Katie, a child minder has requested today’s post.
I am a fan of getting children out and about whenever possible; so forest schools are right up my street.
I often took the children in my care to the woods when I was a registered child minder- read about it here
I also attended a day’s forest school workshop, it was held at a local nursery who were lucky enough to back onto a small wood.
We were instructed to get into teams and build a den. at first it felt strange to be den building without any children, but we all really enjoyed it and made some great dens which we all sat in while we thought about how children would benefit from doing the same.
Later we went on a scavenger hunt looking for fauna of different colours; we were given a piece of card with a strip of double sided tape to attach our finds. Children would enjoy this simple activity.
Forest schools encourage children to use tools, such as saws, axes and even matches to light fires; this may sound alarming but the children are supervised and taught how to use them properly and safely ( no health and safety gone mad here!).
Mini beast hunts, tree climbing and dam building are other popular activities followed by forest schools.
I spent many a happy afternoon when I was a child making a dam across a steam, my sisters and I would also have fun skimming stones across the water.
Benefits of forest schools to both children and adults are:-
They can help with confidence and a sense of achievement.
As the activities are outside in the fresh air and often physical they will help with fitness and may also help everyone to sleep better and even help improve behaviour.
Children learn to be more independent,
What is there not to love about forest schools?
Please share any experiences.
I would like to thank Tina Day for letting me use her photos in this post.
As always questions, comments and topic suggestions are welcome.
Until next time.
Karen
x
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I do a lot of outdoor learning with my minded children, it has really raised their self esteem. I am in fact training to be a Forest school leader but struggle to separate the eyfs from Forest school, but in truth Forest school sessions can be kept pure Forest school as I can utilise other times of day like the school run and journeys to incorporate the parts of the eyfs that cannot be reached in the Forest. This may be my inexperience but it really doesn’t matter too much because the confidence, strength building, physical play, imagination etc that we are achieving is benefitting the children and myself already.
Thanks for sharing your experience ,good luck with the forest school training x
I love the dea of forest schools, it sounds very similar to my activity hour here on the farm #GlobalBlogging
You may not believe this but so impressed was I by the concept of forest schools that I moved us to a house in the middle of a forest. We get a lot of long walks and see nature up close. We have tried some forest school stuff too but the issue is my husband who is ex-military so makes it more of a test than a joy. #GlobalBlogging
That’s amazing, Kate, moving to within a forest!
I love the idea of forest schools – up until recently I hadn’t heard of these so thanks for bring up this topic :). I’ve often played in woodlands as a child and think I learned a lot, even though this wouldn’t have been a formalised setting. It’s a wonderful concept!! #globalblogging
I think that there are many people who are not aware of forest schools, I wasn’t until I became a registered child minder
My son loves it when it is Forest School time at school. His favourite activity, although he loves them all, has been making a flag using natural printing. I think he really just liked whacking the leaves with hammers! #BloggerClubUK
My son would love this, is obsessed with climbing trees X #anythinggoes
I don’t think we have them here but I have read a bit about them…#Stayclassymama
Bit late for our kids, but they sure look like fun #ABloggingGoodTime
I believe they have forest school type sessions here in the forest of dean. I think all kids should be encouraged to try it.
#abitofeverything
Children love being outdoors so forest schools provide rich opportunities to learn. Thanks for linking up with #globalblogging
I absolutely love the idea of forest schools, I’ve only seen and heard good things about them. Thanks for linking up #twinklytuesday
My older two have forest school at school and nursery and love it! It’s so good for them #ablogginggoodtime
They are lucky children to have access to them, thanks for sharing
Our infants has a forest school attached but I’m not sure how much they use it 🙁 Thanks for linking up with #stayclassymama
I’ve always wanted to take my kids to forest school, but there are none near by to us. This has definitely inspired me to search harder! #KidsandKreativity
We’ve never tried a forest school although we love spending time outdoors and have done scavenger hunts and similar activities. It does sound like such a wonderful experience for children though and always good to encourage children to get outdoors as well. #KidsandKreativity
We love forest school, my eldest attends one weekly with his pre-school and we also go to a drop in one with our local wildlife trust. The boys really enjoy it and I always come away feeling very peaceful and refreshed. #KidsandKreativity
I love forest schools, sadly our local one only caters for pre-school kids so mine are too old to go now. Thanks for linking up with #KidsandKreativity, hope to see you back next time
I love the idea of Forest School. I also love building dens 🙂
Rowan has been to something similar as a holiday club. I left him there a little bit nervous as he didn’t know anyone, but when I picked him up, he had had a brilliant time, and was absolutely filthy to show for it. Great stuff.
Thanks for stopping by for #AdventureCalling
Forest school is a great idea and definitely good for building confidence. Finn has done a couple of sessions and he had a ball, by the end he was so much more outgoing. \Thanks for linking up #AdventureCalling