EP60: Connecting Children and Families to the Wild - with Chris Holland

Chris Holland has spent over three decades helping people - young and old - find their way back to the natural world. In this warmly personal conversation, Robin and Chris reflect on the threads that have woven their lives together: a shared love of plants, the legacy of plant mentor Frank Cook, and the quiet revolution taking place in nature connection education.Chris is the author of I Love My World, widely regarded as the unofficial Forest School manual, and the founder of Natural Musicians. A practice that democratises music-making in wild places, inviting children and families to listen deeply and celebrate landscape through sound. His work sits at the intersection of nature pedagogy, John Young's Eight Shields framework, and a profound belief that connection to the other-than-human world is not a luxury, it is a necessity.They explore how children learn differently when handed a stick and a stone instead of a worksheet, why making music in a stone circle might change the listener more than the landscape, and what it means to truly stay — with a plant, with discomfort, with belonging.For educators, parents, and anyone who has ever felt the pull of a hedgerow, this episode is a quiet reminder that the wild is always closer than we think.This Episode Is Brought To You ByRobin HarfordTranscriptsThis episodeConnect with Chris HollandWebsite | Youtube | Instagram | Facebook | LinkedInBooksI Love My WorldPlant Of The WeekSharing Nature With ChildrenThe Heat Will Kill You FirstCoursesNatural MusiciansPeople, Places and Things Mentioned On The ShowBuzzard YurtKingfisher YurtCity of Bath Roman BathsFluxus Art MovementFrank CookNew Age FraudPam HortonPauline OliverosSandor KatzSchumacher CollegeTrill On The HillRelated Resources30 Days of DomeiDomei Newsletter