The Farmhouse
Australian legislation stipulates that outdoor play spaces provide 7 square metres per child. And most centres provide only this. Our children have over 60 square metres per child in the main garden – and yes, all our children can play together at the same time. Our research to date shows these are the largest outdoor play spaces provided in a childcare environment in the world! Larger than anywhere in Canada, USA, NZ, UK and Europe (we were pretty surprised by that too!).
Central to our lives at The Farmhouse are health and nutrition. We therefore offer a fully integrated complementary indoor/outdoor program for children. Children have plenty of time – and space – outdoors to run and jump, hop and skip, and enjoy the openness that only acres of freedom can provide – allowing children to flex their bodies enables them to stretch their minds.
The Gardens
The heart of The Farmhouse lies in the Children’s Gardens. It is here children engage with nature, be absorbed by it’s texture, individually discover the world around them, and have time to smell Mother Earth and understand her ways.
There is such joy in watching children free to be themselves, be it chasing butterflies or making daisy chains, searching for worms and feeling them tickle your hand as they squirm. Having a secret space for sharing friendships, or building channels and bridges in a mud pit, children will be free to be themselves at their own pace, in their own time.
The Farm
Early on we decided that children at The Farmhouse would be given wonderful opportunities to continue enjoying their childhood. We’ve seen first-hand how children relish friendships with farmyard animals, so it only seems natural to incorporate the farm into childcare experiences. For us this life is normal – and we want to share it. Children at The Farmhouse care for animals – sheep, cattle, goats, horses, alpacas, chooks, ducks, rabbits, guinea pigs, mice and pigs – that live alongside the children, in their world. Children will also collect the chook’s eggs every day to take to their cooking classes.
Nutrition
Our onsite vegetable garden demonstrates a thorough appreciation for health and nutrition, quite literally, from the grass roots. As members of the Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden Program children learn to grow their own food, and then how to create tasty meals.
The nutritional aspect is particularly exciting as each room has it’s own mini-kitchen! Here the children enjoy taking the fresh produce they’ve just harvested from the garden to their own kitchen, and then together create a meal to enjoy.