Teaching Children about Place

Over the years while teaching outdoors I’ve often wished I had a globe with me to help children visualize their place in this big world. Many children come to the program with muddled ideas of the world and know very little about their local environment. Vast concepts like the timeline of dinosaurs are very confusing … Read more

Challenging Behavior

Many of the things children do are difficult for us to manage. There are some specific behaviors that I can help you address in a positive way to support building a relationship with the child and their peers. My motto is always: Connect before correct. This means we must make an effort to understand and … Read more

Being Mindful of Our Words

The words we use have power and effect on others often beyond what we realize. There are several common things adults do in their speech that have the opposite of our desired effect on children. It will transform your teaching if you can be mindful of these common language missteps and manage to change the … Read more

Why we all should be doing an Ecological Impact Assessment

As I move towards a consultant space I engage in conversations with thoughtful educators who can be dismissive of the importance of the assessment tools that are (or should be) a part of outdoor education. While our relatively small groups of children using natural spaces as classrooms and playgrounds has much less impact than a … Read more

Language Prompts to Build Confidence

If you’ve spent any amount of time with children you may be familiar with what I call the ‘watch me’ phenomenon. This is when a confident child who has perhaps recently mastered a new skill requests that you observe them completing that skill over and over and over. This is fairly typical 4 year old … Read more

Teaching Children about Picking Flowers

I saw Arrowleaf Balsamroot flowers in bloom on Friday during my afternoon hike. The appearance of this common wildflower is my cue to remind families to teach their children to not pick wildflowers. One of the hills where we play has a remarkable population of blue flax flowers. These flowers are extremely fragile and last … Read more

Spotting in Children’s Outdoor Play 

When supervising outdoor risky play we can allow children more freedom in their explorations and movements when we are in a position to effectively spot them.   Basic spotting is something many parents do instinctively with their babies and toddlers as their child begins to master their newfound mobility skills. Many of us will be familiar … Read more