What age is The Adventures of Ash and Indigo best for?

People often wonder what age’s the Adventures of Ash and Indigo is written for…

Briefly, Ash and Indigo is perfect for a wide range of age groups, with the focus being on primary school aged children. Though this itself is a broad statement!

Children will engage with Ash and Indigo in different ways, at different times in their childhood. As teachers and parents we understand the transformations that children go through during childhood, and the letters are written to intentionally acknowledge and nurture these transformations.

During the early years of engaging with Ash and Indigo, from around 4 years to 8 years, children are likely to see Ash and Indigo as their friends, two children who live in the bush and send them letters. Through the pure imagination that comes with early childhood they will not deeply question who these children are, just purely accept that these friends send them beautiful letters! They will be thrilled to receive a letter in the post, to open and read and explore together. The inclusions and offerings within the letter will often be activities to complete as a family, the younger child unlikely to be able to access these without support, though they will find great joy in these moments of family connection. Indigo resides in this space of early childhood, and younger children may identify closely with Indgo.

Around the age of 9, entering middle childhood, children move away from pure imagination and begin to deeply question and sense into what is ‘real’ and what isn’t. Children of this age will question who Ash and Indigo are, and will likely conclude that they are fictional characters, just like the books they read. They will understand that there is an ‘author’ to these stories and characters and may have questions about Ash and Indigo’s families, genders, ages... These traits are intentionally ambiguous to allow the child to create their own images. The character of Ash resides in this space of middle childhood, questioning, learning, growing. The world is no longer seen through rose coloured glasses and often there is a crisis to overcome. Children of middle childhood, say grade 3 and above, are likely to identify with Ash and will be able to access the inclusions with less support, though will still relish your involvement in reading the letter together and connecting with their family through the activities.

So, in summary, Ash and Indigo is written for the primary school aged child as a medium to facilitate moments of connection within families and with nature.