Outdoors: key 3 - Freedom to choose

A number of core organisational issues make all the difference to how well outdoor provision works for everyone, on a daily basis throughout the year. Paying attention to these ‘12 Keys to Unlocking Learning Outdoors’ and working on them as a team over time gradually unlocks the wonderful potential of the outdoors as an enjoyable, effective and empowering environment for learning in the early years. This feature focuses on the importance of children being able to choose when they want to be outside.

KEY 3: TIME SPENT OUTDOORS

WHY IS THIS ISSUE KEY TO UNLOCKING THE OUTDOORS?

Research and guidelines for such health issues as physical activity and vision development are increasingly insistent that for biological and physiological reasons alone, children should be active and outdoors for several hours every single day. Add to these the emotional and spiritual arguments for nature connection, as well as the very high value of outdoor environments for supporting enquiry, discovery and cognitive growth and being the perfect place for creative and social development, and it actually becomes hard to justify keeping children indoors.