More recognition of the value of outdoor learning

While we were at the BGEN (Botanical Garden Education Network) conference we discovered that the Welsh Assembly’s new Foundation Phase for 3-7 year olds favours a play-based approach to learning, and that 25% of the children’s education should be delivered outside. We were excited to find out about this, as it demonstrates recognition of the importance of natural outdoor experiences for developing minds. Cognitive learning cannot just be taught in the classroom, it depends on having opportunities to develop physical, emotional, social and conceptual (common sense understanding of the world) knowledge, all of which are learnt through first hand outdoor experience.Although England is running behind as far as legislation is concerned, we are definitely moving in the right direction. The "Ofsted's October 2008 report evaluates the importance of leaning outside the classroom and demonstrates that high quality learning outside the classroom is a significant factor in raising standards and improving personal development. Among the key findings the report showed that hands-on activities led to improved outcomes for pupils and students, including better achievement, standards, motivation, personal development and behaviour. For further information see www.growingschools.org.uk/News/news8.aspx and follow links for more information on October 2008 Ofsted report. The manifesto (2006) on Learning outside the classroom can be seen at www.teachernet.gov.uk/teachingandlearning/resourcematerials/outsideclassroom/We hope that parents too may stop wrapping their kids up in cotton wool and denying them opportunities to play outdoors. Children's health, happiness and learning is not only dependant on what school they go to, or how much homework they do, but also how many opportunities they have to make a den or camp in the woods! Lets hope more children will get to experience these opportunities so there will be fewer of them spending hours in front of the TV and more outside making mud pies!

Botanical Gardens Education Network (BGEN) Conference at the Eden Project

We have just come back from the Eden Project in Cornwall. We were extremely privileged to be invited to run two workshops looking at How we Learn at the 2008 BGEN conferenceIt was wonderful to be amongst so many people all passionate about the natural world, sharing a belief that it is vital to reconnect children to the world they live in before so much knowledge and memories are lost. Many benefits of a childhood rich in natural outdoor exploration were highlighted and ideas to make it more appealing were discussed.Everyone seemed committed to delivering high quality education programs designed to give as many children as possible the opportunity for hands on real experiences outdoors. Perhaps this will ensure a generation of more balanced, healthier individuals who value and respect the natural environment and will be more prepared to secure the future of our planet.

Edinburgh book festival August 2008

We felt very honoured to be invited to speak at this year’s Edinburgh International Book festival; this was a wonderful opportunity to spread the word about encouraging more children and young people to get outdoors to experience real world adventures! It was also exciting for us to be part of the festival and to meet other writers.

We were delighted to meet Sue Palmer, author of Toxic Childhood and Detoxing Childhood. We enjoyed her inspiring talk about the multitude of pressures on children and families in today’s fast changing world, and were delighted to find that among the solutions she offered was to give children more opportunities to play outside.

She believes children need physical, emotional, social and conceptual development (common sense understanding of the world) to enable cognitive learning and to grow into well balanced individuals. Today the scales have tipped rather heavily so the emphasis is on academic learning, and children are not getting opportunities for real, hands on play that is creative and imaginative, which provides opportunities to encounter and learn about risk and which lets children become more independent and learn to get along with others.

We could not agree more and want to try and raise parents awareness to the importance of getting their kids off the sofas, away from the marketing bombardment and the screens and interact in the real world.
Sue has very kindly provided a few words of endorsement for our next book Go Wild, we hope people will follow her advice. Thank you Sue!!

"Go Wild" is just what families need to escape from virtual worlds and rediscover the wonders of the real one. It provides the perfect recipe for transforming cotton wool kids into confident, independent, resilient young people. Every family should have a copy."

Wilderness gathering

This year we decided to have a little stall at the Wilderness Gathering. If you have never been or never heard of this annual festival of Bushcraft, survival and primitive skills, you really should have a look at www.wildernessgathering.co.uk. The Wilderness Gathering is held every August at the Bush Farm Bison Centre in Wiltshire.

There is something for everyone; this is a wonderful opportunity for families to try out a range of exciting outdoor activities and adventures such as tracking, whittling, basket making, foraging and making a bow and arrow. The organisers aim to bring together all those interested in bushcraft and wilderness skills to enjoy a weekend in a relaxed and family-friendly atmosphere in beautiful surroundings. Experts are on hand to run workshops and provide advice on everything to do with bushcraft. You can either go for one day or spend a long weekend wild camping.

The Wilderness Gathering really was a wonderful and inspiring experience and we already have 20th-23rd August down in our diaries for next year! My 12 year old daughter came back full of enthusiasm clutching a basket she had woven, a little leather bag she had made and a wooden spoon she had carved from a hazel branch. To this day she is still repeating the story we heard from master storyteller Jeremy Hastings (Islay Birding) who involved the audience in weaving a wonderful and captivating tale about a 125-year-old granny who had a wheelchair and lived in a tree house. Old and young alike gathered around a roaring fire beneath the stars to listen to stories; who needs the TV or computer games for entertainment?

Play - particularly outdoor, appears to be vital to children's all-round health and well being

The following letter to the Telegraph on 10th September 2007 supports Going Wild's worries and concerns about the disturbing trend towards less outdoor, unstructured play and more sedentary, addictive indoor often screen based entertainment.



"Let our children play - Since last September, when a group of professionals, academics and writers wrote to the Daily Telegraph expressing concern about the marked deterioration in children's mental health, research evidence supporting this case has continued to mount.



Compelling examples have included Unicef's alarming finding that Britain's children are amongst the unhappiest in the developed world, and the children's charity NCH's report of an explosion in children's clinically diagnosable mental health problems.



We believe that a key factor in this disturbing trend is the marked decline over the last 15 years in children's play. Play - particularly outdoor, unstructured, loosely supervised play - appears to be vital to children's all-round health and well-being.

It develops their physical coordination and control; provides opportunities for the first-hand experiences that underpin their understanding of and engagement with the world; facilitates social development (making and keeping friends, dealing with problems, working collaboratively); and cultivates creativity, imagination and emotional resilience. This includes the growth of self-reliance, independence and personal strategies for dealing with and integrating challenging or traumatic experiences.

Many features of modern life seem to have eroded children's play. They include: increases in traffic that make even residential areas unsafe for children; the ready availability of sedentary, sometimes addictive screen-based entertainment; the aggressive marketing of over-elaborae, commercialised toys (with seem to inhibit rather than stimulate creative play); parental anxiety about "stranger danger", meaning that children are increasingly kept indoors; a test-driven school and pre-school curriculum in which formal learning has substantially taken the place of free, unstructured play; and a more pervasive cultural anxiety which, when uncontined by the policy-making process, rountinely contaminates the space needed for authentic play to flourish.

A year on, the signatories of the original letter to the Telegraph are joined by other concerned colleagues in calling for a wide-ranging and informed public dialogue about the intrinsic nature and value of play in children's healthy development, and how we might ensure its place at the heart of the twenty-first century childhood.


270 eminent signatories."



Accepting there is is need to encourage children outside to participate in more unstructured play, our books Nature's Playground and the soon to be published Go Wild aims offer a solution by offering help in the way of fun activity ideas. We hope they may inspire parents, teachers and carers and make it easier to get the kids out!

Mental health problems in children

On a BBc interview in April 08 Bob Reitemeier, Chief Executive of The Children's Society, discussed preliminary evidence from The Good Childhood Inquiry. "The survey of 8,000 14-16 year olds, showed 27% of young people agreed with the statement "I often feel depressed". In a seperate online vote, conducted by CBBC Newsround for the inquiry, 78% of those who voted said they felt fine, good or really good about their health, however a worrying 22% felt bad or really bad. "

"Concern about children's mental health and well being comes admisdst on-going anxiety about children's health more generally. Two-thirds (66%) of those surveyed in the GfK NOP poll said the increase in indoor activities, such as computer games and television watching, prevents children nowadays from being more active, while 88% areed children need more education about healthy diets. There was an overwehelming consensus among respondents that physical health plays a crucial role in mental health, with 95% agreeing to some extent that physical activities are an important element in promoting mental health."

The public can contribute to The Good Childhood Inquiry by logging on to http://www.hundredsandthousands.org/ and sharing their childhood memories. A summary of the findings can be downloaded from http://www.goodchildhood.org.uk/ The inquiry's final report and recommendations will be published in early 2009.

This research adds great weight to the beliefs of Going Wild. It shows there are so many benefits in going outside away from commputers and TV and living a more active childhood. For the health and well being of our children we should all try and make play outside a higher priority in our everyday lives.

Where the wild things are

"We want to see more children playing in woods, says the Woodland Trust". In an article in the Woodland Trust's Spring 2008 Broadleaf magazine, they discuss the importance of unstructured play in wild places. "As childrens' lives become more sedentary there are real concerns about the increased incidence of childhood obesity and other related physical, mental and emotional health problems." The Forestry Commission have acknowleged the need for this and are developing new play spaces in every region with swings and slides but also fallen trees, water, sand or small stream. They are also encouraging kids to build dens in their woods. The Woodland Trust is also thinking along the same lines and want to draw people's attention to the fact they have over 1,000 fantastic play spaces just waiting to be discovered. "All children or adults have to bring is their imagination" says Graham Blight ,the Trust's Learning Programme Manager.

"Getting children to mess about in the woods is part of our long-term conservation strategy." says Andy Beer. There is danger out there but you need to help children judge risk for themselves. "You teach them how to cross the road safely rather than saying you're never allowed near a road, says Rebecca Haskell. And it's the same with woods: they need to learn that judgement." For a list of one of the Trust's woods near you waiting to be explored look at http://www.woodlandtrust.org.uk/

Activities you can do this Spring

SPRING IS IN THE AIR


All winter long the natural world has been patiently lying in wait, biding its time until the first hint of spring is in the air. That hint is simply the combined effect of warmer temperatures and more daylight, which together stimulate growth and activity – bulbs push their way up through the soil, buds begin to swell and open and the birds start collecting nesting materials. This most awaited of all the seasons is suddenly all around us and everything bursts into life - and we too are ready to burst outdoors to feel those first warm rays of sun and make the most of the longer days. So get outdoors and become immersed in the natural world………



Mud glorious Mud!


One spring morning, we set off along a deeply rutted track for a walk to the woods. While Jo and I skirted the wettest stretches of the track, the children were drawn irresistibly to the mud and the puddles. It wasn’t long before one child sank into the mud, and we watched in horror as the runny mud oozed right over the top of his wellies. We waited for the anguished screams – but instead there was delighted laughter as he was pulled from out of the mud by his friends, and then proceeded to abandon his wellies and slosh around barefoot. Once the children had had enough of wading through the mud, they progressed on to moulding and shaping it, creating a whole village of muddy elf houses, some of them with twig walls and wattle walls. The woods just waited for another day.

Mud is a wonderful material for playing with – squidging between the toes, dribbling through fingers, or it can be plastered on faces and made into pies. If you shudder at the thought of your children becoming mud larks, remember that it is just soil - easily washed off and pretty harmless. It doesn’t matter if the children get dirty – just let them have fun and enjoy exploring the natural world. It’s acceptable for boys to get plastered in mud on the football pitch, so why shouldn’t they get muddy while exploring the natural world? Children need the freedom to play outdoors, to have adventures – and to get dirty.


Mud pies and cakes



– An old favourite – encourage them to look for different coloured soils to create layer cakes – what better way to learn that soil varies in colour and texture. Decorate the cakes with twig candles, nuts and seeds.
Mud drawings – Try using a stick to draw in the mud, or try dipping the stick in mud and then using it like paint to make patterns on rocks or tree trunks. Or let them make muddy handprints and footprints on rocks, on paper – or, best of all, on each other.
Mud balls – Roll handfuls of mud to make balls – then try sticking different materials to them – such as moss, dead leaves and grasses. How many mud balls can you balance on top of each other? Who can make the tallest mud ball tower?
Mud bowls and sculptures – The first pots made by humans were created from mud collected straight from the ground; if you can find a patch of clay, have a go at making your own pinch pots – or get creative and make sculptures.

Nest building


No sooner has spring arrived than birds start to gather twigs, grasses, moss and other suitable materials for weaving into nests. One spring holiday Hannah and Edward were inspired to collect lengths of broom, handfuls of moss and a few feathers. They experimented with weaving the materials together to make cup shaped nests, which they then lined with soft mosses. They hid their nests around the garden for their cousins to find the next day – when to their delight a clutch of chocolate eggs had been laid in each little nest.

This activity works best if the children can first have a look at a real bird’s nest, or some photographs of nests – they need to know what they are aiming for.
Organise an expedition to collect nesting materials – this is easy for the children, but remind them how difficult it must be for a small bird carrying one twig at a time!
Let the children choose what sort of nest they wish to make - they may want to make a large twiggy nest like a magpie, a cup nest like a blue tit – or even a mud nest like a house martin.
To make a cup nest, encourage children to weave and thread bendy twigs or stems together to make a base, then use softer materials such as moss, lichen, downy feathers or sheep’s wool as an insulating lining.
Place the nests in hidey-holes in the woods or around the garden. Children like to imagine that birds might come along and use them.
Surprise the children by laying chocolate mini-eggs in the nests – a variation on the Easter egg hunt.

Bows and Arrows

Armed with a bow and arrows, children are transformed into fearsome warriors or magical creatures from storybooks, and every walk becomes an exciting adventure. With only a supple length of hazel and some string, you can help them to create a weapon that will become their pride and joy. This activity is always popular with groups of children, and works well at outdoor parties.

Bows and arrows can be made at any time of year – but the rising sap of spring seems to ensure strong yet flexible bows. Look out for slender stems of young hazel in the hedgerows or the woods and cut lengths for each child.
Make sure the stem is flexible before using it
Carve notches about 2cm from each end
Attach some string around one notch, securing it with a slipknot
Tension the string so the bow forms a wide arc, and twist it a couple of times around the other notch, securing it with a knot.
Ensure the knots are tight before using the bow
Arrows can be made out of thin straight sticks; for added authenticity add feathers for flights.

TIPS


What to take
Mud activities and nest building are all about using what you can find – but before you go do make sure the children are wearing old clothes! For making bows and arrows you will need to be equipped with a couple of penknives and some string.

Safety tips


Mud
Make sure any cuts are covered with waterproof plasters
Always ensure children wash properly after playing with mud

Birds nests
Keep an eye on what materials the children are collecting, and wash hands after the activity

Bows and Arrows
Only let children use knives when they are closely supervised
Adult help is essential when tensioning the bow
Bows and arrows should always be used with care, and under adult supervision
Arrows should never be aimed at people or animals; always make sure that all the bows are laid on the ground before the children rush off to collect their fired arrows


Lots more exciting and inspiring ideas for exploring and enjoying the natural world can be found in Fiona and Jo’s book Nature’s Playground, published by Frances Lincoln, (http://www.franceslincoln.com/).