Children & Nature network

Nature Deficit Disorder inspires Wild Kids Cornwall Club

– August 04, 2010

Bosinver Farm Cottages will be offering guests staying in their self-catering cottages this summer the opportunity to join the Wild Kids Cornwall Club. The weekly sessions will be free to guests and kids will get the chance to build dens, go on mini beast safari and sing round the camp fire.

Pat and Dave Smith, owners of Bosinver Farm Cottages said “We are passionate about our beautiful Cornish countryside and love to share that passion with our guests. Many of the families who holiday with us are from urban areas and lead such busy lives, their time in Cornwall is a great opportunity to feel closer to nature and give the kids a rural experience. It builds on the Cotton Wool Kids Campaign and competition which we ran with Cartwheel Holidays last year, when parents submitted stories describing their experience of un wrapping their kids from over protection. With the Wild Kids Cornwall Club we’ll extend that aim and will be running sessions in the natural environment but where the parents can feel happy their kids are safe too. Children will be able to take part in activities such like building dens, playing in the woods, mini beast safari, singing round the campfire, making natural camouflage costumes and using their imaginations. “

The Club has been inspired by an article by Jon Henley in the Guardian about Richard Louv, author of ‘Last child in the woods’ who, so concerned about the lack of time that modern kids spend in the great outdoors set up the Children and Nature Network . The American based network has sparked an international movement encouraging families and organisations to provide children with the chance to reconnect with their natural environment. Richard says that the majority children these days rarely play in the woods, climb trees, run in fields and their knowledge of wildlife can be really limited. They often have so many planned and structured after school activities that they don’t get time to just use their imagination and play free range. Plus the pull of TV and computer games keeps many indoors, a recent study by the Kaiser Family Foundation reported that the average 8 – 18 year old in the US now spends more than 53 hours week using “entertainment media” up from 44 hours per week just 5 years ago. And according the book Consumer Kids written by Ed Mayo, head of Consumer Focus, children in the UK spend on average two hours, 36 minutes watching television each day, one hour and 18 minutes on the internet and one hour, 24 minutes on a games console.

Bosinver Farm Cottages will be running the sessions through the School summer holidays and will be starting off with dusk nature spotting guided sessions aiming to allow children a chance to join in the planned activities but also explore their natural environment and imagine their own adventures . If the scheme is successful other sessions will be added and extended throughout the year. Pat and Dave are also keen to become more involved in the spirit of the Children and nature Network by extending the scheme to invite local schools and youth groups to use the facilities at the farm to create their own nature adventure.


Bosinver Farm Cottages has been voted the best UK and Ireland holiday destination by Mumsnet reviewers for the 3 years running and received the Gold Award for best self catering establishment in the Cornwall Tourism Awards 2007. Bosinver Farm’s 19 stunning cottages are beautifully decorated and set in a hidden valley with 30 acres of wildflower meadows and farm animals on the doorstep. Specialising in family farm stay holidays facilities include solar heated outdoor pool, indoor play barn, animal feeding and pony rides, wildlife lake and woodland walks and zip slide. Minutes from stunning beaches and Cornwall’s attractions including the Eden Project and Lost Gardens of Heligan.
www.bosinver.co.uk
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Press enquiries contact Rachel Abel 07903 876222 or Pat Smith 01726 72128
Bosinver Farm Cottages, Trelowth, Cornwall PL26 7DT

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