We had the chance to visit a local kindergarden and spend a day with the educaters and children. Our focus was on the outdoor activities and the childrens play outdoors.

When we arrived at the kindergarden, we were warmly welcomed and offered to visit the 4-5 years old children group. Michael and I sneaked in the dining room, where they were just having their second breakfast. Of course they looked very curious at us and started asking their educators about the strangers. We joint the childrens table and started talking to them. Or we kind of tried to talk to them. But most of the children couldn’t speak english, that made it hard to communicate and overcome their first restraint. But after a while they got more and more brave and interested and started trusting us. It was impressive that children don’t need a lot of words and how well body language worked. It was a wet day outside, but non of the children was complaining, when we went outside. The educators had planned a short walk into the forest, where the children could play.  Everyone was well dressed with waterproofed jackets, trousers and huts and looked very happy. The children implied very fast that we were part of their group now. They took our hands during the walk and asked for help refering to tie shoes or close jackets. The plan was to walk to the close forest and built a shelter and play around in the area. Walking along the road, the children holt on to a long rope with ribbons. I found this a very good idea. The children go out every couple of days and were obviously used to the walking-system. But since we reached the forest the rope was packed away and the walking got more open and free. And they immediately used the freedome. The children run to the lake and watched an animal, that they’ve discovered. It got their whole attention and the children listened interested when one of the educators was telling them more about it. The kids walked and talked and jumped and run and stopped from time to time because they’ve discovered something to play with: a muddhole, a new insect, a brunch, a hill,.. On the way to the ‘destination’, that was a shelter next to a hill to climb and play around, the educator picked up a brunch for the shelter they wanted to built. All the children wanted to carry one as well, and some of them choose a brunch even bigger than theirselves. But before leaving the brunch behind because it was too heavy, they helped together and carried it by 4. The motivation was impressive, but the shelter building didn’t last long. When everyone arrived, the children started playing by themselves. A very favoured game was to climb up a big stone. At first I wanted to support them, but they told me that they can do it alone. They could estimate their skills pretty good. Michael and I made friends with two children, a boy and a girl. She could speak a little bit english and was very talkative in general and the boy was very curious and interested but spoke norwegian to us. They wanted to play hide and seek with us and were very patient in explaining the rules to us. The two had a lot of fun looking around for new places to hide in. Trees, bushes, hills,.. I was surprised how fair they played. The rules were clear and they were attentive to take turns.The children played in small groups and were spreaded over a wide area. I was wondering a bit, because the educators couldn’t really see all of them. They gave them the liberty and responsibility to go where they want to but to stay close to the area.

When we got back to the kindergarden, we stayed outside in the play area. They had a great range of play equipments. The children loved to swing and drive around with a playcar. They even invited us to sit in the car and to drive us around. I felt a bit scared when they drove faster and faster but they knew the road and there game and had great fun. The swing was bussy all the time and the children enjoyed to show us there moves on the swing or to get pushed from us.

The plays on the playground where kind of familiar to me. We have similar looking playgrounds in germany and as I have a couple of younger cousins I played a lot with them in those areas. Children are activ and need space to run around and move. They are curious for new things and brave in trying things out. They have a big fantasy and like to built storys in their play. The outdoors offers that. Children love and need attention but not an overcaring observation. Letting them play by thereselves and not knowing where they are all the time, requires trust but also grow responibility. In contrast to the playground the walk and play outdoors in the forest offered more freedom to the kids and a wider range of possibilities including the area in their play. But they were happy in both environments and the rainy weather had not been a problem at any time.

We have so called forest kindergardens in Germany, that integrat the outdoors more in their programm. Normal kindergardens have their outside playarea, similar to the one I visited in norway and probably have some travel/hiking/forest days, where they go out with the children. But not one day a week. Unfortunately, I don’t know much about kindergardens nowadays in Germany, as that’s not my working field. But I had an interesting observation and chat about play equipment last sommer while taking part of an sommercamp. While our children played in the forest, they found tools, like hammer and bolts, and brought them surprisingly to us. The forest kindergarden, who played here before had left it. When we came to the area I saw the children still playing with the equipment and wondered, as it is not a usual toy. The other guardians where shocked as well and told me that they also let the kids play with knifes. It was knew for me, but know I understand better why they brought these tools with them. It’s a learning situation. The knife is not a weapon and so aren’t the other tools. Showing the children how to use it, they learn playful and try it out by themselves. They can learn what the tools are for and use it carefully in context with the outdoors.

It’s important to give the children credit to do things and not shelter them from everything. They should have a freedome and environment to make experience but also the support and attention of adults. Being outdoors offer the children space for their own play, foster creativity and confidence. It’s not only the fact that children can develop physical, social and emotional, but also lern about sustainability. The kids discover the nature and learn to love and respect it and how to take responsibility for it. And in my opinion, that is a very important part of growing up. If we want people to live in a sustainable lifestyle, we have to start to show the children why it’s worthwhile to take care of nature.