Babies and toddlers have an insatiable appetite to explore and move around in their environment. Being outdoors gives them the opportunity to investigate their world with all their senses and their whole bodies.
Feeling the wind or sun on their face; touching the snow or ice; scrabbling in the sand or just listening to the leaves rustling in the wind are all examples of how the outdoors can build up a young child's experiences. But it is often the youngest, least mobile children who miss out on this because of the weather or the logistics involved in getting them from, say, an upstairs room to the garden.
Jools Page, lecturer and programme director for the MA in Early Childhood Education at the University of Sheffield, says: 'It's vital for babies - particularly those at nursery all day - to experience the outdoors, which helps refresh the brain and develop different sensory experiences.'
Child psychologist Jennie Lindon says: 'Babies love looking at things and staring. We want them to be outside because they get fresh air, there is plenty of space to learn and it's a more lively space.'
Freelance education consultant, Sheila Sage, who previously worked for Worcestershire Council as an early years adviser, says that when children spend a lot of time indoors they miss out on outdoor smells. 'Memories are often triggered by smells and it is this type of sensory experience that leads to deep, lifelong learning.'
ON THE MOVE
Being outside offers opportunities for cross-curricular learning. Activities such as sand and water play, painting, and play with dough and cornflour, can all take place outdoors.
Jools Page says: 'There are few activities that can't be done indoors or outdoors with the right planning. It's not only about taking babies out for walks in the local community or putting them in prams to watch other children play. Practitioners need to take the very young children outside in their arms, interact with them and let them roll around on a mat.'
When they are mobile, children should be outside with practitioners, moving around, exploring and looking at interesting things.
Julia Manning-Morton, senior lecturer in early childhood studies at London Metropolitan University, says a child's physical development is closely linked to all other areas of learning. 'The stimulation of movement in physical play enables babies' and young children's brains to lay down more and more connections. They need to be exposed to varied physical experiences indoors and outdoors in safe yet challenging environments in order to refine their skills and understanding.'
WHAT TO OFFER
'When looking at equipment, nature is the key resource,' explains Claire Warden, who heads an educational consultancy called Mindstretchers and runs two outdoor nurseries in Scotland. 'But in settings with soft safety surfaces, practitioners should be encouraged to take the first step by providing "nature in a box" - planting herbs, playing with leaves or putting stones in a bowl.'
Sheila Sage says the size or beauty of an outdoor area is not important. 'It's about taking things outside that can help children make their own creations, rather than react to a situation that has been set up. For example, when visiting settings, my colleague and I took a bag full of bricks, camouflage netting and old bits of wood that the children could use to make shelters for their dolls or create small-world environments.' (See Outdoor games).
She adds that providing real bricks and chunky pieces of wood is important because from a very young age, children need to build up the muscles in their whole arm to prepare them for writing.
'They also need to be able to take calculated risks,' says Sage. 'How will they be able to cope in the real world if we remove all the risks?'
Jennie Lindon believes that settings should focus on child-initiated learning outdoors. 'You create the time and opportunities and you don't pre-package. It should be an open-ended experience,' she says.
When it comes to buying outdoor equipment, Lindon argues that it should 'complement what's already there'. She continues: 'Do not add much; enhance the natural environment. Buy decent digging implements, have wheelbarrows and bags available to transport rich natural materials, and invest in some magnifying glasses so that children can look at small insects.' (See Best Buys.)
SHORT BURSTS
The right clothing is vital when taking young children outdoors. Practitioners also need to ensure that the least mobile children are not sitting around for very long periods and getting cold.
Jools Page advises practitioners to think about taking the babies outside for 'short bursts' and says there is no reason for practitioners not to take babies out in their arms while the others are sleeping.
'The difficulties - such as upstairs rooms, getting wrapped up warm - are easy to overcome. Make sure you have extra wet-weather clothing and work sensitively with parents to encourage them to see the benefits of being outdoors,' she says.
After all, without first-hand experience of the outdoors, how can children make sense of the world?
OUTDOOR GAMES
Ribbon writing - Collect different types of ribbons and attach a piece of wood to the end so the child can hold it and watch how the ribbons behave in the wind.
Tin lids - Hang tin lids or saucepans on a fence and provide different types of banging instruments - lollypop sticks, wooden spoons, metal spoons.
Off-cuts of wood - Children can use them to make towers or stepping stones.
Tubes - Collect paper household tubes and drainpipes and cut them into different sizes. Children love to peer through them and make sounds. Add holes so that the children can poke earth and soil or fir cones through them.
Deep tubs and builders' trays - Fill them with sand or compost and water, and provide buckets and sieves and spades so that they can dig and transport the materials.
Feathers and silk scarves - Let babies peer through the scarves and touch the feathers as they float to the ground.
CASE STUDY
At Mayfield House Kindergarten, a 36-place private day nursery in Kidderminster, the under-twos are part of daily outdoor life. In the grounds of the large Victorian house there is an orchard, a chicken farm, a sensory garden, a vegetable plot and a tree house.
Nursery owner Heidi Munday says: 'Being outside is just part of the day here. We just potter in and out all year round.' Staff take the babies and toddlers outside in stages or on a one-to-one basis so that they can interact with them and nature.
'They also carry them in slings to the allotment to pick vegetables and they collect the warm eggs from the chickens and pick apples from the trees. At naptimes, babies sleep outside in prams, unless it's foggy. They also sit in the baby hammock, which hangs from the wooden pergola at the entrance of the garden, and breathe in the scent of the roses and clematis that climb up it.
'In the garden, which can be accessed from the baby room, they can crawl or walk through a hidden area surrounded by bamboos and fragrant herbs to reach raised wooden decking part-covered with picnic blankets and fluffy cushions.
'There is also a low-level water play area for non-walkers and a raised sandpit area surrounded by mirrors. The sandpits are at different heights and can be reached by ramps. In another corner of the garden, there is a firepit surrounded by fallen logs. All year round the staff cook meals on the fire and the whole nursery eats together outside.
'Apart from protective clothing, which is vital, you don't need equipment. Just use what's there in the real world. We have lots of ribbons hanging in the trees, a wooden fence that children love to weave willows into, and lots of brooms.'
BEST BUYS
Large magnifiers - Easy-to-hold magnifiers from www.mindstretchers.co.uk, made of rubberwood, priced at £25 for a set of four.
All-in-one rainsuit - Soft waterproofs in sizes 6-12 months up to 3-4 years. From www.raindrops.co.uk, priced at £25.95.
FURTHER READING
- Working with Babies and Children: From Birth to Three by Cathy Nutbrown and Jools Page (Sage)
- People Under Three: Young Children in Day Care by Elinor Goldschmied and Sonia Jackson (Routledge)
- Key Times for Play: The First Three Years (Debating Play) by Julia Manning-Morton and Maggie Thorp (Open University Press)
