WOW ! An outdoor nursery in Scotland. OMG this is fantastic !

[hub2dee]

jennifersofia just told me about a nursery which is being set up in Scotland with a heavy focus on outdoor play / discovery. There's an article on it in the Guardian here and another article with a few more details here .

I think this sounds amazing. I have an interest in 'playscapes' (the creative evolution of ordinary 'playgrounds') and it's great to learn about the application of this sort of idea to a nursery setting. (A couple of sites on this sort of thing if you're interested: Planet Earth Playscapes and Natural Playgrounds .

Amazing Though am shivering just thinking about it! We have no heating at the moment and I find it's actually better to get out and about even when it's chilly outside.
I love those other links too - am thinking of trying to get my local council (some hope) to do something interesting at our local park. Tonnes of space and just a few battered, grafittied bits of equipment. MY point is that landscaped play areas are less vulnerable to vandalism, because what can you break or ruin in a hillock or a ditch?

"The youngsters will be encouraged to forage for food"

Slugs, snails and woodlice perhaps?

pooka - there's a yahoo group you might want to join to post for advice on how to handle the application, what sorts of things to include etc...

That is really interesting. I wonder if it will work out (here in the UK I mean)?

As my DH says, there's no such thing as bad weather - just inappropriate clothing. I'm sure they'll have a ball if they're well wrapped up and waterproof. It sounds really great.

Saw outdoor nursery article in The Sunday Post.
Looks like a great idea

While they didn't go quite that far, ds's nursery did a lot of the keeping chickens/ growing vegetables/ going out (well wrapped up) at least part of every day even if it was cold or wet/ all meals outside (in the shade) in summer type of stuff.

Nurseries don't have to mean that the kids hibernate indoors all winter - and it was noticable that very few of the children there were ever odd ill.

I didn't think it out of the ordinary at the time, but seeing him now at school I realise that what I though of as normal phsical corodination/balance capabilities for 4 year olds at the nursery are actually well ahead of the average amongst his classmates at school.

I would so love DS to go to this nursery school. Shame its so far away.

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Too right, Pruni. Did you browse through any of those two playscape links in my OP ? They also triggered a kind of mental 'kerching' for me about how playgrounds so obvously should be, but like being indoors vs. this outdoor nursery we're all programmed to think climbing frame / swing rather than bamboo maze and hummock etc. etc.

oh how completely marvellous, I love this sort of thing.

one of my big gripes-big enough to keep me in sahmdom-is that nurseries + childminders round here all consider it their duty to keep kids indoors even on sunny days.

we have a lovely anarchic playground nearby with a huge hill in the middle...the kids love to run up and down the hill and build forts etc at the bottom...

the hill has been fenced off and is due to be smoothed

I'll tell you where I like quite a lot is Discovery, in stratford, their garden is titchy but has a lot of the sensory stuff.

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"By the time the pupils reach primary school, it is hoped they will have an understanding of poisonous fungi, flowers and berries."

Either that or they'll have been poisoned and dead.

I'd love a nursery which had more emphasis on outdoor stuff but I wouldn't like one where they were out a day TBH

Cos we all know that baby dragons prefer caves.

Nope, they prefer a nice sooty hearth.

Awww.... think about it, they could play with fire all day - just little dragon being at one with nature LOL.

oh it soudbns wonderful.

reminds me, i need to get the kids new waterproofs.

They have a lot of those here in Switzerland, but VERY expensive!