Outdoor Classrooms for Young Children: Unleashing Curiosity, Creativity, Discovery, Teamwork and More

Given the major national focus on making sure all young children are prepared to succeed in school and beyond, it might be tempting to sit kids down at desks with workbooks or flashcards. While those activities may sometimes have a place in early childhood education, child development experts know that young children learn best by moving, exploring, creating, and interacting with peers to make plans and solve problems.   Across the country, an exciting movement has been gaining momentum, working to get kids into outdoor learning environments designed to ignite their natural curiosity and allow them to explore, discover and imagine to their hearts’ content. Twin Cities-based Kinderberry Hill has joined this movement, adding carefully-designed outdoor classrooms to their centers and arranging training and consultation so teachers and young students can make the most of these natural learning environments.   In this Mom Enough episode, Lisa Swan and Sara Reichstadt from Kinderberry Hill join Marti & Erin to talk about the benefits of nature experience and outdoor learning and to share stories of what they have seen their students do in these outdoor classrooms. Knowing parents can support this vibrant approach to learning, Lisa and Sara also offer practical tips for how you can apply these same outdoor learning concepts at home or in your community.   WHAT HAVE YOU OBSERVED WHEN CHILDREN LEARN OUTDOORS? Have you had a chance to watch children in an outdoor classroom – or just watched groups of young children figuring out what to do in a natural environment? How do you think outdoor classrooms would benefit children in a preschool or elementary school? More broadly, to what extent do you think we should be concerned that children today spend much less time outdoors than earlier generations? Why?   WANT TO LEARN MORE ABOUT THE BENEFITS OF "OUTDOOR CLASSROOMS" AND SIMPLY BEING OUTSIDE? ❉ A NEW VISION FOR OUTDOOR PLAY: AN ADVENTURE PLAYGROUND CONVERSATION WITH AMY FUSSELMAN, AUTHOR OF “SAVAGE PARK”. When writer Amy Fusselman, her husband and young children had an opportunity for a long visit with a friend in Japan, they discovered a whole new kind of “adventure playground” that opened their eyes to a new of thinking about children’s safety, learning, creativity and competence. Listen to this episode with Marti & Erin to learn more!   ❉ PRACTICAL IDEAS TO CONNECT CHILDREN AND NATURE: A CONVERSATION WITH AUTHOR RICHARD LOUV. In this episode of Mom Enough, San Diego journalist Richard Louv discusses his book Vitamin N and shares concrete strategies for families, schools, healthcare organizations and communities to connect children and nature.