PEI Wild Child is an environmental education program of PEI Sierra Club
(http://www.theguardian.pe.ca/News/Local/2015-03-09/article-4070224/Sierra-Club%26rsquo%3Bs-Wild-Child-program-is-nature-inspired-fun/1)
designed to strengthen the 'outdoors' component of child care services, by having the children explore nature with the Wild Child staff-person and volunteers leading enthusiastic games and qu
iet activities. We at PEI Sierra Club want to continue and expand this important program. We've been holding fundraisers and reaching out to donors, funders and community organizations, asking them to help connect more young children with nature in the year ahead. Sierra Club Atlantic Canada Chapter developed Wild Child in response to the growing body of research showing that children need experiences in the natural world for healthy development. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lJihjQK0Qso&feature=player_embedded
This 'nature immersion' program was delivered very successfully to children in fourteen day-cares and after-school programs in the Charlottetown area this winter. It is so important to give children an opportunity to experience, explore, and play in nature. Learning to have no fear of bugs, birds and other wild life is the first step to helping protect 'Mother Nature' and getting a strong foundation for good mental health. Relaxing and connecting by listening to the wind in the trees and other sounds of nature gives young children a necessary break from modern technology. To quote the elder Luther Standing Bear in the 1930s, "the old Lakota was wise. He knew that a man’s heart, away from nature, becomes hard; he knew that lack of respect for growing, living things soon led to lack of respect for humans, too. So he kept his children close to nature’s softening influence."
