Harry Scott

it was like a sensory based program so it was you know it was a term long program we work on our five senses and so each week we just focus on one of our senses because one of my big things that i was noticing is that the comfortability in outdoors was low you know kids didn't know how to engage they didn't know what to do when they were in there and they

really just ended up getting overwhelmed by the whole experience.

From this one, I went from five to seven.

So that year, year zero to year two, or up into year three.

And yeah, so there was just, there was no comfortability for them.

And so it was like, we really had to start from

basic outdoor ed you know and just you know getting kids to feel what it's like to have their toes in mud or sand and grass and all the different experiences does that kind of seem crazy that

Yeah, yeah.

And that's the thing is just like there was such a gap in...

in that obviously there was like a misgeneration of this sort of play.

And so it was, there was just so such low comfortability and it was, yeah, it is like,

these kids haven't had the experiences you know and it's that through even the developmental stages it's like being outside like we are so lucky in this country and don't get me wrong like i am

unbelievably I love going to work every single day and I wouldn't want to do anything else but it does blow my mind that I get to do this job in Aotearoa because it's like this is for me this is this was all learnt as I grew up you know it's like all of the skills that I have have been acquired through a lifetime of exploring and

where did you grow up and and did you have that kind of upbringing is that why you feel passionate about it yeah so i guess like i grew up on the shore and we were really close to lots of local parks so we could ride our bikes to local parks really easily and we could disappear for the day and i think this is the hardest thing i totally get that now those times don't exist

And what I try and do is lots of people I find talk about we need to get back to how it was.

We need to get back to letting the kids go for the whole day and explore in parks or do this, that, the other.

And I totally get that and I totally see it and I agree.

to an extent but we can't go back we're now working in the present day we're actually unfortunately for a variety of reasons kids can't just go down the road and disappear the whole day in parks you know whether it be traffic whether it be um

you know more dog walkers and that sort of thing in parks whether it just strangers and there's such a variety of reasons that it's like that's such a lovely image that we had and an amazing time but it's just our communities have moved on now so

Unfortunately, it is more dependent on parents to take kids places to have these experiences.