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Forest kindergarten

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Re: Forest kindergarten

#21

Post by dmix »

nkrisc wrote: post #8

There's one near where I used to live in Chicago. They use a local Forest preserve. Strangely there is a contigent of neighbors who continually try to get the whole thing shutdown because they don't think young kids should be outside like that all the time. They try to complain and say they leave garbage or are noisy or other invented complaints. From what I understand, what they're really upset about is that they ca…

Those small groups with a bit of power like NIMBY activists are the worst. You see it on Facebook groups for buildings too, they range from over-protective types who are scared of the city/outside to fully invented hypothetical problems any time something is "different" happens.

I've always wondered what these people get out of it.

Re: Forest kindergarten

#22

Post by fit2rule »

Both of my kids have attended Waldkindergarten as a standard cultural action here in Austria, and it has been extremely successful in their case - motivating them each to be engaged in nature in their environment, wherever we go. I quite often will find either one of them in our own garden, poking at something interesting, whittling a new stick, caring for a creature they found somewhere. Whereas their peers who did not attend seem, these days, to only have attention for their mobile phones.

I strongly encourage every parent in the Western world to get your kids engaged in the natural environment, whatever it takes. City-dwellers seriously need contact with nature, especially kids.

I truly believe a kind of highly damaging neurosis occurs when people don't hug trees.

Re: Forest kindergarten

#23

Post by TomMarius »

barry-cotter wrote: post #17
toast0 wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> As a parent, it feels impossible to know the right thing to do for your kids. Being adequate is enough. Chose something that doesn't seem clearly harmful, pay attention for signs of harm, pay attention for signs that it's a bad fit and make a change if it is. Really all you need from preschool is socialization, and some exposure to germ warfare. What I hoped for my child to get was familiarity and positive associat…

> What I hoped for my child to get was familiarity and positive associations with the school concept. Why? Any Prussian model school will inure them to ranking, tedium, busywork, being ranked and doing things that seem pointless because an authority figure said to as well as another, whether they begin education in a child centred school or not. It’s not like most metro areas even have a child centred school, whether…

Why do you call them Prussian? It's Austro-Hungarian (Maria Theresia) invention. Prussian schools were straight up military.

Re: Forest kindergarten

#24

Post by Sharlin »

dmix wrote: post #21
nkrisc wrote: post #8

There's one near where I used to live in Chicago. They use a local Forest preserve. Strangely there is a contigent of neighbors who continually try to get the whole thing shutdown because they don't think young kids should be outside like that all the time. They try to complain and say they leave garbage or are noisy or other invented complaints. From what I understand, what they're really upset about is that they ca…

Those small groups with a bit of power like NIMBY activists are the worst. You see it on Facebook groups for buildings too, they range from over-protective types who are scared of the city/outside to fully invented hypothetical problems any time something is "different" happens. I've always wondered what these people get out of it.

In their own narrative, of course, they're just good people trying to protect children/live their live in peace/etc.

Re: Forest kindergarten

#25

Post by jmkd »

Both my kids went through a version of this system in Copenhagen.

2 weeks in the forest (by bus each day) then 2 weeks in the kindergarten. This meant the kindergarten building could support double its capacity as only half the kids were there at one time.

Main takeaway for me was how resilient they became to cold, playing, eating and resting outdoors all day during winter, with far more ailments acquired during the indoor fortnights than those spent outdoors.

Re: Forest kindergarten

#26

Post by alkonaut »

This is very common in Sweden. Weather isn’t an issue even in winter. Even in ”normal” kindergarten, my kids took their afternoon naps outside in -10C.

Re: Forest kindergarten

#27

Post by 9nGQluzmnq3M »

dmix wrote: post #21
nkrisc wrote: post #8

There's one near where I used to live in Chicago. They use a local Forest preserve. Strangely there is a contigent of neighbors who continually try to get the whole thing shutdown because they don't think young kids should be outside like that all the time. They try to complain and say they leave garbage or are noisy or other invented complaints. From what I understand, what they're really upset about is that they ca…

Those small groups with a bit of power like NIMBY activists are the worst. You see it on Facebook groups for buildings too, they range from over-protective types who are scared of the city/outside to fully invented hypothetical problems any time something is "different" happens. I've always wondered what these people get out of it.

A neighborhood I lived in had a virulent social media & flyers campaign against a planned "24/7 commercial facility" (the ads never said what it was) that would cause gridlock, lower property prices and generally bring on the Apocalypse.

Turns out said facility was a small privately run aged-care home (the horror!), and the campaign was largely bankrolled by some local developers who would much have preferred to turn the waterfront lot in question into condos.

Re: Forest kindergarten

#28

Post by emteycz »

Sharlin wrote: post #24
dmix wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Those small groups with a bit of power like NIMBY activists are the worst. You see it on Facebook groups for buildings too, they range from over-protective types who are scared of the city/outside to fully invented hypothetical problems any time something is "different" happens. I've always wondered what these people get out of it.

In their own narrative, of course, they're just good people trying to protect children/live their live in peace/etc.

Yeah but freedom is about tolerating what you don't like because it's none of your concern. I don't understand how the "land of the free" could favour a small group so much. It's unthinkable in my post-socialist country.

Re: Forest kindergarten

#29

Post by chasd00 »

dfee wrote: post #10
em-bee wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

can you elaborate on post-montessori please? how does that look like to you?

I loved the idea of Montessori, and it’s an issue I raised in open discussion at one of the school’s group chats. Basically, in principle it’s great. Children drive themselves and follow what they’re passionate about (with a teacher’s encouragement). If they’ve got a tendency for math, for example, the teacher helps them develop their own intuitions and keeps those pathways open for them. In practice, my son believed…

both my kid are in a public Montessori school, being a public school it's subject to the district and state requirements so it's not perfect. My kids like it but it's not the right fit for all kids. Some kids struggle in Montessori and absolutely thrive in a traditional setting. A family friend pulled their kids who just flat out hated every second of it and put them in a plain, standard issue, elementary school and they're loving it.

My point is there isn't one style that works for all kids so you need to try different things until you find what works best for your family.

Re: Forest kindergarten

#30

Post by EL_Loco »

barry-cotter wrote: post #19
dfee wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I loved the idea of Montessori, and it’s an issue I raised in open discussion at one of the school’s group chats. Basically, in principle it’s great. Children drive themselves and follow what they’re passionate about (with a teacher’s encouragement). If they’ve got a tendency for math, for example, the teacher helps them develop their own intuitions and keeps those pathways open for them. In practice, my son believed…

> I believe that it was a better program than a median program, but I’m not sure if it’s because his peers came from families who could afford to spend time with their children, or if the program itself was better than median. Doesn’t matter which is true. Early educational interventions fade out universally and we have nothing that effects adult intelligence or conscientiousness which explain pretty much all variati…

What do you mean by 'fade out universally'?
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