“When I was a child, I loved making up stories.
I’ve heard people say that what you want to be when you are 7 years old is the closest to what you will end up becoming. Or what you truly would become if you followed your heart.
I don’t know if that’s true, it’s just something I heard. The friend who told me said that she had wanted to be a lawyer, but her reason was that she loved organising people. (As a child we don’t always understand the nature of adult occupations!)
As an adult, she ended up working in arts administration, so her childhood dream came true.
When she told me this, I tried to think back……
When I was seven, I wanted to be a librarian, because I loved stories. For me, the librarians were the keeper of the stories, which made being a librarian the best occupation in the world.
I’m not a librarian, but many of the threads of occupations that I have followed in my life are all about keeping, and giving, or telling, stories.
Stories are at the heart of what it means to be human.
When we are growing up, we hear stories; stories of our family, stories of our culture, mythological stories, stories from books and stories from life.
We create our own stories, we live them day to day, in the playground, in the backyard, at the river with the birds and the sky.
We tell our stories to parents, siblings, anyone who will listen.
As we grow older, we sometimes learn to stop telling our stories, and become instead more passive consumers of stories.
Stories from the news, from mass media, from social media, from advertising.
Stories that tell us who our family is, what our culture is, that re-write our mythology.
What if we could maintain our ability to keep living our own stories?
What if we could maintain our ability to keep telling them?
What if we could find it within ourselves to keep listening for the stories of old?“
Written by – Cara Phillips
What To Expect?
In this program children will find ways to explore their stories.
They will act them, live them out.
They will get up on their feet and explore the jungle of their imagination, they will go outside and explore the wilds beyond the seas, they will raise their arms and take flight into the deep dark night sky.
Weaving drama activities with educational content we will learn together, in a child directed, story guided fashion.
Curious?
Then you must get up on your feet, follow that rabbit, and come and see!
When, Where and How?
Group 1 Children Ages 3yrs – 5yrs
Mondays 9:30am – 11:30am
Monday the 3rd February – 6th April
$40 for 2 Hr Session
$360 For 9 Week Program
Bring a healthy snack, comfortable clothes and sun protection
Parents are welcome to attend.
(If children are not fully toilet trained, parents need to attend)
No class offered public holiday 2nd of March.
Group 2 Children Ages 6yrs – 8yrs
Mondays 1pm – 3pm
Monday the 3rd February – 6th April
$40 for 2 Hr Session
$360 For 9 Week Program
Bring a healthy snack, comfortable clothes and sun protection
Parents are welcome to attend.
No class offered public holiday 2nd of March.
Group 3 Children Ages 9yrs – 11yrs After School Program
Mondays 3.45pm – 5.45pm
Monday the 3rd February – 6th April
$40 for 2 Hr Session
$360 For 9 Week Program
Bring a healthy snack, comfortable clothes and sun protection
Parents are welcome to attend.
No class offered public holiday 2nd of March.
Groups will be limited to 16 children.
Payment is accepted through Bartercard (Contact Cara to complete payment.)
After qualifying, this program will be extended, with an additional two days a week of Forest School being offered.
The program will eventually be a three day a week program available for homeschoolers as an addition to their home-based learning.
Cara is a MIECAT trained Arts Therapist based in Perth, Western Australia.
Cara has twenty years experience working in creative arts education with children and young people of varying ages.
Cara taught Speech and Drama for people aged 3 to adult for 20 years, in settings from Montessori schools to theatre-in-education companies to centres for children and young people at risk.
She has a Working with Children Check, and First Aid Certificate. All additional leaders will also have these certifications. Cara is currently undergoing training and certification with the Forest School association, and is incorporating Forest School principles into this program.