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An article from the NY Times from an American who had lived in Berlin when his eldest child was young. She was given formal firelighting classes at school.

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At a Berlin day care center, a little boy lights a match and touches it to another, making a sudden flare. The girl sitting next to him shouts a word that is the same in German and English: "Cool!"

The two children, both under 6, aren't breaking any rules. They are taking part in a fire workshop designed by Kain Karawahn, an artist who, as part of a performance piece about freedom in 1987, once set a blaze at the Berlin Wall. No one was hurt.

Now Mr. Karawahn teaches young children how to set safe fires. "The success is not 'Hooray, it's burning!'" he said. "The success is that after my fire, the place looks the same as before, and I look the same as before."

Mr. Karawahn's workshops aim to prevent tragedies caused by children playing with fire in secret. Young children who make a fire alone often won't tell adults for fear of punishment. Even worse, they sometimes hide after setting a fire and end up dying from smoke inhalation.

So Mr. Karawahn teaches children how to burn things properly - how to hold a match, use a lighter, light candles and build small bonfires. He lets them play with fire openly, under adult supervision, so they can indulge their curiosity and learn about fire without feeling the need to do so in secret.

Mr. Karawahn has trained nearly 2,000 educators in Germany in his method and earned the support of fire officials, insurance companies and safety organizations in that country. His approach stands in stark contrast to the "Learn Not to Burn" message promoted by the National Fire Protection Association in the United States, which urges children never to touch matches or lighters, let alone explore their use.

No formal studies have been done on Mr. Karawahn's approach. Yet he has been teaching his workshops for more than a decade, without any reports of his fire-trained children setting structures on fire, he said.

The alternative strategy, the avoidance approach long used by the fire protection association in the United States, likewise has little evidence on its effectiveness. Most research on fires and children has focused on young people who have already been caught setting illicit fires.

The prohibition around children and fire is so ingrained in American culture that I, as an American, never thought to question its wisdom until I moved with my family to Berlin in 2009. There, my 7-year-old daughter came home from school one day, excited to show us what she had learned. She struck a match, carefully pointing it away from her body, and lit a candle. Then, she waved the match out and watched the candle flame intently, her face glowing with pride.

Our fascination with fire runs deep. "It's very clear we have been dependent on fire for a long, long time, and it has been integral to our evolution as a highly intelligent, information using species," said Daniel Fessler, an evolutionary anthropologist at the University of California, Los Angeles. Fire served as protection, warmth and a means to a higher quality diet, which may have allowed our pre-human ancestors to develop bigger brains, he said.

Natural selection may even have favored individuals who learned how to master fire early, he speculates. In other words, our children may come preprogrammed to play with fire, and if so, it's an impulse extremely difficult to suppress.

This may be why, despite 40 years of prohibition, on average more than 49,000 fires reported to fire departments in the United States each year are caused by children playing with fire - with 43 percent of house fires caused by children under the age of 6, according to the National Fire Protection Association.

In Germany, the shift in thinking about fire safety is widely credited to Günter and Gryta Julga, a married couple in Hamburg. He was a fire chief and she was a teacher. In the 1980s, they combined their expertise to develop an educational program for school-age children that removed the prohibitions against fire. Many German fire departments now embrace the Julgas' ideas.

"All the things you prohibit are interesting for young children, and the more you prohibit them, the more interesting they are," said Frieder Kircher, a deputy assistant chief with the Berlin Fire Department.

Mr. Karawahn, the artist, has taken fire training to a new level, giving weeklong workshops to 5- and 6-year-olds in kindergartens and day care centers for over a decade. More recently, he has had these older children serve as "fire experts" to teach other children as young as 3.

"That's a serious mistake," said Paul Schwartzman, an American mental health counselor who's worked with the fire protection association for 20 years. Children at age 3 or 4 "are just not developmentally able to handle that responsibility," he said. "They don't have the intellectual ability to understand what's going to happen or how quickly it can get out of control." Even supervised training for 6-year-olds sends the wrong message, Mr. Schwartzman believes, giving children false confidence that they can handle fires on their own.

In cultures where making fires is still central to cooking and everyday chores, children do learn to manage fire at a young age. Dr. Fessler found that in 19 societies, ranging from the Yanomami in Venezuela to the Kipsigis in Kenya, children start learning about fire as young as toddlers and master its use between 5 and 8. That's not the case in most Western societies, where fire competency is delayed until adolescence or later. Mr. Schwartzman maintains that without the constant managed learning found in fire-using cultures, it's dangerous to allow children to use fire.

As a family with two children who have lived in Germany and are now back in the United States, we were left with something of a disconnect. While my daughter had some fire training in Berlin, her younger brother, now 7, lacks formal classroom experience with fire. Ultimately, we chose the philosophy that views our child as capable rather than trying to stifle his innate curiosity.

"Would you like to light some candles?" I asked my son.

"Yes!" he said with surprising enthusiasm.

So I sat him down and showed him how to strike a match.

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At a Berlin day care center, a little boy lights a match and touches it to another, making a sudden flare. The girl sitting next to him shouts a word that is the same in German and English: "Cool!" The two children, both under 6, aren't breaking any rules.

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A presentation from Inspiring School Grounds conference Bali, 2015. Click and press 'view original'

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Designing for Inclusive Nature Play Spaces Wendy Seymour.pdf

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I have basically spent the summer making a list in my head of all the fun outdoor activities for kids I can think of. Why? Don't ask me! It is the slightly tragic nature of a blogger I think, to turn everything you do into a (mostly unpublished) blog post.Every fun thing we have done outside (and there's been a humoungous about of fun activities- check out Instagram) has gone on The Great List Of Outdoor Activities In My Head.

Well, what is the point of an In-My-Head list? Eh? Eh? NO POINT.

So here it is, the Very Ultimate, the Mostly Free, the Really Fun List of Outdoor Activities for Kids. Thank me later. Actually you probably won't because you'll never look at a screen again as you'll be having too much fun outdoors with the kids. Harumph.

Oh hey, those super dooper organised ones out there - you could print this list out and cut it up and have an instant "Outdoor Activities Jar" and then whenever you are looking for things to do that are free and fun and outside you can pick one out and VOILA!

Why play outside?
Whilst writing my book, 30 Days of Rewilding, I researched just how happy and healthy the outdoors can make us. There is quite a lot of evidence that suggests mud can fight depression (really!) and living with a green space close by makes you live longer (I KNOW!) - connecting with nature has a hugely restorative role.

For children in particular, I feel that the Great Outdoors is BIG enough for them! It can hold their rambunctiousness, their loudness and their energy. We don't have to say "Use your inside voice" or keep nagging them to stop being so wild. These outside activities don't come come with a "NO JUMPING NO RUNNING NO SHOUTING NO BALL GAMES" sign like so many areas of our children's lives do! Because the earth can absorb it all - our children can be fully themselves outdoors.

The wilderness is enough for our children's wild side.

I love that.

So here we go, 80 fun outdoor activities for kids!

Fun Outdoor Activities for kids in the garden
The ideal place for dabbling your feet in the Great Outdoors is obviously your garden! I believe gardeners are up there with oil-rig climbing activists in terms of protecting the planet. Getting children involved in gardening activities is the first step in nurturing nature lovers, I reckon.
Make bird feeders. Collect pine cones, spread lard on the segments and cover with seeds. Hang on the trees!

Little fingers are great at weeding. Show them the easily identifiable weeds to pull.

Get a seed catalogue and let your children chose the flowers they want to grow.

Little hands are great at digging. Get the children to plant the holes for the flowers they want to plant.

Plant a small herb garden with your child, let them know it is theirs to care for.

Let your children pinch out the new shoots on the tomato plants.

Let the children harvest the vegetables - they will only learn to be careful with the practice!

Put the kids in charge of watering - this is a critical job and one they can do so well!

Build a worm bin for your scraps - see a how to here - and put your children in charge of collecting the right scraps and monitoring the worms health.

Build a compost heap your children and put them in charge of checking the temperature - see a how to here!

Make a mud wall. Dig up a little corner of your garden till you get to the kind of clay-like dirt. Plaster a bit of your fence with it and then start moulding faces into it, this is something epic that the kids can work on everyday - it will soon look like you have a wall of gargoyles!
make clay sculptures. Alternatively, take actual clay (not just mud) and mould them into faces on the trees in your garden. Red Ted Art has done this with her children - amazing photos here.

Playing outdoors!
"Our challenge isn't so much to teach children about the natural world, but to find ways to nurture and sustain the instinctive connections they already carry."
- Terry Krautwurst

Fun Outdoor Activities for kids in the forest
Every town has a nature reserve - it doesn't have to be a great forest, a simple local woodland where trees are gathered will do. Cool in the summer, covered in the rain, forests are the ideal environment for outdoor activities.

Build a den. There is a traditional technique where you perch one big long stick in the V of a tree to make a sloping spine for the roof. You then lean long sticks against it. But I'm sure you and the kids will come up with your own way!

Go on a scavenger hunt. Create a list of things to find; mushrooms, feathers, birds nest, badger holes. Go on a mission to find them.

Give the kids a camera and let them make a nature documentary.

Roll a log onto its side and discover all the critters living beneath it.

Make a crown out of leaves and twigs.

Use your den as a stake out, wait and watch and record the wild life you see. (If you do it at dusk you might get lucky and spot some badgers.)

Whittle sticks into arrows and use a tree stump as target practice.

Take paper and pencils and take bark and leaf rubbings. (For those of you who missed out on this as a child: put the paper on top of the thing you want to rub, then gently move your pencil over the top.)

Weave with nature. Make a grid out of twigs tied together with thin strips of flax. Now you can weave weeds and blossoms all the way through it.

Collect a hamper of nature's wonders to bring home for a seasonal nature table.

Play wild bingo - like a scavenger hunt but better - there are downloadable ones here by the amazing blog Seeds and Stitches.

"If a child is to keep his inborn sense of wonder, he needs the companionship of at least one adult who can share it, rediscovering with him the joy, excitement, and mystery of the world we live in."
Rachel Carson

Fun Outdoor Activities for kids at the beach
The place I hear the call of the wild the loudest? At the beach! If you go there often enough you need to "do" anything- the sounds of the crashing waves and the amazing textures and treasures are totally enough. But to get started with the fun, check out these activities.
Float a log out to see and then try and sink it by throwing stones at it. (Tim and I used to play this all the time before we had kids HA HA - genuinely fun!)

Create a dam system right by the tide mark - help your children stoke up their engineering minds by working out a plan for building a dam. You need a lower bed of stones/ sand, and then you need to build the dam bit up. Too much fun to try and capture water in it, without letting the dam wash a way.

Chasing waves - it is a classic not to be overlooked. This is perfect for children of all ages. If it is a nice day you need more of a penalty than "got wet by an incoming wave" - work out some kind of jail for kids to go in when they get wet.

Body surfing - there is a technique for this awesome surfing with out a board - check it out here.

Sand sculptures - like sand castles but more intense. My girls love making giant, fancy mermaids using all the stuff the tide washes up.

Drift wood monsters - build up monsters using driftwood and seaweed.

Crabbing - turn over rocks at low tide to see some great ones. Alternatively grab a net, some bait and a wharf (ideally.) Crabs are such fascinating creatures, with their weird goggly eyes and drunken stagger.

Fun Games to Play Outside
As well as activities there are loads of games for kids to play outside. Here are a few new ones and a few classics too.

Kubb is one of those games I have been recently introduced to which I love. It does need a bit of makey do before hand, but once you have it it will basically become a family heirloom. Think chucking bits of wood around in a systematic, strategic way. Yep, you got it: Viking Chess. Here is how to make and play Kubb.

Bowls... Whatever it is NOT just for grandmas. You see, you, the toddlers and the teens will get right into this, you will! And there is a set of bowls in every charity shop I have ever been in ever. So. yeah.

Hit the target. If going out and getting a fancy set of bowls doesn't float your boat, simply set up a bit of target practice with whatever you have to hand. Pin a scarf on to a tree and then collect a load of pine cones. Wile away hours trying to hit bullseye. You will. you really will!

Sardines - I was tempted to say "Hide and Seek" but you can see this list is an original one and Hide and Seek has no place on an original list of things to do outside, hello?! Ha. Sardines on the other hand - it is quite an underrated classic! In this game once person hides while the whole crowd counts to 50. Then the crowd split up to hunt down the hider. When they find them they just hide with them, until everybody is hiding there. It makes me giggle just to think about it!

What time is it Mister Wolf? Oh, talking about fits of giggles! This is a childhood game that involves kids of all ages, perfect for outside. You have a wolf, with her back to you, and a set of keys (or another item) set just below her back. All the kids stand 6 metres away and ask "What's the time Mister Wolf?" while she is thinking of and saying her answer the kids trying and sneak up to grab the keys and take them back to the finish line. But after the wolf has said "XXX o clock" she turns around and everyone has to freeze. If she sees someone moving they are out, and if the keys are gone she has to guess who is holding them. FUN FUN FUN!

Fun Outdoor Activities for kids on a camping trip
A lot of the beauty of camping lies in the being - you know? Not busying yourself with activities and games... but sometimes you need a bit of inspo, right? These outdoor activities are great for any time but ESPECIALLY whilst camping!
Build a fire, wrap potatoes in two layers of tin foil and cook them up. The taste of fire-baked spuds is out of this world!

Star gaze. It is such an obvious one, but when you are flat on your back with a rug wrapped around you, while the milky way reveals itself to you, you realise why it has become such a classic wild activity!

Create a camping tableau. As you go through each day bring back to your pitch daily mementos. Gather your rocks and pine cones and shells into a beautiful nature shrine.

Leaf Garlands. Use strips of flax to stitch leaves you have collected together. Wrap them around your guy ropes.

Create a nature welcome mat. Make your site feel like home by collecting small rocks and spell out WELCOME at the start of your pitch.

Forage for nettles and make nettle tea or chuck them into your dinner. Chop and fry an onion, 3 cloves of garlic in a huge knob of butter, add 6 cups of stock and 6 handfuls of nettle. Cook through, blend and eat! Heat takes the prickle out but wear gloves for harvesting!

Tree spotting. Bring along a book about the native plant life. Tick off the ones you spot. (Outdoor activities for kids always involve learning! But this is one of the most schooly ones!)

Introduce your children to the tradition of campfire stories. Sing some songs from your childhood, tell some tales and see the whole family getting into it!

Choco-Bananas on the fire. Split your bananas open with a knife, chuck in as much chocolate as you want. Wrap in two layers of tin foil and bake them.

Build a swing. A campsite isn't home until it has a little rope swing hanging somewhere. You need sturdy rope, a thin but strong log and a knife to carve out a hole for the rope to go through. Toss it over a healthy, thick branch two times and have fun!

"As children observe, reflect, record, and share nature's patterns and rhythms, they are participating in a process that promotes scientific and ecological awareness, problem solving, and creativity."
Deb Matthews Hensley

Fun Nature Craft Activities for kids
When we do nature crafts we not only use nature but we tend to do them all outside too. Doing nature activities outside means there is very little stress about mess.
Get the glue, a bowl and some autumn leaves outside and craft up a beautiful bowl. See a video tutorial here.

Painting pine cones with fun colours.

Painting sticks and hanging them up.

Painting stones.

Use biros to draw faces onto acorns, with their little caps on- I made a minion once, by accident. He was awesome.

Nature mobiles - cross two sticks over each other to make a cross. Use thread to hang leaves or shells or feathers from it. (To be fair these are beautiful in a very rustic way - possibly too witchy looking to hang above a baby's crib.)

Leaf Kebab sculptures - thread leaves onto a super thin (perhaps whittled - see below!) stick almost like a kebab. Place them in the ground or on show somewhere.

Ice hangings- place flowers and leaves inside plastic bowls, with a loop of string coming out of them - freeze them and you have an incredible looking bit of ice art!

Replace the flowers and leaves with seeds and nuts and not only do you have a crafty garden decoration but you have a bird feeder. Amazing. See this and more over at Red Ted Art.

Use whatever you can find, wherever you are to make Land Art - see the Artful Parent for a SUPER inspiring interview with Richard Shilling about Land Art for kids.

( And check out my Pinterest board for all of the above crafts and a stack load of outdoor craft activities for kids.)

Things to do with sticks

A brilliant bushcraft any child over three can get involved with is whittling. There is a real sense of joy to be found in whittling a stick nice and smooth! These sticks can be turned into all sorts of things.

Make a wand!

Make a sword.

Make a javelin and have a tournament.
Whittle a whistle for the more advanced. Build fairy houses.
Play pooh sticks - race your sticks down the stream. (Many of these outdoor activities for kids are actually ancient! Played since the stone age I reckon!)

Outdoor Activities for toddlers and small children
One of the ways you can really help the little people in your life fall in love with nature is to s et up an Outdoor Play group - for babies to older children. See how to do that here. But here are some everyday outdoor activities for toddlers...
Chalking. Give your children a little package of chalks and let them chalk up the patio, the trees, anything in their path. This is amazingly liberating for them!

Natural painting - with just some different mixing bowls and paintbrushes get them to mix up different coloured paints. It is amazing the difference colours leaves and muds can produce and kids LOVE this activity!

Mudpies. The ultimate small child entertainment system! Grab some wooden spoons and bowls, head to a muddy area and let them go for it!

Ice smashing. A great one for winter and summer. Freeze some little plastic figures in ice cream containers of water. ONce they are frozen solid give your child some utensils to bosh them out. We do this ALL THE TIME - and no injuries yet. Just a lot of delight!

The middle years - roughly six to twelve - is a time of greatly expanded interest, curiosity and capacity for assimilating knowledge and understanding the natural world. Rapid cognitive and intellectual growth occurs, including many critical thinking skills achieved through interaction and coping in the nonhuman environment.Intellectual development at this stage is especially facilitated by direct contact with nearby natural settings, where a world of exploration, imagination and discovery becomes increasingly evident to the child.
Stephen R. Kellert

Nature play isn't just for young kids, my friends. In 30 Days of Rewilding I interview a few people who have seen - or experienced - something amazing in the great Outdoors. Youth- at - risk who have got their lives on track by wilderness trails or teenagers who have found themselves by being lost in nature.
Outdoor activities for older children and teens

Bushcraft. Older children can thrive learning survival skills, learning how to use good tools and how to identify edible plants. ( Youtube is one place to start learning!)

Weaving flax flowers. Kids from about 7 plus will be able to make these beautiful flowers using this tutorial.

Camping out by themselves.

Overnight trails. We used to do this when I was a teenager as a youth group, to fundraise but it is also possible in larger teams through Oxfam Trailwalker. An amazing challenge for young people.

Ice sliding. Fill a deep over tray with water and freeze it - rush to a hill and SLIDE. I took a bunch of young people to do this once when I was a youthworker and we were all crying with laughter. It is probably the most memorable of all of these outdoor activities for kids.

Hill sliding. So simple, but when we did this the majority of people around us were teenagers and they were having a right royal blast! Literally, get a box, a steep hill, and go for it! Check out photos here.

***

Playing outside is such a simple way that families can reap all the happy-making, health-boosting benefits of the Great Outdoors, whilst also nurturing our in-built love of nature. I reckon that a childhood spent playing outside, the chance to be loud and wild and create adventures, is a great gift we can give our children, and one that sets them up to be resilient, content adults.

What do parents owe their young that is more important than a warm and trusting connection to the Earth?
Theodore Roszak

I would love to hear your own suggestions for outdoor activities for kids!

Some of these activities you will find in my BRAND NEW EBOOK! 30 Days of Rewilding - find your place in nature and watch your family bloom. Discover a load of inspiration for you and your family to go on a beautiful, nature loving adventure. Buy from Amazon Kindle or my own store as a pdf downloadable on any device or computer.

I am Lucy - a writer, mama, activist and vintage lover. (Especially nice old typewriters.) A huge thank you to my supporters on Patreon who make my writing and videos happen. You can join that wonderful bunch for as little as $1. On this blog I share all my tips on natural, toxin-free living and wild and joyful parenting - all from a yurt in New Zealand. Keep in touch through Instagram, Facebook or Youtube. Do stick around, I'll show you my typewriters...

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80 Fun Outdoor Activities for Kids | Things To Do Outside - Lulastic and the Hippyshake

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I have basically spent the summer making a list in my head of all the fun outdoor activities for kids I can think of. Why? Don't ask me!

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The Otago, Fire and Emergency New Zealand is responsible for ensuring the requirements of the Fire and Emergency Management Act 2017 and the Fire and Emergency Management (Fire Permits) Regulations 2017.

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About getting kids outside into nature. Enviroschools has a copy of The Wild Thing Project documentary if you'd like to borrow it.

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One dad's battle to get his kids off screens and outdoors

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One dad's battle to get his kids off screens and outdoors

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UK based project to get children outside

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UK based project to get children outside

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The Wild Network is on a mission to rewild childhood. There is a growing understanding that our children need more Wild Time so The Wild Network shares stories to inspire and co-designs innovative solutions to the systemic barriers through Wild Labs, so we can all thrive.

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Some excellent articles here. Many ECE related

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Lillard et al. (2013) concluded that pretend play is not causally related to child outcomes and charged that the field is subject to a play ethos, whereby research is tainted by a bias to find positive effects of play on child development. In this commentary, we embrace their call for a more solidly...

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My friend used to be a teacher in South London and he came back from a school trip to a farm that made us all fall about with laughter and gnash our teeth with worry in equal measure. They were all sitting on the bus, speeding down the motorway when a kid spotted an animal in a field "LOOK! What is that fluffy white thing?!" yelled one of the students. "It's a polar bear!" cried another student in response, at which point they all crammed their faces up against the windows to see, murmuring about how they'd never seen a polar bear before.

It was, of course, a sheep.

It is a pretty extreme example, but recent research has shown that only 3/10 kids can identify a Magpie (while 9/10 can recognise a dalek.) Those kids weren't alone in being completely disconnected from the natural world.

We ALL miss out when childhoods are being lived inside. Children miss out, nature misses out, the adults miss out, the future misses out! I'm sure you don't need any motivation to make the beach or the city farm or that small patch of woodland in your village, your second home. But this is for you to send to your kindly Aunt or curious neighbour - those people who raise their eyebrows when they see your kids covered from eyeball to ankle in mud or cradling two moss covered twigs in their buggy, having named them Baby Booba and Hokey Pokey.

Ramona looked out of the window last night at a rapidly darkening sky. With the foreboding voice of a prophet she declared "The rain shall come with those black clouds. Let's get our wellies in." Her awareness of weather is ballooning - she is connecting dots that I am sure I never did as a child- whenever the sun shines and the rain comes she searches the horizon for the accompanying rainbow, she is predicting the chance of showers better than most weather forecasters. She is discovering her place within the natural world and seeing the patterns to it in a way that seems almost ancient, the stuff of folklore.

There is a window for young children, under fives, where they are learning about their place in the ecosystem, their "Ecophyscial selves". This sense of connectedness then stays with them their whole life - if it is not nurtured they are far more likely to be fearful of nature and only at home in places manmade. (Read more on this biophobia here.)

Nature can create a poet as well as a weather bard. Carol Black, author of A Thousand Rivers writes; ""The rainbows kind of wilt like flowers." That's what my daughter said as she stood at the top of a mountain one rainy, sunny day, watching the colors arcing and dissolving in the air. She was two and a half." This long but inspiring article about education speaks of the power of nature in a child's learning.

Black also considers the idea that many attributes of disruptive children within school are admirable attributes of children in the outdoors. High energy, leadership, a sense of curiosity and adventure, a pioneering spirit - these don't sit well within many classrooms but in a meadow or forest these characteristics are wonderful, even vital!

She writes; "One day I watched a nine-year-old boy as he led a group of children scrambling over Vasquez Rocks, a great sandstone formation that slants up out of the California desert. He was one of those magnetic, electrical, radiant boys; kind to the younger ones, strong, quick, inquisitive, sharp as a tack, his eyes throwing sparks in the clear air. It was a joy just to watch him, I said to the friend standing beside me. She told me he had just been diagnosed with ADHD." If your child needs help with sensory processing time in the wild could be the ideal situation.

Nature has a calming affect on children. The workers at the Forest Kindergarten we visited in Germany last year were certain that they had far less aggression and conflict in their days compared to normal schools as being in nature had a way of grounding children.

This grounding is a daily grounding but also a yearly one - seeing and feeling and smelling and eating the seasons helps children (and adults) expect and look forward to the changing seasons. Some hot pink blossom appeared on the farm a couple of weeks ago and we spent a happy hour chatting about how this signals the summer! Yippeeeee...

The outdoors is always age appropriate. No matter what the age of children there is something in nature to intrigue and challenge them. A baby can feel pieces of bark within her fingers, a teenager can carve a trinket.

The outdoors is non gendered. Ramona goes to a kindy one and a half days a week- it is amazing philosophically, just like a mass of unschooling kids- but there is quite a strong gender segregation. Colours and toys are clearly marked out by the children as "for boys" or "for girls" - something I've never experienced on our days amongst the trees.

In other ways nature is a leveller too - you don't need any specific toys, threads or equipment to enjoy the outdoors. When you are all littered amongst the branches of a tree your socioeconomic status doesn't really count for very much. In fact, the more filthy and ripped up your clothes are the more fun you've had - this is what I tell Ramona when she is worried about her muddy jeans!

For younger children, playing outside avoids all the typical points of conflict around ownership and sharing. I try to make a point of arranging play times in a neutral outdoor space because asking children to share their own toys is unfair and also hypocritical. A forest has enough twigs (aka swords, wands, diggers, babies) for everyone.

If we want children to care about the natural world, they must experience it. Sir David Attenborough says "no one will protect what they don't care about; and no one will care about what they have never experienced".

Further, kids decreasing time spent outdoors is considered by some conservationists to be the biggest risk to our environment. There is even a term for it; 'Nature Deficit Disorder'. Conservationist Matt Williams suggests "This is perhaps the gravest threat to the long-term health of conservation and the natural world."

Spending time amongst nature has been positively correlated (it feels weird to use scientific language here, but I do it to say LOOK! It is LEGIT!) with the development of strong imagination and a sense of wonder. I sometimes wonder if the pervasive cynicism that is found amongst my generation is to do with our lack of ability to be in awe or enthralled by something magnificent. (Read more on developing a sense of wonder amongst children here.)

Children who play regularly in nature:

score higher in tests monitoring concentration

feel more positively towards peers

show far superior motor fitness such as balance and coordination

have improved cognitive development such as awareness, reasoning and observational skills

are buffered against life stress and deal better with adversity. ( More on all that here.)

Did you know dirt is a happiness maker? There is bacteria in soil that lifts the mood, fights depression and boots the immune system. I remind myself of this research when I find Juno with a beard of mud, where she has happily been shoving it in her gob.

I feel as if I have just begun to scratch the surface of all of this... tell me the reasons YOU love to play in the wild!

PS - I wrote about some people that bought a forest for £500 on Wonderthrift this week. And this HOW TO on playing in nature is absolutely wonderful - nature play is child led play!

I am Lucy - a writer, mama, activist and vintage lover. (Especially nice old typewriters.) A huge thank you to my supporters on Patreon who make my writing and videos happen. You can join that wonderful bunch for as little as $1. On this blog I share all my tips on natural, toxin-free living and wild and joyful parenting - all from a yurt in New Zealand. Keep in touch through Instagram, Facebook or Youtube. Do stick around, I'll show you my typewriters...

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Wilting rainbows and 20 other reasons to play in the wild - Lulastic and the Hippyshake

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My friend used to be a teacher in South London and he came back from a school trip to a farm that made us all fall about with laughter and gnash our teeth with worry in equal measure. They were all sitting on the bus, speeding down the motorway when a kid spotted an animal in a field "LOOK!

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From the Enviroschools Early Years Handbook

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From the Enviroschools Early Years Handbook

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Engaging Children in Experiencing their Environment

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5 dangerous things you should let your child do

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5 dangerous things you should let your child do

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TED talk, talks about fires and knives

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Gever Tulley: 5 dangerous things you should let your kids do

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At TED U, Gever Tulley, founder of the Tinkering School, spells out 5 dangerous things you should let your kids do -- and why a little danger is good for both kids and grownups.

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KNIFE SAFETY

Only you can decide whether your children are old enough and mature enough to use a knife. We suggest for most children under ten years old that a good pocketknife be used. These are easy and safe to carry and also easily controlled by small hands. When purchasing a knife for your children, take them along. We recommend a small non-folding sharp blade. Dull knives are more dangerous. Let your children hold the knife, if possible, even use the knife, to make sure it fits their hands and they have control. Once a suitable knife is purchased, we would stress the following suggestions in teaching your children. Here, more than ever, great care and caution should be used.

1. First teach your children to safely take the knife in and out of its sheath. This is where most injuries occur. This should always be done in a sitting position. Make sure your children never walk around or stand with an open knife, no matter what the circumstances. Check to make sure your children remove the knife from the sheath away from the body, keeping the fingers well out of the way. Also teach children to remove a knife away from other people, and to hold the blade pointed toward the ground when not in use. Now might be a good time to show older children how to sharpen and care for a knife. Younger children should not be expected to learn this, since it is very dangerous. However, you should allow the children to watch you when you sharpen your knife.

2. Once your children have learned to remove, replace, carry, and handle the new knife properly, it is time to teach them how to carve. Get a soft wood to start, such as yellow pine, basswood, cedar, or any wood that is easy to cut. Select a piece of wood that is at least a foot long yet easy for children to hold and handle. Now it is time to teach your children how to carve. Make sure before your children begin to go through carving motions that they never carve toward themselves or anyone else. Show them how to keep their fingers out of the way, along with any other part of the body. Never allow them to support the end of the stick on the leg but rather to hold the stick firmly in the hand. Any time support is needed for the wood, have them prop it against another sturdy piece of wood. We recommend having young knife-users keep their elbows on their knees while carving.

In teaching your children to carve, first teach them to remove a little at a time from what they are carving. Tell them it is much like peeling a carrot or potato. If they try to remove too much wood, the task becomes difficult. Show them how to carve with a slicing motion, explaining to them how a knife works. At dinner, if the family is eating chicken or meat, show the children how impossible it is to push a knife through meat, but with back-and-forth slicing motion the meat is easily cut. Explain to them this is also how a knife works on wood. Once the children have mastered simple carving, take them outside and teach them to cut the twigs and branches from a stick, how to carve notches, and cut small pieces of wood in half. The more children work with a knife, the better and safer they will be. We also suggest practicing with soap and a butter knife before moving to sharp blades and wood.

3. Finally explain to the children what not to use the knife for. Teach them not to put the knife in the dirt or run the blade into the ground. Explain that a knife should never be thrown, for it could dangerously ricochet, be damaged, or become lost. Teach the children never to run the blade along steel, rocks, or anything hard, for it will dull the blade. Teach the children the knife is a friend and a tool, never for play. Carelessness and inattention cause injury.

4. Never let children use a knife unsupervised, and after each use check the knife for sharpness or damage. Never allow the connection between knife and handle loosen, or the knife could snap and cause injury. If the children don't like to carry the knife in their pocket, buy a pocketknife sheath and wear it on the belt or carry it in the survival pack. Teach your children never to leave the knife anywhere: it must either go in their pocket or be stored in a special place at home or in camp.

5. When you are watching children, never let your attention be diverted from helping them use the knife. There should always be more than enough supervision for each child. Teaching children to work with a knife is not a silent signal for a parent or teacher to begin doing some of their own work.

Resource: Tom Brown's Field Guide to Nature and Survival for Children

Tom Brown, Jr., and Judy Brown

Berkely Publishing, New York, NY 1989

Chapter 12: Fire page 156

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KNIFE SAFETY Only you can decide whether your children are old enough and mature enough to use a knife. We suggest for most children under ten years old that a good pocketknife be used. These are easy and safe to carry and also easily controlled by small hands.

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Certainly not an exhaustive list

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Activities for children to understand the principles of leaving no trace

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PDF of principles of LNT

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DOC guidelines toileting in the outdoors

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DOC guidelines toileting in the outdoors

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DCC

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Particularly articles by Jenny Ritchie

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A newspaper article

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This first one is a must read!

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The importance of play in natural environments

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Research on historic vs present day frequency of outdoor play

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Research on historic vs present day frequency of outdoor play

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NZ Research into ECE provision of Sustainability Education from both Maori and Western perspectives

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NZ Research into ECE provision of Sustainability Education from both Maori and Western perspectives

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NZ written article on a German Forest Kindergarten

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NZ written article on a German Forest Kindergarten

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Written by a mother of pre-schoolers after their experience in a German Forest Kindergarten

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NZ Research on ECE nature play programmes

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NZ Research on ECE nature play programmes

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Balancing Risks and Benefits in the Outdoors

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Balancing Risks and Benefits in the Outdoors