Parents are not helping much to change this for better. Children are often criticized for getting dirty while playing in the park or garden, for coming home from play with grass or mud stains on trousers and T-shirts. Though this situation may be frustrating to many parents, we often neglect the fact that it’s in child’s nature to run around and get most of the fun with their friends outside. Yes, they just love outdoor games.

Speaking about outdoor activities and children, have you ever heard about forest schools? Yes, you heard well – forest schools. It is a type of school where a school day would take place in a wood/ forest or a suitable outdoor space, where a child participate in life skills, such as learning personal, social and technical skills.

For sure, it’s a quite different approach to learning to what we have been used to.

Copyright: Tatiana Bobkova

The forest school movement has a philosophy of child-led learning, with a focus on all the senses. The aim is to foster rich learning experiences, ecological literacy, and healthy living by connecting children to nature. In Britain, the forest school has been defined as “an inspirational process that offers children, young people and adults regular opportunities to achieve, and develop confidence and self-esteem through hands-on learning experiences in a woodland environment”. Therefore, it is something different and new, but I believe it’s beneficial for kids to have these kind of things in their early childhood. It gives them something that they don’t have nowadays – connection to nature, and to themselves.

Forest Schools Curriculum and Philosophy

Forest school curriculum is child-directed and play-based. The forest school allows learners the time and space to develop their interests, skills, and understanding through practical, hands-on experiences.

At a forest school, children have the freedom to explore, play, build, create, imagine, and use their senses to experience the outdoor environment and engage with one another. The sessions are carefully planned, led by trained forest school practitioners and take place outside the classroom in all weathers in local forests, creeks, meadows, mountains or shorelines.  In the sessions, children can sing around the fire, learn to use and make tools, build dens, dig in the mud, identify bugs with magnifying glasses or retreat to the tent for reading and puzzles.

At Forest School all participants are viewed as:

• Equal, unique and valuable
• Competent to explore and discover
• Entitled to face appropriate risk and challenges
• Entitled to experience regular success
• Entitled to develop positive relationships with themselves and other people
• Entitled to choose, to initiate and drive their own learning process and development

Copyright: FamVeld

By participating in engaging, motivating and achievable tasks and activities in a woodland environment each participant has an opportunity to develop intrinsic motivation, balanced emotional and social skills. These, through self awareness, can be developed to help reach personal potential.

Why Forest Schools?

Wakelin McNeel and H.L. Rusell originally developed forest school concept in 1927 and the first forest schools were located in Laona, Wisconsin, USA. The aim of this program was to improve literacy and logical mathematical intelligence of children in American schools. Later in the 1950s the idea was introduced in Sweden, Denmark and other countries of Europe. Forest school is currently taking place in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Malaysia, Switzerland, Ireland, Germany, UK, Sweden and Denmark as an embedded part of the curriculum for pre-school children.

The latest research shows that today’s children are under too much academic pressure and they know little about the world outside the classroom, in spite of their good grades. The obesity among the youngest is constantly increasing, and many kids suffer from attention deficit disorders, hyperactivity or depression. This probably comes as a result of growing social isolation in early preschool age and lack of stimulating environment to foster their comprehensive development. Unstructured and free outdoor play has been replaced with boring school curriculum and long screen time at home. Modern society limits any sort of physical activity and positive feelings the nature provokes. This is something we definitely have to change.

Copyright: ISchmidt

Therefore, it wouldn’t be a surprise to have forest schools in Serbia too. Every parent should understand the children’s need to spend time outdoors, to engage with nature, enjoying the fresh air and having free play, everything this school model represents. Therefore, it should be introduced in every educational system in order to meet children’s needs and help them overcome various developmental difficulties.

If you agree this is something worth considering, take your child to the nearby park for the start, no matter whether it rains or snows, and let him experience a little piece of happiness.

What are your impressions about Forest Schools? Share with us your comments and views.

The post Forest Schools: A Philosophy of Child-Led Learning appeared first on Novak Djokovic Foundation.

As adults we are all aware of the myriad of dangers that lie in wait for children and it is our greatest desire to keep them safe. Most of the concrete, visible and tangible risks which could befall children are those outside: the risk of traffic on the roads, the risk of drowning in rivers or lakes, the risk of falling from a tree and breaking, at the very least an arm, at the very worst a neck. However, it seems that this has had an adverse effect in that we are keeping our children too safe and, as a consequence damaging their development. So much so that Richard Louv published a book in 2005 entitled Last Child in the Woods, and in it, coining the term ‘nature deficit disorder’ referring to ‘the human costs of alienation from nature, among them: diminished use of the senses, attention difficulties, and higher rates of physical and emotional illnesses.’ Whilst this is not an actual disorder per say, it is a useful term to describe this current social phenomenon.

Following on from this book, the National Trust in the UK commissioned a study entitled Natural Childhood. This examined three specific categories: health problems including obesity, mental health problems as well as children’s growing inability to assess risks, both to themselves and to others. It studied the consequences of the increasing disconnect between children and their natural as children all around the world spend more and more time attached to screens and less and less time outside.

One type of early year’s education could be the solution. Forest Schools, which originated in Scandinavia, are spreading across Europe. In a Forest School, traditionally, all learning takes place outside in woodlands but there have been variations in this. Meadows and beaches are also being used and time spent outdoors can vary from full days, to half-days, to one day in the week. The programme of work is very much child-led with the child following and progressing in their interests. Learning outside stimulates the imagination, creates a real world environment and encourages risk management. All the senses are stimulated and children develop the confidence to take risks. This is one of the most important aspects to this model of education. We cannot eliminate risk from life so it is important to teach children to manage and assess risk from a young age. Of course this needs to be done in a controlled and supervised way and should:

• Include supportive adults who don’t intervene too early and who point out the risks to children.
• Encourage children to make choices and provide opportunities to keep themselves and others safe.
• Encourage children to assess their own risks.
• Encourage parents to participate in activities.
• Provide small achievable tasks.
• Children should always have appropriate kit and clothing to manage all weather conditions.
• Understand and match the appropriate skills to the child’s ability.

What Proof Is There That an Outdoor Education Can Benefit Your Child?

There have been numerous studies, one of which took place in Sweden over a thirteen month period, which found that children being educated in the forest school were more balanced with greater social skills. They took fewer days off sick and had better concentration and co-ordination than the children from a city pre-school. This was attributed to the greater range of opportunities present for play in nature. Children played for longer with less annoyance and fewer interruptions compared to the children in the city pre-school.  It sounds idyllic even if the thought of being out in all weathers might take a little getting used to.

But Are There Any Disadvantages?

As with all children, the key in getting them to learn is to do it in the way which most suits them. For those who don’t like or don’t seem to thrive in the outdoor environment, this may not be the best educational setting for them. There may also be difficulties in transitioning from a Forest School environment in the Early Years to regular school when the time comes. Additionally it seems that there is a wide variety in the quality of Forest Schools as educational settings as well as how much time is spent outside, so you would need to do a little of your own research and conduct a visit to the one you are interested in. All things considered, if you feel that this is the right environment for your child it could be one in which they would thrive.

What if there are no forest schools in your local area? What activities could you include in your daily routine to get your own flavour of forest school life? Here are some suggestions:

• Art work using natural materials: leaf collages or rubbings of leaves or bark. You could even make collages of words or letters using these natural materials.
• Shelter making using either gathered or manmade materials. What are the differences between them?
• Use the forest as a stage to act out stories.
• Treasure hunts for plants and other natural features. This can lead to discussions about identification and classification of what the children have found.
• Use the forest as a natural obstacle course to improve their coordination.
• Make musical shakers from seeds and pebbles and compare the sounds that they make.

What are your children’s favourite outdoors activities? What do you think about them being out in all weathers? Do get in touch and share your thoughts and ideas.

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