outdoor play

The red blanket: a tangle of agency

I’ve long wanted to find, support and create mechanisms for sharing the knowledge that is being generated through research at universities in a way that enables practitioners to deepen their own thinking, provision and practice outdoors.  So I’m really pleased that this strand in the work of ECO is developing so well! In recent months …

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Why did I set up the Outdoor Teacher?

It’s always exciting when a new collaboration comes about that joins up more of the people and organisations who share the mission of enabling young children to have more frequent, longer and richer experiences in and with the outdoors – just what Early Childhood Outdoors is about! In August, Marina Robb, advocate for the integration …

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Outdoor play books now all available in one place!

A marvellous collaborationA bespoke online bookstore for almost all of the books for adults on Outdoor Play published in the UK (and some from beyond) is now available, thanks to a great collaboration between Early Childhood Outdoors and Richard Myers at Books Education. Richard has been providing a fantastic range of books on all aspects of …

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Children’s empowerment in play

Two of the central aims of Early Childhood Outdoors are to connect people and organisations who are working to provide strong outdoor experiences for young children and to dig into what it means to provide education through play outdoors.  Dr. Natalie Canning’s research on Children’s Empowerment in Play fits perfectly with these aims, so I’m …

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The most powerful trend in early childhood environment design across the world

It’s been some time since we shared another of Kathy Brodie’s 16 interviews from the Spring 2018 Outdoor Play and Learning summit, and this one is so very relevant as we welcome many more families back to early years settings in the UK with a focus on wellbeing and a ‘green recovery’.  Alongside the global …

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Learning in the outdoors and listening to Froebel

Everyone knows the term Kindergarten, and most likely knows that this term meaning ‘Garden of Children’ was invented by Friedrich Froebel – but not so many will be aware of just how rich and profound Froebel’s thinking was, and just how deeply this understanding is woven into early childhood care and education today. Of course, …

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Nature showed us the way

It’s always fascinating to listen the thinking that sits underneath provision and practice outdoors, and to hear about the journey people have taken and how that happened.  A couple of weeks ago, Rachel was part of a small group within the Early Childhood Outdoors meshwork discussing (online) how those involved in all-outdoor nurseries might develop …

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Opening up the outdoors after lockdown

Having opened last October to the wettest autumn ever and then had to close in March due to the lockdown Janet Packer, co-owner/manager of Growing Wild Outdoor Nursery in Barnsley, continues to share their fully outdoor journey with the ECO meshwork as they cautiously reopened this June – with the same optimistic surprise that many …

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