Nursery World - Enabling Environments: Outdoors

'Nurture through nature' is the ethos behind an outdoor kindergarten in Glasgow, where children learn to manage risk. Judith Napier reports.

The fretful, baby-wipe culture is alive and well in Glasgow - until children at the Woodland Outdoor Kindergartens get a session or two under their belts. Co-owner Debbie Simmers says, 'We notice that, at first, if children stumble, they won't use their hands to balance themselves, in case they get dirty, or to help themselves up again. They lie like little turtles. Then they ask for a baby wipe. We explain that hygiene is very important, and they'll get a good scrub with soap and hot water before lunch, but otherwise we leave them to it, and soon they're diving in, picking sticks out of puddles, using mud as face paint.'

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