Forest School Wild Play

This is such a wonderful and gentle resource for educating children through nature. My family is moving from the desert to a more nature inspired location, so I am very eager to participate in these activities with my daughter.

Each chapter (named for an element) provides a handful of hands on activities that can be done by both adult and child. While some of them are geared towards older children (7+), there are a handful for the younger ones. Even still, any activity outside of the age range can be modified with adult supervision and participation.

I recommend this to anyone that is wanting a gentle way to incorporate nature studies in their child's education.

Forest School Wild Play is your next go to guide for a real life enactment of "Where the Wild Things Are" Channeling your inner forest sprite that loves to splash in mud, frolic between the dense trees of the forest all the while screaming loudly and gnashing your teeth about. I personally loved this book, as a serious nature school advocate, all three of my children attended a nature school, I get excited when I see books published that encourage imaginative play in wild and uncontrolled settings. Some of the games mentioned in this would be a fabulous starting off point for kids who can get stuck or feel unsure how to play in natural settings. Mudslides? count my kids in!

One of the things I love the most about the authors attitude about forest school is how capable children are when given an opportunity to experience activities typically labeled as "too dangerous". In a society driven by safety and sterility, it's refreshing to see guidelines, and ideas that encourage messy, muddy, creative, and risky play.

Love, love love this book! I am a teacher and in this day and age, so much academic rigor is forced on children and the art of play is often forgotten. I try very hard to incorporate play and outdoors into my classroom.
This is a very inspiring book with a plethora of beautiful ideas for anyone working with children.

** a HUGE thanks to NetGalley for the ARC!

I'll be purchasing and recommending this book to all my parent friends.
My 3.5 year old boy loves the outdoors and the forest school near me did not have any places left so this has been a wonderful introduction as to how I can introduce some of these elements myself at home in our garden and the nearby woods. We've already made the clay and enjoyed the mud painting excercises and are planning more.
I really liked how it was split out into the different elements and thought the activities and instructions were simple and informative and easy to follow. The age range and lists were very helpful.
With lockdown in the UK and possibly more in the future, this is an ideal time for parents to discover more about outside learning and play!

A great guide to getting outside and playing and growing in nature, this book provides in-depth instructions for all-natural outdoor games, crafts, and other activities based on the methods used in European forest schools. Whether you’re a parent, educator, or kids group leader looking for a way to engage children outside, this book can help! Based on the climate and vegetation where you live, you may need to adapt some of the activities, but this will get you off to a good start.

As an educator who has done a placement in a Forest School Kindergarten and saw the benefits of this approach firsthand, I am thrilled to have a book with activity ideas that will benefit the children in my program. We do try to spend as much time outdoors as possible, in all weathers, because of the benefits to children’s development and health.

I loved the frame of this book being the four elements. And that the activities respect children’s capabilities, are easily adaptable to different age groups and list the benefits. They were clearly well thought out and meaningfully follow principles of Forest school.

I will be adding this book and the previous ones in the series to our library and be encouraging parents to purchase it, as it gives great ideas that anyone can incorporate. Being in and out of lockdown’s, now more than ever, this book is essential for curriculum planning.

As a mother of a son with ADHD, who benefits from outdoor time during the summer, I’ll also be using this book in my personal life!

Disclaimer: I first read it as an ARC. In exchange for an honest review, I am thankful to Watkins Publishing, Jane Worroll and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of Forest School Wild Play.
#ForestSchoolWildPlay #NetGalley

I've received this book for an honest review from netgalley #netgalley

This book has so many great ideas and was really easy to follow. I really hope that I can do 1000 hours with my children to help encourage their growth.