Early Childhood Outdoors works with organisations and companies sharing the mission to increase the amount and quality of outdoor experience children from birth to seven have in their daily lives. Through liaising with a wide range of ‘collaborators’ our aim is to enhance each other’s work, enabling and supporting however we can. Dipping once more into …
One hundred years ago, amidst prevalent airborne respiratory diseases including TB and Spanish Flu, the very popular Open Air Movement gave great attention to providing children of all ages with a combination of health-improving conditions that included large amounts of time in cool, fresh air. Indeed, the British Nursery School tradition was born from this …
As settings begin preparations for moving out of lockdown towards a new normal, a great deal of anxious thinking and careful planning is being carried out throughout the UK. We’ve heard before from a parent in the Beatle Woods Outdoor Nursery community and in this post, owner/manager Rachel Macbeth-Webb shares a passionate call for us …
The current situation with most children staying at home has caused many a personal reflection on how we have been living our lives, what actually matters to us and what children really need for on-going wellbeing and healthy development. And of course this has also sparked many a thought for how we might find and …
Mainstreaming learning outdoors as part of our new normal Read More »
Following the shock of having to temporarily close or significantly limit the numbers of children attending during the emergency pandemic response, emotional upheaval and destabilisation for staff is likely – especially in a newly opened setting that is working hard at becoming established. Negative feelings can easily be front-of-mind, perhaps focusing upon what is being …
We were of course very disappointed not to be able to hold the first of our ECO research seminars on 27th March this year. However, we have two great pieces of news. Firstly, Nicola and Jo have published the first report from their research project, summarising their search of the research literature (and the lack …
This week’s ECO blog post is an intriguing reflection about the power of life outdoors as a two-year-old for adding verbal language to his toolkit for thinking and sharing experiences. As a writer, I am very aware of how I run a whole range of word-strings back and forth in order to say what I …
Through the ‘Driving and Guiding Research’ strand of Early Childhood Outdoors’ work, we aim to find mechanisms for sharing the knowledge that is being generated through all levels of academic enquiry, and to make research findings available for practitioners to apply in developing provision and practice outdoors. This post shares findings from the study (now …
Researching parent’s perceptions of learning outdoors Read More »
The immediate locality around the nursery is a remarkable resource that is unfortunately rarely tapped by most early years settings – even though many Childminders routinely take the children they care for out and about. This wonderful project in Stoke should inspire and motivate practitioners to notice just how much there is of value for …
Parents and carers are key to increasing the amount of time young children spend outside each day and to enabling a life long love of being in and caring for nature. Early Childhood Outdoors seeks to raise parental awareness regarding the importance and value of being outside in childhood and beyond. We also seek to …
