The concept of forest schools originated in Denmark in 1950. Children who attended Forest Kindergartens emerged with stronger social skills, higher self-esteem, and worked more effectively in group activities. The children were confident and behavioral problems were fewer. It soon became a permanent addition to Denmark’s early childhood curriculum. Not long after Denmark discovered the value of educating children outdoors, Sweden’s “Skogsmulle” concept was developed, a similar educational model that taught children about nature, water, mountains, and ecology. The outcomes were measurable and overwhelmingly positive, making nature and forest schools popular with teachers, children, and parents. The idea soon spread to other areas of Europe.
Posts tagged #nature
The State of Bees
Imagine a living thing that has an effect on almost every food you eat. It also plays a role in the trees you see, the weeds you pull, and the coffee you drink each morning. Our entire ecosystem would be radically changed if these beings were to disappear. Bees are the tiny, hard working, often pesky pollinators that so graciously play a part in maintaining the delicate ecosystem we share. We need them, desperately, to be able to do their job: pollinate.
Forest Therapy ~ Embracing Nature, Connecting with Others
On the night before winter solstice in 2017, I was part of a small group that set out at dusk from the parking lot at Matthaei Botanical Gardens, carrying paper globes as we entered the adjacent woods on a footpath. Our guide, Ann Arbor artist and art teacher Cayla Samano, had distributed the lanterns beforehand. As darkness came down around us, the light-sensitive globes turned on, bright white orbs in the shadowy woods. Ice and snow crunched underfoot. We took our time, Cayla reminding us not to rush, asking us to slow our pace.
In the Heart of the Wood on a Rainy Night — Reflections on Black Pond Woods
An equinoctial night in 2016. It’s raining. The injured raptor birds, often used in educational programs, sleep in little wooden houses on the hillside. Community gardens and orchards await spring, leaves poised to unfurl and earth to be turned. It is the night of the salamander survey at Black Pond Woods.
Did You Ever Want to Be a “Birder”?
“It’s a Black-And-White-Warbler,” he slowly said to me.“I heard you the first time,” I wanted to say but didn’t. I really didn’t want others to notice that I was the only one who couldn’t see the birds.
Root Medicine and Winter Tonics
The life force in a biannual or perennial plant is evident in the greenness of its leaves and the vibrancy of its flower. As it begins to die back in the fall, that life force is not lost; it is transferred into the root, which embraces it and keeps it safe until the next growing season.
