Age Group Programme Ideas
For practitioners
Programme ideas by age group
What to offer, when, and why. Written for people who already know their group and want to plan a term rather than a morning.
Start with the stage, not the idea
The most common planning mistake is to choose something interesting and then find a group to do it with. The Archimedes approach works the other way round. You begin with where these people are, what the season is offering, and what the space can hold. The programme follows from that.
Each age band below sets out what that stage is typically ready for, what to protect, and what tends to go wrong.
Sensory, relational, unhurried
Almost everything at this stage is about the body, the weather and the adult.
- Uneven ground and free movement
- Texture, water, light and shade
- Outdoor rest and daylight
- Long uninterrupted watching
- Protect: stillness, and the pace of the day
Wonder and first independence
Repetition is the point. The same place, the same route, the same puddle, until it is theirs.
- Mud, digging and transporting
- Dens, hiding and small territories
- Collecting, sorting and naming
- First small tools with close support
- Protect: the right to repeat, and to not join in
Capability and cooperation
Real work with real consequence, done together.
- Shelter building and knots with string
- Tool use with proper boundaries
- Fire as a group responsibility where appropriate
- Seasonal observation over a full year
- Protect: time to finish, and honest feedback
Skill, responsibility and identity
The stage where children who struggle indoors most often become someone else outdoors.
- Extended projects across several weeks
- Cooking, crafting and making things that last
- Navigation, mapping and route finding
- Genuine roles within the group
- Protect: ownership, and the right to fail safely
Contribution and leadership
Young people need work that visibly matters to someone other than themselves.
- Leading and mentoring younger groups
- Woodland management and conservation
- Enterprise, making and selling
- Qualifications and progression routes
- Protect: autonomy, and being taken seriously
The same needs, later
Wellbeing groups, staff teams, family sessions and community provision.
- Fire, food and unhurried conversation
- Craft and making with the hands
- Seasonal walking and shared ritual
- Reflection and restoration
- Protect: no performance, and no outcome sheet
Where the full programmes live
These ideas are the outline. The Archimedes literature is the detail.
Full week by week programmes, session plans, observation formats and the underpinning theory sit in the literature library.
- The Archimedes LiteratureThe full library, including Twenty Six Weeks in the Woods, Archimedes Babies, the Survival Guide and Living With A Parent With ADHD
- The Archimedes ModelsB.E.I.N.G., the Blackwell Growth Cycle, Community of Brilliance and the rest of the frameworks
- Which level is right for youIf you are not yet trained, start here
One caution
A plan is a starting point, not a script.The group in front of you is the real curriculum.
Every idea here should be held lightly. If the group takes it somewhere else, follow them. The best sessions we have ever seen were not the ones that went to plan.
