logo200x

Cameron Sprague

Nesting Ambassador Category: Certified Nesting Ambassadors
I have been working with children in the outdoors for over twenty-five years, working exclusively for Stramash Social Enterprise since 2014. I was originally hired as the founding manager of Stramash Fort William, where I led the nursery’s transformation from a two-acre grass field into a dynamic, child-led outdoor space affectionately known as the ‘Field of Dreams.’ This year, I became the Head of Nurseries for all of Stramash, helping to bring the same passion and magic of the outdoors to all of our settings. I’m a proud husband and dad to my wife, Jenny, and our son, Jack.
.
PROJECT DESCRIPTION
.
Outline Evolved Nest for Early Educators Checklist
Cameron Sprague & Daniel Burton
.
AUDIENCE: This tool would be designed to be a companion piece to the Nested World Checklist for Childcare Centers which is aimed at parents when selecting childcare centres. Instead of being intended for parents it would be for educators to audit their physical spaces and practices so that they can better create a cultural and physical environment that promotes the Evolved Nest.
.
KEY COMPONENT(S).
  • Play
  • Nature Connection
  • Responsive Relationships
  • Positive Climate
WHAT DO YOU WANT TO CONVEY?
MAIN POINTS:
  • The Evolved Nest is a holistic, multidisciplinary, research based programme that creates the environment that all children need to be whole and fully actualised in their lives.
  • Children in western culture are spending less time outdoors than ever before. Without time in nature children will never develop in the way that they were designed to.
  • Play is the vehicle that children use to unlock, learn, and grow their understanding of the world.
  • Play has been hijacked by modern educators as a tool for presenting instruction – ‘Play Based Learning’ which has seen a move away from authentic play – intrinsically motivated, self directed and freely chose.
.
BENEFITS FOR AUDIENCE:
By creating a cultural and physical environment that promotes the Evolved Nest within their settings they will have happier, healthier, and better regulated children. Many childcare centres create environments that go against children’s natural instincts and therefore have constant distressed (dysregulated) children that require staff’s time and attention. By working towards children’s natural instincts with adults working together it will be a better environment for not only the children, but also the adults who work within the settings as well. With the ultimate goal that as the Nest embeds it will be a better place for the more than human who share the place the childcare setting resides in.
 .
STEPS:
  • Create a simple introduction to the audit tool which includes links to Nested World resources for further reading and research for educators interested in using the Evolved Nest
  • Create an audit tool that is inspired by the Nested World childcare checklist for parents
    • This should include cultural elements such as ‘do all children have keyworkers that works with their familial caregiver to create care plans to support them etc.’
    • Include physical elements such as ‘does the setting support the more than human by only using trees and plants within their setting that are native to that area’
    • Build on play materials in Nested World by using inspiration from tools such as David Sobel’s Children and Nature Design principles and play theorist Bob Hughes
MEDIA: After creation of the audit tool and acceptance by Nested World use Daniel Burton’s Campfire Conversations Platform and Cameron Sprague’s Puddle Patter platform to hold a joint podcast series with Darcia Narvaez to promote the Nested World and the new audit tool.