Too many nurseries are 'nature deniers' faking it for kids, warns kindergarten boss

Outdoor nursery owner, Claire Warden, warns nurseries against making nature pretty or letting forest schools become just a 'bolt on', instead urging them not to "dumb down" nature.

Child having fun with leaves. Credit: Shutterstock

Ms Warden has helped found Auchlone Nature Kindergarten in Scotland but after observing early years practitioners across the UK, she admits: “We’ve all seen them. The nature deniers”.

The early years consultant is big on ‘nature pedagogy’ which she describes as “direct contact with the natural world” and … “learning with nature, not just teaching about it."

With forest schools in fashion and with new ones springing up across the UK, she has a cautionary tale to share. She warns forest schools can become a ‘bolt on’ to early years provision, if early years practitioners aren't careful.

While visiting a pre-school where children were lining up outside to go to a forest, she says “I noticed a little boy rolling around on the floor pretending he was a bouncing ball.

"Once in the forest, the four-year-old found a stick and he called it Burt. He walked around the forest and he said ‘Burt, this is my sandwich’. ‘Burt, this is where I put my rucksack’. ‘Burt, this is my friend Elizabeth’."

Burt had become a "relational object". No longer just a stick. Burt was a new playmate, until a person she dubs ‘Fishface’ arrives.

Ms Warden says: “You know the type. Happiness-sucking people.” She recalls ‘Fishface’ sees the boy putting Burt under his coat.

“You know the rules. No nature back at school” she says. Pointing to a bucket labelled "Nature" she tells him "Put it in there".

Children get their hands dirty outside. Credit: Ahmet Naim/ Shutterstock

The boy takes Burt out and says "Bye Burt" before dropping it in the bucket. As the children board the bus back to school, the four-year-old looks mournfully out the window back at the forest.

Ms Warden then asks the boy if he is feeling okay.

But, at this point, the boy grins and says: "I’m going to be fine’. In his hand he shows her the top inch of the stick called Burt. “I’ve got micro-Burt”.

Praising the four-year-old for showing "tenacity and drive", she says: “You can do forest schools but understand, all those in schools; a stick is okay in school.”

Ms Warren says of the setting: “They didn’t really document the learning that was in the forest because they didn’t really see it as part of the learning process.“

‘Canning’ nature

This story hints that if we lose a connection with nature, we lose a connection with ourselves. But by reconnection with nature, she is not talking about projecting nature on a poster or screen.

Tired of seeing children with “their nose to the screen”, she says children are in danger of not relating to each other or their families as much as an iPad. “It’s about balance. We’ve lost the balance.”

She has seen “stunningly beautiful” early years spaces that fail because they are “canning” nature.

“A staff member can pick up a shell, wash it; you put it in an Ikea basket in the classroom” but she calls this vicarious learning – indirect, second-hand contact with nature.

“The balance has now strayed towards vicarious learning" a different experience from direct connection to the natural world.

“If a child goes out in nature and finds that stone. That’s an incredibly emotive experience for young children. Children have a right to be with the natural world.”

Nature pedagogy she says demands creativity amongst early year practitioners and “making stuff, not being consumers of stuff.”

Birds nests are brown. They don’t have glitter. Her argument is why shop for something that doesn’t exist in nature. She’s an advocate of using fire, earth, water and air in the early years learning.

“Outside you can get a leaf and cut up your leaf and you say in my hand I have a jigsaw puzzle.”

By doing this, children can learn the curriculum through nature; practising skills such as manual dexterity, visual stimulation; skills in a context that works.

’Milk’ paintings

Children splashing in puddles. Credit: Shutterstock

Denial of nature can it seems pervade the classroom. A staff member once pointed to a poster and told Ms Warden: “The children have drawn a cow.” “Have they?”, she answered.

“No, I drew the cow. They made the brown, they painted it.” “Did they?” she asked. “No, I got it out of a squeezy bottle”.

Ms Warren then spotted white splodges on the walls described as ‘milk paintings’ when in fact it was just white paint.

“Is it authentic to a child to pretend that milk is white paint?”, asks the nature pedagogue.

If you’re going to consider milk as learning, she suggests trying to find a cow. Failing that, the next best thing is going to a supermarket to get four different types of milk.

“They are going to try some of that milk. And they’re going to look at it and let it turn to cheese. Maybe buy some cheese. That’s understanding of milk.

“The complexity of the natural world is the very thing you need to keep”.

She argues why look at one leaf, when you can find five different types. She calls play sand "perfectly white, utterly sterile". She argues, we’ve taken away all the excitement of sand, as real sand is made up of a myriad of different colours.

She urges staff to find fascinations in the real world. In nature, a leaf can help teach children about science, English, maths; the whole curriculum.

Do what 'makes sense to children'

Ms Warden is a founder of Whistlebrae Nature Kindergarten and Auchlone Nature Kindergarten in Perth and Kinross, Scotland. They educate children aged between two and five-years-old.

Mindstretchers opened the first outdoor nature kindergarten in Scotland called Whistlebrae in 2006, based on Claire Warden's philosophy as defined in her book 'Nature Kindergartens'. The site later moved to Auchlone Nature Kindergarten near Crieff, Scotland.

Map of Auchlone Nature Kindergarten. Credit: Auchlone Nature Kindergarten

At the Auchlone Nature Kindergarten, there is “a very small indoor environment” because they spend 90 per cent of their time outside engaged in the whole curriculum.

The kindergarten has a garden and a wild wood. It is eco-friendly and uses fair-trade resources; organic food, with fruit and vegetables in season only, as well as alternative energy sources.

Auchlone nature kindergarten she describes as a simple "non-institutionalised" space with a little child-sized bridge, a little gate and a tunnel - all demands made by children and made a reality.

Children spend most of the day outdoors in all weathers, building dens and bird hides using tools such as saws and loppers.

“We do climb trees, lie in puddles, children make bread and food every day. Children learn how to make their own flour from grinding oats. They wrap bread around a stick and put it on the fire. Those things make sense to young children. They make sense because children understand that.”

Auchlone‘s website states: ‘By going to our outdoor fire pit and creating charcoal we are learning about heat and temperatures, oxidisation, STEM and much more.

'We can inspire and nurture a fascination in children for many different 'school' subjects such as Physics and History which will last with them for life by learning through nature.’

There is now a global movement about nature-based pedagogy. Warden delivers training to educational leaders in countries around the world. She has also been an adviser to the Scottish government on Risk in Learning. Claire Warden joined Federation University - a hub of nature pedagogy in Australia - as an honorary research fellow.

If there's one message, Claire Warden wants to send to the early years sector across the world its for all to welcome the complexity of nature in early years learning settings.

She urges all not to shackle a child’s learning by shying away from nature, prettying it up or denying it, adding “If we really want children to thrive we need to let their connection to nature nurture them.”

click here for more details or to contact Auchlone Nature Kindergarten