The Thursday/Friday GAP class enjoyed an excursion to the Australian National Botanic Gardens.
We savoured our morning tea out in the fresh air under some fragant gum trees, looking around in wonder at all the greenery, spotting birds, insects, plants and ponds.
Our enthusiastic early-childhood-education-trained German-speaking guide soon met up with us and took us over grassy fields, along secret paths, helped us cross over a creek using hopping stones, along part of the children’s trail, and told us about all sorts of plants and native critters along the way.
We came to the newest feature of the botanic gardens: a big tree house for children! There is a ramp up to the first storey, but after that, one must climb a giant ladder to reach the crow’s nest platform. There was some discussion amongst the children as to how best to achieve this.
It was fun up at the top! At last, having conquered our fears, we returned back down the ladder. Phew!
We then walked allllllll the way back to GAP (over a kilometer), while chatting and singing. We stopped part way to refresh ourselves in a shaded rest spot, with slices of orange and drinks of water.
The teachers all commented that it was a good reminder about how the children can manage more walking than we give them credit for, and we felt we should offer more opportunities to explore our local parks on foot as the children enjoyed stretching themselves like this.
We are grateful to the parents and grandparents who came along to help on the excursion. Thank you!