Kids Bushcraft - Firecraft

Fire is the skill everything else in the bush depends on, and it's worth doing properly. We'll start with the fundamentals: the three things every fire needs, and the difference between tinder, kindling, and fuel — a distinction that sounds simple until you're kneeling in wet leaves trying to get something going.

We'll get into wood too. Birch bark, spruce pitch, standing deadwood, and why the branch on the ground is a poor choice compared to the one still attached to the tree. Kids will gather their own materials from around the property and sort them by size before a single spark is struck.

Then we build. This year we're trying three different fire lays — the teepee, the log cabin, and the lean-to — so kids can see for themselves how the shape of a fire changes the way it burns and what each one is actually good for.