A Wild and Free Summer in Nature …without Costing the Earth

A Wild and Free Summer in Nature …without Costing the Earth

A group of highly experienced local bushcraft and outdoor learning experts have teamed up to create a unique series of nature-connected, full-day, summer holiday experiences for children – deep in the heart of the ancient Forest of Selwood.

Designed to respond to a child’s natural instinct to play and explore, these parent-free adventures offer such joys as shelter building, fire making, cooking delicious food together over the fire, wood craft, storytelling, den making and, of course, lots of games!  Naturally, time is built in to chill out under the canopy of the trees in this beautiful, safely-contained children’s ‘woodland camp’, nestled within the grounds of the 42 Acres retreat, Witham Friary, between Frome and Bruton.

With a mission to promote links between nature, health and happiness in a fun-fuelled day, children can, by arrangement, be dropped off by busy working parents as early as 8.30am. As bushcraft instructor and forest school leader Luke Newman, father and blended-family parent of two boys and a girl tells us:  “In our team at Five Rivers we really ‘get’ that, for practical reasons, parents need to continue to work full days, secure in the knowledge that their children are happy and safe – and, hopefully,  a bit worn out and kind of muddy by pick-up time too!”

Three of  the ’Summer Forest Club’ Five Rivers team are also mentors in Journeyman UK, a charity dedicated to supporting boys to navigate their path to manhood. Included in their number is Ben Gray who, initially trained with Ray Mears, has honed his wilderness skills and developed his relationship with the natural world in a North American first nation’s reservation, in Namibia with the Bushmen of the Kalahari and through work expeditions to some of the most remote places on earth. It was the group’s experiences in leading, deeply connected adult workshops in this most special of locations in the Selwood Forest which motivated them to create a low-cost summer holiday opportunity for children, giving them some of the same free ranging connections to nature that childhood used to offer but which, for so many, is now lost.

Luke, Ben and the team, including Rhiannon Swannell, Africa-qualified field guide, nature guide, yoga teacher and working mother, along with outdoor education specialist Kevin Button, are passionate about enabling all children to enjoy simple earth-based skills like foraging and tracking and, above all, to have fun and feel free.  With years of mentoring, instructor and leader skills, they aspire to inspire young people on a connected and confident journey to adulthood.

As Luke explains, the summer sessions are designed to be as accessible as possible for all families; “Thanks to our incredible, skilled support team who have volunteered their time for love alone, and, thanks to the generosity of 42 Acres allowing us this amazing space exclusively for Summer Forest Club, we can offer the days at low prices with nominal fees for those on Universal Credit; as parents we all know how expensive the summer can be but we all know too that a seeing a happy child drop into bed at the end of a memorable day making new friends is just priceless.”

If you would like to know more about Summer Forest Club, running most weekdays throughout the summer from 27th July onwards,  you can email Rhiannon at connect@fiverivers.life  and she will be happy to call you back to discuss any questions you have.

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