Benefits of Nature Play

Nature Based Play 

Nature-based play is the whole child activity engaging with the organic elements on nature's playground using one's mind and body to build new knowledge with the hopes of bonding with the environment. When your child is jumping in a puddle, they are strengthening their large muscles, experimenting with cause and effect, and bringing joy to their experience with nature. Nature-based play fosters nature's pedagogy which is the understanding that nature is the teacher and works interconnectivity with humans' holistic development.

The Holistic Development of Children in Nature 

Holistic development occurs when the whole child is being nurtured. The whole child is made up of seven domains: physical, natural, social, emotional, mental, spiritual, and creative, which are developed through a supportive environment where a child is embracing real authentic opportunities to explore all their intelligence and capabilities through their own uniqueness engaging with their social environment and nature.

1. Physical Development 

When children are allowed to be wildlings in their natural element, they can use their eight senses and test their abilities by taking healthy risks. The child creates new challenging opportunities to build confidence and self-esteem and strengthen their muscles. When your child makes their way into nature, they will use their eyes and ears to search the woodlands for birds, listen to rabbits rustling in the bushes, or cicadas making a shrill sound in the trees. The loose part in nature like leaves, trees, dirt, stones, moss, lichens, feathers, and grass stimulates tactile.

When children are in nature experiencing different seasons, it allows them to use smell to detect rain coming or the spring flowers in the air. Being outdoors gives children a sense of body awareness, like how much force they need to roll a log or how far they will need to jump to the next stepstone. They learn to control their bodies and bring a gentle touch to the fragile, innocent life around them. While at other times, children learn to listen to their bodies, like when to take a break and get water because they are tired from a valuable day of play. 

Extended benefits

Young children are exercising their bodies, stimulating their cardiovascular functioning by running, jumping, and breathing in the fresh air, helping the child think, focus, and concentrate. Children can use their bodies in various ways in nature. It allows them to test their abilities, promoting positive self-image and self-esteem.

“If humans are to fully attain their destinies, so far as earthly development permits this; if they are to become truly whole, unbroken units, they must feel and know themselves to be one, not only with God and humanity but also with nature.” - Froebel

2.  Natural Development

The wild brings the innate wildness out of children, one that is lost as the world moves faster into a technological one where they miss the chance to bond with the very thing that brings them life. When children are free to be wild, they learn to love and value the forgotten things, like the inchworms on the very tree they learned to climb, how to share acorns with the squirrels, and the butterfly that flew by, bringing a smile to their day, or the very simple ray of the sun dancing on their skin. The gift of nature-based play is to give children a deep love and connection with the natural world, developing environmental stewardship that can lead to a more sustainable world. Children with more experience playing and bonding with nature develop a moral obligation to protect human and nonhuman things. (Chawla 2015, Strife and Downey, 2009)

3. Social Skills Development

A child's social development occurs when they engage in close relationships with their peers. During unstructured play, children can share each other's ideas, cooperate with one another's rules, and negotiate on their own. A child's mind learns through symbols, and with the use of organic elements, children can create and share their ideas through role-playing and storytelling, sharing what they know about the world while using their creativity and practicing their literacy skills. 

4. Emotional Skills Development

“In the treatment of the things of nature we very often take the right road, whereas in the treatment of man we go astray; and yet the forces that act in both proceed from the same source and obey the same law.” - Frobel

When children are in nature and engaging with one another, they are learning many social skills: how to share space, how to take turns climbing a favorite tree or jumping on logs, how to work with one another to solve problems, show compassion, and express their feelings and frustration when they encounter a conflict or satisfaction about themselves, others, and nature. 

5.  Mental Development 

“Learning is more than the acquisition of the ability to think; it is the acquisition of many specialized abilities for thinking about a variety of things.” - Vygotsky

Children are natural investigators wanting to know about their world. When children are out in nature, they can witness a diverse ecosystem like moss absorbing water like a sponge, a spider webbing up its prey, or watching leaves changing colors. When children observe natural occurrences, it motivates them to want to know more. During a child's curiosity, they use their critical thinking to stop and analyze what they observe, ask questions, hypothesize, manipulate, and make meaning.

6. Spiritual Development

"What the spiritual eye sees inwardly in the world of thought and mind, it sees outwardly in the world of crystals." - Frobel 

Nature provides a spot to escape a while to listen to one's self and feelings and wonder about how our diverse world works and where they fit in the world. Through self-reflection and interactions with their peers and nature, they are building a foundation of how they will start to create their story of who they are and how they value themselves, others, and the living and non-living entities in nature. 

7. Creative Development

All the elements in nature are unique, just like each child comes with their personalized imagination and creativity. When children engage in free nature play, they can freely express themselves and use their feelings, ideas, and experiences to bring into existence. When children create, they make decisions, problem solve, develop a self-concept, and communicate. An example is when a child using loose materials to engage in constructive play builds a fort or draws an image in the mud. 

“Children are like tiny flowers; they are varied and need care, but each is beautiful alone and glorious when seen in the community of peers.” - Frobel

Healthy Risky Play

Risky play is when a child experiences the thrill of possible danger and the positive belief they can achieve climbing up and down a rock or jumping from stepping stones to stepping stones. Risky play is essential. It helps children get out of their comfort zone and allows them to experience failure and achievement, supporting their confidence, resiliency, growth mindset, risk management, and problem-solving skills.