“Teaching children about the natural world should be seen as one of the most important events in their lives.”
– Thomas Berry
Caryn Lynn Venter founded Grow Wild in 2017. She had been working as a primary school teacher in Sea Point and Hout Bay for over 16 years. She had grown as an educator in both Local and International curricula, contributing to the founding and development of Eco Club programs and implementing wellness workshops to the teachers who used mindfulness practises within the classrooms.
Whilst being a primary school teacher, Caryn often felt and observed that there were certain important aspects of holistic development that were missing within the education systems.
Motivated by this, she created her first passion project in 2015 called “Art and Sole”. It was held at Phakalane, a beautiful, retreat centre on the mountains of Hout Bay.
Her main intention for offering these workshops was to give children opportunities to express their authentic selves through dance, drama and art processes within a safe, loving and well held environment.
Despite the positive benefits of strengthening children’s emotional wellbeing and giving them tools for our busy world, Caryn had a strong impulse to take these children into the “wild” beyond the four walls.
In great faith, she decided to be courageous and resign from a ten-year teaching post to pursue her dream and desire to offer children the opportunity to grow in the wild, learning naturally.
Since then Grow Wild has branched off into several different directions. Each experience, whether being a four hour nature immersion adventure, a birthday celebration or a learning program is unique and collaboratively designed with all elements involved.
This is inspirational work where joy, connection and growth are interwoven in a myriad of colourful threads.
Below are Grow Wild’s special S.K.Y agreements that we all understand before embarking on an exciting adventure:
S
Stay with the pack.
Stay safe.
K
Kindness to yourself, nature
and each other.
Y
You are special and important.
You know what you need.
You know what you can and cannot do.
You know how to grow.
Within this framework, many other skills and learnings unfurl during our adventure.