A 2½-year-old boy named Ben was ankle-deep in a Jefferson County creek when suddenly he lost his footing and plopped onto his bottom in the cold shallow water. The fall didn’t faze him. Neither did his dripping shorts. He got up and kept playing. About a dozen children frolicked in or near the creek that…
Forest kindergarten or nature school is often referred to a “classroom without walls” where young children spend their time outdoors in nature creating toys with found objects and experiencing little adventures with their imaginations. In Germany, Waldkindergraten (forest kindergraten) is common. And lately, in America, the popularity of “out of the classroom and into the woods” preschools and kindergartens is growing as…
On a recent trip to Colorado we were invited to join Worldmind Nature Immersion School for a session of their Child-Caregiver Forest School at Chatfield Botanical Gardens in Denver. They hold child-caregiver groups for children 0-8, ecological awareness drop off classes for children 4-10, as well as family camping trips seasonally. Aside from this location…
Stream-side schooling? Read how some curriculum is ditching stuffy classrooms for lessons and learning completely outdoors. This is kindergarten redefined. “Your home?” 3-year-old Aiden asks, looking nervously at the slippery slope between him and his friend. As he starts making his way down, he steps and then falls, but he doesn’t cry. Instead, he slips…
On a cold January day, with temperatures hovering just around freezing, a group of 20 kids, 18 months to five years old, and a handful of their parents gathered for a day of kindergarten in Denver City Park. Bundled in warm, waterproof clothes, no one complained of the cold. After all, they signed up for…
In the Unconventional Guide to Improving Handwriting Skills, I set out on a small task that suddenly consumed me with overwhelming information, research and expert opinions on why unstructured outdoor play and loose parts for toys were really the foundation of fine motor skills. After all my research, I was very excited to find that a new forest kindergarten…
Ahh, there’s nothing better than some time with Mother Nature. Breathing the fresh air, being unplugged and disconnected, experiencing the peacefulness of the outdoors … it’s pretty fantastic. When kids go outside and play in nature, there are real benefits to both physical health and emotional well-being. The only problem is, kids are spending less time in nature…