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Working With Children Outdoors
December 29, 2014
The more joy we have, the more nearly perfect we are.
-Benedict De Spinoza
-Benedict De Spinoza
In his popular book, Cultivating Outdoor Classrooms, Eric Nelson makes this observation:
"Working outdoors with children is different because the space is larger and has a different nature (pun intended). Outdoors, children should be less controlled and directed by adults. They can engage in more complex and less structured activities. This doesn't mean they're out of control — it means that when they are deeply engaged, they are focused, happy and peaceful, even when very energetic.
"Because outdoor play is so open ended, teachers are often puzzled about their role in it. Given that today such an issue is made of children's safety, many teachers decide that their role is to control children's actions to ensure that no one gets hurt. Such thinking fails to distinguish between supervision and control; it often takes the form of telling children what to do — including how to play. While this may make children safer in the short term, in the long run, it increases their risk because it fails to give them opportunities to manage their own risks successfully. Children who aren't given the chance to learn how to manage themselves often get into trouble as soon as the teacher isn't present. That's hard on the child and hard on you."
Working Forum on Design and Nature:
Designing Inspiring and Effective Spaces for Children
March 11-14, 2015
Rotorua, New Zealand
Join architects, landscape architects, planners, educators, environmental educators, funders, and elected officials in a first-of-its kind event to explore high-level universal principles necessary in designing effective spaces for children. These four universal principles will weave through the conference:
- The power and importance of collaboration — why the architect, landscape architect, and educator (and child’s) voice must all be part of the design process.
- The importance of respecting the context of space and place in the design process.
- The importance of the connection between inside and outside spaces in the design process.
- The importance of the intention for the space (the pedagogy) in guiding the design process.
Participants will work in multidisciplinary teams to create indoor and outdoor designs for three programs from various parts of the world. The programs have either been affected by natural disasters and/or serve vulnerable children and families. Through this real-life design process, each of the four themes above will be explored in depth.
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Comments (3)
Displaying All 3 CommentsA Natural Branch of Learning
Washburn, Wisconsin, United States
In our outdoor program, A Natural Branch of Learning on the shores of Lake Superior, we have documented how children play at our forest play sites and along our trails. Like looking at electrocardiograms of beating hearts, we use our notes and short videos to continually adjust play sites and shape them in small ways to incorporate and expand opportunities for the kinds of play possibilities that draw children's attention. Our intention is to spark children's interactions with one another, stimulate their thinking and problem solving, support their spontaneous expressive play, and provide many opportunities for highly exertive physical play in our beautiful boreal forest.
Spirit Child Yoga & RECE
Aurora, ON, Canada
Brilliantly said! The difference between control and supervision is not clearly understood by many. The whole, "Up the stairs and down the slide," safety business makes me nuts. Surely children can enjoy the learning and challenge with trying to climb up the slide, with supervision.
I often see outdoor time used by staff as the only time to actually chat, so they do. As a result, no one is engaging with the children. Well-meaning supervisors come along and tell the staff they must therefore, "stay in the zone" she tells them for the "safety of the children". I'd rather see the staff chatting and the children in unstructured play. Most of our southern Ontario playgrounds are so sterile, that there's very little to challenge them anyway.
The move back to naturalized playgrounds and gardens, forest schools, etc. makes me so happy for the children.
Denver, CO, United States
The main reason teachers do not know how to effectively teach children in outdoor settings is because this is not taught in college classes, and little has been written about the process. I agree that learning outside is totally different from learning inside. This means we need to help teachers - particularly teachers who did not grow up using the wonderful outdoor resources - various ways the outdoors can be used to teach a variety of social, behavioral, emotional and academic concepts and skills.
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