As the weather gets better, kids eager to get outside will have a unique, fun and educational opportunity to do so.
The Diamond Valley Sustainable Living Centre, which launched last October, is hosting a summer day camp program focused on educational outdoor adventures.
The program, called Sprouts, is accepting registrations until the tentative date of May 13.
"We're running 10 weeks of day camps from June 24 to August 30," said educator Katie Bakken.
"We're offering those 10 weeks and it'll be dependent on registration. We can only really run a camp if we have six kids or more."
Bakken, who is also part of the centre's Connections Nature Play child care program, said that initiatives like these are great for kids.
"They'll be getting to know the local community and doing a lot of walking field trips, playing in the forest, playing in grasslands, playing in wetlands," she said. "And, of course, whenever you have children playing outdoors, there's always a lot of learning that happens."
Beyond the program being fun and educational, Bakken said many studies have been done about the benefits of outdoor play as opposed to indoor play.
"Community connection and confidence, self-esteem, challenging themselves and learning from failure and learning from their own mistakes," she listed as examples.
Bakken is excited to be launching the program and is looking for some local help.
"We're hiring local youth," she said. "If there's any local people out there that like to be outside and like to hang out with small children, then we want to hear from them for sure.
"We're going to be training all the day camp leaders in first aid and nature play and we're looking forward to having an awesome summer."
Learn more about the Diamond Valley Sustainable Living Centre's child care programs, including Sprouts, on its website.
