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Don't you love
Autumn sunlight?
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I went to a professional development course recently, at one of our local
marae. It was about Outdoor Learning Spaces and gosh it was inspiring! The speaker was Robin Christie, of
Childspace and he spoke a lot about how children NEED to be outside-at least 70% of the time. According to him, anything that can be done inside can be done outside (yes,really, there are these "
forest kindergartens" in Scotland, with actual "toilet trees", if you know what I mean?)
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He said
"children will love what they know, and they will protect what they love." I adored that quote, and dutifully scribbled it down in my diary, and it's stuck with me because we all want our children to love and protect our environment, don't we?
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He also talked about how we as adults are so protective of children when it comes to weather! And he was
so right! I mean, I can't begin to count how many times I've been outside with a group of children, and it's started to patter with rain, so immediately I've gathered them all together to go inside for shelter! A wonderful teacher I worked with once cut up a tarpaulin into squares, with a hole for the head, and made a set of rain ponchos so that the children could stay outside in the rain-
because it's rain-they've got to experience it!
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Anyway, it got me to thinking, about how I could implement these ideas at
home as well as at work. Winter is fast approaching, but I still want my children to be outside as much as possible. (Anyway, Winter S
chminter-apparently there are preschools in Denmark where in their Winter there are only 4 hours of daylight in an
actual day, but they still spend almost the whole day outside, they have
these amazing snowsuits and the playground is lit by these HUGE globe-like lamps. It's incredible!). So I've set up an outdoor play space round the side of my house. It's close enough that I can have the door open and still hear them, but still
outside enough that I can now officially utter that phrase of old that I remember so well from my own childhood...
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"Run along outside and play now!"
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It seems to be going down quite well so far!
+001.JPG)
Don't you love Autumn sunlight?+002.JPG)
I went to a professional development course recently, at one of our local marae. It was about Outdoor Learning Spaces and gosh it was inspiring! The speaker was Robin Christie, of Childspace and he spoke a lot about how children NEED to be outside-at least 70% of the time. According to him, anything that can be done inside can be done outside (yes,really, there are these "forest kindergartens" in Scotland, with actual "toilet trees", if you know what I mean?)+003.JPG)
He said "children will love what they know, and they will protect what they love." I adored that quote, and dutifully scribbled it down in my diary, and it's stuck with me because we all want our children to love and protect our environment, don't we?+010.JPG)
He also talked about how we as adults are so protective of children when it comes to weather! And he was so right! I mean, I can't begin to count how many times I've been outside with a group of children, and it's started to patter with rain, so immediately I've gathered them all together to go inside for shelter! A wonderful teacher I worked with once cut up a tarpaulin into squares, with a hole for the head, and made a set of rain ponchos so that the children could stay outside in the rain-because it's rain-they've got to experience it!+011.JPG)
Anyway, it got me to thinking, about how I could implement these ideas at home as well as at work. Winter is fast approaching, but I still want my children to be outside as much as possible. (Anyway, Winter Schminter-apparently there are preschools in Denmark where in their Winter there are only 4 hours of daylight in an actual day, but they still spend almost the whole day outside, they have these amazing snowsuits and the playground is lit by these HUGE globe-like lamps. It's incredible!). So I've set up an outdoor play space round the side of my house. It's close enough that I can have the door open and still hear them, but still outside enough that I can now officially utter that phrase of old that I remember so well from my own childhood...+015.JPG)
"Run along outside and play now!"+013.JPG)
It seems to be going down quite well so far!
This is very inspiring! Being outside doesn't have to mean organising "activities", just letting them get to it.
ReplyDeleteA very inspiring post ~ thanks so much for sharing. All so true too...xx
ReplyDeleteI agree, very inspiring!! Heh, and Finley and Kyan also have matching lawnmowers.
ReplyDeleteMy little girl has just discovered in the last couple of months how much she LOVES to be outside! Fortunately the summer is on its way here in the UK, so there should be plenty of opportunity. I really need to toddler-proof my back garden so that she can be out there without me breathing down her neck. I totally agree about staying out in all weathers too - one of the most useful things she owns is her waterproof trousers. She could play in the park all winter long when other children were being dragged past because the slide was too wet!
ReplyDelete