Nature-Based Education
At FCNS, we nurture early childhood development through play-based, developmentally appropriate learning rooted in nature. Children build environmental awareness and a sense of connection to the natural world through hands-on exploration, outdoor learning, and child-led discovery. We spend the majority of each day outside, where children engage in instructional activities, free play, and investigations while developing confidence, curiosity, and healthy risk-taking skills in a supportive environment.
Connecting Children With Nature
Framingham Centre Nursery School believes in the importance of providing children with opportunities to explore and investigate the natural world around them. You may wonder why these experiences are so crucial.
Many of the developmental tasks that children must achieve—exploring, risk-taking, fine and gross motor development and the absorption of vast amounts of basic knowledge—can be most effectively learned through outdoor play. Our culture is taking outdoor play away from young children through excessive technology use, elimination of school recess, and academic standards that push more and more developmentally inappropriate academics into our early childhood programs, taking time away from play.
Build Confidence
The way that kids play in nature has a lot less structure than most types of indoor play.
Positive Feelings
Children who play in nature have more positive feelings about each other.
Self-Awareness
Children learn about self and the environment.
Creativity
Nature-based promotes creativity and imagination.
Benefits of Kids in Nature
Here are some of the key points presented in the article Benefits of Connecting Children with Nature Why Naturalize Outdoor Learning Environments – The Natural Learning Initiative.
- Children who play in natural settings play in more diverse, imaginative and creative ways and show improved language and collaboration skills. Single use, repetitive play equipment becomes boring quickly.
- Children who spend more time outside tend to be more physically active and less likely to be overweight.
- Children who play in natural settings are more resistant to stress; have lower incidence of behavioral disorders, anxiety and depression; and have a higher measure of self-worth.
- Natural, irregular and challenging spaces help kids learn to recognize, assess and negotiate risk and build confidence and competence.
Risk vs. Hazard
A hazard is something a child does not see.
A risk is a challenge a child can see and chooses to undertake or not.
Eliminating risk leads to a child’s inability to assess danger.
