Forest School Adventure and Forest School Handbook

Oh wow!  There is a new style of book in town and it is packed full of Outdoor Skills and Play for Children!

I am talking about the Forest School Adventure and now the Forest School Handbook by Naomi Walmsley and Dan Westall.  These books are packed full of practical ideas for getting your children outside.  It is your essential companion for helping play, craft and learn about the natural world around us.  With the bonus of the Handbook being the perfect backpack size.

Authors: Naomi Walmsley & Dan Westall
ISBN: 9781784944032 / Publication Date: June 2018 / Price £16.99

GMC Publications • May 2023 / RRP £14.99 • Paperback with flaps 
For kids aged 5 – 11 • ISBN 9781784946654

 

About the books

Learn how to light a fire without matches, build a shelter to sleep in, cook on a fire, hunt for bugs and much more.  From essential bushcraft basics and Stone Age survival skills to joyful outdoor play – Forest School Adventure is a book packed with ideas to bring your little ones closer to nature and all its magical offerings.

Young children will be immersed in imaginative, gloriously messy play and crafts, whilst older ones can get to grips with more complex activities like stone tool making and sourcing water. The book is split into four sections: Bushcraft, Wild Food, Nature Awareness and Games and features step-by-step instructions to guide children; to make fire by rubbing sticks together and harnessing the heat from the sun to make flames, create stone tools using sandstone and slate making natural glue from tree sap, harvesting clay from the earth to make pots, making common garden weeds into healing salves and medicines and much more.

 

Woven with stories throughout of the authors' real-life experiences of living out in the wild, tales of sleeping in a cave in a snowstorm, hunting for dinner with bows and arrows and carrying fire through the wilderness to awaken at night time. Whether in an organised setting, a group of friends or a family outing, the fun-filled games will build confidence, and bonding and result in happy and energised children.

My thoughts on Forest School Adventure.

This is a great fun packed book.  The book itself is very thick and jam-packed with activities and information.  There is so much to this book I've decided to show you in a vlog to help you see just how lovely this book is.

About the Authors

Naomi Walmsley and Dan Westall are bushcraft experts and educators with over ten years of experience sharing their passion for teaching others how to get the most out of the great outdoors, and to do it safely.  Together, they undertook a five-month Stone-Age immersion experience in the US, living in the wilderness without any modern equipment, profoundly influencing their lives and teaching.  In Outback 2 Basics they have built a business of teaching primitive Stone Age and bushcraft skills and other nature awareness activities allowing them to inspire children (and adults!) to connect to their natural environment and their heritage, whilst promoting care and enjoyment of the environment.

Dan has worked as a medic and Survival consultant, working behind the scenes on various TV shows and Naomi has written for numerous publications such as The Bushcraft Magazine, Juno magazine, Living Woods magazine and The Guardian.  They pride themselves on being ambassadors for nature and are passionate about encouraging young people to ‘know their world’.  Their hope is that Forest School Adventure can be used as a starting point to encourage the next generation of caretakers to understand and care for their natural environment. Naomi and Dan are married, have two daughters and live in the heart of Shropshire.