childhood has changed dramatically, but the human physiological and psychological need for active play has not (Peter Gray, 2013, Free to Play, also International Play Association’s Declaration on the Importance of Play, 2014).
How you can make a difference:
Play and access to the outdoors must be available to ALL children in our community, no matter their financial barriers.
Your donation will be acknowledged with a tax receipt from the Small Change Fund and will go into our tuition assistance fund which families can access through use of a sliding scale during registration. This allows families to pay what they can for their children to attend programs.
Every little bit counts and in gratitude for your donation we’ve set up the following levels of recognition:
- up to $100 is a Canopy Leaf Sponsor: Donors get their name on a leaf in the canopy of our visual ‘Giving Tree’ (online and on the cabin).
- $100- $499 is a Trunk Sponsor: Donors get their name on the trunk of our visual ‘Giving Tree’ (online and on the cabin) and a digital certificate of appreciation.
- $500+ is a Root Sponsor: Donors get their name on the roots of our visual ‘Giving Tree’ (online and on the cabin), and a digital certificate of appreciation.
We are grateful for your support. Please know that with your donation you are making a positive impact on the lives of children as they learn and grow, healthy and happy, in nature at Parry Sound Forest School.
This project is in partnership with the Parry Sound Forest School.
