Where education is an adventure!
Come Play With Us!

Muddy Kids provides safe supervised spaces for children to play as children should, making up their own games, exploring nature on their own terms, being device free with minimal adult direction.

One Day Forest School Programmes
Play Activations
Holiday Programmes
Overnight camps
Teen Programmes

Play is necessary! It gives children a chance to express themselves without direction from adults. Play is not only a fundamental right of children, it is vital for emotional, physical and social growth and development.

Independence! Having the autonomy to plan their day, their play gives children responsibility and independence. Being out in nature offers unlimited opportunities to provoke curiosity and stoke imagination.

Trust is key! – Our educators work hard to understand our kids and meet them where they are. With low ratios (1:8) we really get to know each child and foster their best self.

Always outside! With the proper gear, the weather is just another friend offering opportunities to learn and explore. We get to know and love nature intimately.

โ€œPerhaps play would be more respected if we called it something like โ€œself-motivated practice of life skills, โ€œ but that would remove the light-heartedness from it and thereby reduce its effectiveness.

So we are stuck with the paradox. We must accept playโ€™s triviality in order to realize its profundity.“

Peter Gray – Free to Learn
Children playing in the sand, forest school.

One Day Programme

Weekly outdoor freeplay based in Riverhead, Long Bay and Lake Pupuke (Takapuna/Milford)

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Children talking and bonding outside in front of a campfire at an overnight camp

Muddy Camps

Sleepover freeplay experiences with day stay options.

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Holiday Play Days

Freeplay days on school holidays at Long Bay Regional Park

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2 days ago

Muddy Kids NZ
POV: You booked your child into Muddy Kids' LAST camp of the year! ๐ŸŒฟLess screen time, more adventure.Beach explorations, board games, imaginative play, new friendships and endless opportunities to connect with nature.A chance to slow down, get muddy, build confidence, explore freely and just be a kid.No screens. No pressure. Just good old-fashioned childhood adventures and memories that last a lifetime.14thโ€“15th November | TorbayAges 5โ€“14Day stays and overnight options available.One last adventure before the year en#muddykidsnzi#naturebasedplayd#ScreenFreeChildhoodd#outdooradventurest#letkidsbekidseKids ... See MoreSee Less
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3 days ago

Muddy Kids NZ
Presenting at the International Play Conference was a mixture of nerves, excitement and pride! ๐ŸŒฟ๐Ÿ’šStanding in front of a big auditorium, rather than a small, familiar space, was definitely outside my comfort zone. It felt scary and daunting, but also incredibly rewarding.Having the opportunity to showcase how we do things at Muddy Kids, particularly how we honour children in their moments of mistake-making, was something I felt incredibly proud of.And, fittingly, I made a few mistakes of my own along the way!But that's the beauty of what we believe in at Muddy Kids. Mistakes aren't failures. They're opportunities to learn, grow, reflect and try again.Just as we encourage our tamariki to embrace their mistakes, take responsibility, repair where needed and build confidence through learning, I'm choosing to do the same.I'll treasure the mistakes I made during my presentation, reflect on what they taught me and add those lessons to my own personal toolkit.Because learning through mistakes isn't just for children.#muddykidsnzo#PlayNZf#learningthroughplayK#treasuringmistakesn#IPA2026ghPlay #TreasuringMistakes #ipa2026 ... See MoreSee Less
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Outdoor view of Long Bay Regional Park, North Shore, Auckland.

Interested? Join us outside!

Come play with us!