In this blogpost, I’ll talk about why you might want to consider bringing Forest School into your baby room practice. We’ll explore what Forest School is and what it means to adapt it for babies. I’ll offer a set of principles that can help you to develop Forest School practice in your particular baby room, and end with a series of practical questions that can help you as a team to get going with Forest School for babies.
Why bring Forest School into your baby room practice?
Forest School is not just a set of activities. It is based on the central principle that a connection with wilder, natural landscapes fulfils something deep and primal in all of us.
In Bob Hughes’ (2013) foundational text on Evolutionary Play, he suggests that playing outside in nature fulfils an instinct that children are born with. We have this instinct because for most of our evolutionary history, we have had a deep and sustaining connection to nature. We have needed this connection not just for food, but for medicine and our spirituality as well. We are still hard-wired to need this connection, and so being in touch with nature supports our physical and mental health.
In studies of the brain, using functional neuroimaging (fMRI), we see that short periods of time in nature (e.g. 60-90 minutes) can create a soothing and restoring experience in the brain. The parts of the brain associated with fear and threat calm down when we spend time in a natural landscape, and beyond seeing what is happening in the brain, people consistently report higher levels of relaxation and attention after time in nature.
Babies have the same needs and instincts in this respect. They also have an instinct to spend time in nature and they thrive when this connection is cherished and supported. It’s not just about babies thriving as individuals either. Spending time in natural landscapes can positively shift interactions and relationships. Changing the scene often changes the dynamic. For example, in a natural landscape, we might find ourselves feeling closer to a baby who is often unsettled, and they may turn more towards us in their need reassurance and comfort.
What is Forest School?
Forest School involving visiting a setting that is turned over to wilder, natural forces. That means it is not a domesticated outdoor environment, such as the garden space of the nursery. Instead, it involves getting out and about and going further afield to a natural landscape. It may be a forest, but it doesn’t need to be. It depends on what natural landscapes are around you. It might make more sense for your forest school to actually occur in the context of a beach, or a meadow, or a riverbank!
Forest School isn’t about doing a set of activities. It is about experiencing the natural landscape together, playing and learning this place, and soaking it up. So a Forest School trip for babies might be as simple as getting there, setting up some kind of simple camp or base, having a snack, and then leaving again. There is no need for anything more complicated than this.
It also involves developing a relationship with a particular place over time. Rather than a one-off visit to a woodland for example, Forest School works on the basis that everyone visiting will have the chance to build up their familiarity with that place over time and multiple trips.
Principles of Forest School for Babies
Here are some important things to keep in mind when it comes to setting up a Forest School experience for babies.
- Just being in the space is important. Remember that there is no need to plan or do particular activities with the babies – it is about soaking up the natural landscape.
- Babies may well need extra closeness during the Forest School experience. With older children, we tend to assume that they will thrive through the independence and risk of playing outdoors in a natural landscape. For babies though, they are going to look to their trusted adults to make sure that they are safe and loved in the context of this unfamiliar environment. So we should expect that babies will need us and a consistent secure base when we are in the Forest School. We may find that we need to offer more physical affection and closeness than when we are indoors with the babies, in their familiar environment, and we need to be prepared for this.
- Babies learn through first-hand experience, but it’s important to remember that this includes not just their hands but also our hands. They learn through watching us do things, and it is a natural step from there for them to get more involved with their own hands. So rather than thinking about what they will do in the Forest School space, you can focus on what you will do (e.g. gathering things, building things, setting up a base). You’ll find that the babies watch you with a lot of fascination as you do these things, and there are lovely little opportunities to get them involved. For example, if you’re gathering things, some of the babies will want to join in with this.
Here’s what it might look like…
Emma and Mario take five babies to the local park, where there is a wooded area under some trees where the grass is left to grow long. They get there in the double buggy and wagon. One of the babies falls asleep on the way and when they get there, they wake up and they’re a little bit upset. Mario walks around with this baby, rocking them, and showing them the leaves on the tree and the light coming through. Emma spreads out a blanket amidst the tall grass, and helps the babies onto the blanket. The older babies start to play in the tall grass. Some crab apples are lying around and Emma starts to gather them into a basket and the babies help. When they try to eat the apples, Emma gently guides them, saying ‘no no, not for eating’. Some of the babies collect other things to put in their basket, but the babies who are less confident in this space, stay close to Emma and Mario. After a while of playing, gathering, talking and singing, everyone has snack together on the blanket. They’re having apples – but not the crab apples they collected earlier!
Reflecting on this scenario
What did you like about this scenario? What do you think is important? What are the ingredients within this vision that really matter?
To me, this scenario shows the importance of being in the space and soaking it up; engaging with nature through gathering and sorting and holding onto things; slowing pedagogy down and allowing routines to be a little more flexible; and being responsive and warm to those babies who need some extra support and closeness.
Practical questions
To help you as a team to plan some Forest School experiences, consider the following questions:
- Who will go? The whole room, or just some?
- Where are you going to go? Research possible places to take the babies. Remember, it doesn’t need to be big, and it definitely doesn’t need to be a forest
- How are you going to get there? What transport do you have?
- What do you need to take with you?
- What will you do when you get there? How will you set up a ‘base’ for the babies? What might you gather or explore together?
- Are you set up for a day where the routines go out of the window a little bit? Who will support the babies who need a bit more closeness during the experience?