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Do you have a fireplace or a fire pit at home? Do you let your children light and manage fires? If not, why not? Today, we’re talking about the benefits of children working with fire, why children will seek it out, why it’s important to incorporate it into your outdoor play and how to do it safely. 

👉 Key Discussion Points:

• The purpose of fire activities in the home/school/centre
• Playing with dangerous elements – such as fire, water and animals is one of the 6 Pillars of Risk Play 
• We are drawn to fire. For thousands of years, humans have relied on fire to survive. It’s almost an innate, biological response. So we need to pre-empt this curiosity. 
• We live in a country that makes swimming lessons compulsory at school because we are surrounded by oceans but doesn’t make fire safety compulsory despite us being a bush fire prone nation. 
• The key concerns of parents and educators
• How we introduce fire at Wildlings Forest School and how you can too 
• Safety measures you can put in place to reduce risk

“It is often the risks to adults – blame, loss of reputation, liability – that cloud providers’ judgements when it comes to allowing children to take risks.” Gill, T. 2007.

👉 Guest Details

Vicci Oliver and Nicki Farrell are adventurous nature play makers, risk-takers, children’s rights advocates and the co-founders of Wildlings Forest School. We are the hosts of the ‘Raising Wildlings’ podcast and we put the dirt back in childhood.

Wildlings aims to get more children outdoors connecting with nature, creating the village parents are yearning for and inspiring change in the education system.

During any Wildlings Forest School program, you are likely to find Wildlings up trees, sliding down mud slides, whittling with pocket knives, lighting fires and building rafts. We let kids, be kids - because children can’t learn to protect nature if they’ve never had a childhood in it.

👉 Wildlings Forest School Contact Details

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👉 Freebie:
If you’d like a little inspiration to get your family outside, head to www.wildlingsforestschool.com/free-downloadables, to get your free copy of our famous chocolate orange campfire cake recipe. It’s vegan so suits all dietary requirements

👉 Did You Enjoy This Episode? 

If you enjoyed this episode and the Raising Wildlings podcast generally, we have a favour. Plea

Welcome back to Raising Wildlings — where we explore raising brave, resilient, curious kids who feel at home outdoors.

If you're an educator ready to bring more nature play and child-led learning into your Early Years program, our Bush Kindy Professional Development Workshops are for you. You'll walk away with practical tools, risk-benefit strategies, and the confidence to take learning outside in a way that's safe, meaningful, and genuinely exciting for

You know this podcast is just a small part of what we do at Wildlings Forest School. So if you want to find out more about our range of programs for children, our professional development workshops for educators, our free downloadables, blogs or our online store, just head to wildlingsforestschool.com. It's all there waiting for you. Come and join the village.