Children in the Woods

The sound of a rainboot splashing in a mud puddle. The giggle of one child spying on another from behind a rock. The scrambling of limbs climbing a tree. 

These are the sights and sounds of children engrossed in play in the natural world. Eileen Straiton and Jennifer Tomaino are excited to witness this play in their new forest preschool and afterschool program that will be offered as an extension of Little Acorn Playgarden Childcare in Brookfield. The new programs are designed to help children immers themselves in nature and unplug and retreat from their daily pressures and distractions.

The forest preschool and afterschool program will take place at Williams Park in Brookfield and is the first of its kind in the area. The PreSchool will accept children ages three to five for a morning program while the afternoon program is open to ages five and up.

Straiton is excited to help parents give their children the “gift of unplugging.”

“We’re able to offer the kids a little bit of the outdoors after a busy day of school,” she explained. “They have so many pressures and so much screen time.”

She intends to have a basket at the site for older kids to place their electronics in, so they can really be free of them for a few hours. More specific details of the program can easily be found on their website.

Inspired by Waldorf Education Programs, Straiton described this new program as “non-academic, nature based learning with an emphasis on the arts and earthy activities.”

What activities qualify as earthy? Hiking, games with trees and yoga/zumba in the forest all qualify. Tomaino described Williams Park as a blend of three different ecosystems: the woodlands, the field and the pond. Children will be encouraged to explore the life in each of the environments as they engage in age-old nature play that includes catching frogs, chasing butterflies and tracking small animals. 

Tomaino’s personal philosophy embodies the idea that, “The only way one can enter adulthood with passion and interest and a desire to help the natural world is if they are in it as a child.” 

The idea that children are plugged in too often and outside too little has been a topic of concern for many. Richard Louv’s book, “Last Child in the Woods,” has convinced many people of the benfits children reap when they have plenty of unstructured outdoor play. The recent documentary Fast Forward seeks to illustrate and educate about the disappointment and the consequences children encounter when their lives are composed of tight schedules and rigid external expectations.

It can be a challenge to find ways to satisfy a child’s developmental need to be outside when parents work or a child’s yard isn’t exactly a rambling forest. A program such as the Forest Preschool and after school program may offer one type of solution to this problem, referred to by Louv and others as “nature-defecit disorder.”

This newly coined term refers to the lack of inner peace that children and adults encounter that often correlates with their lack of time spent in a more natural and wild environment. 

At present, these programs are few in the United States, but the trend is growing in places like Germany, England and Denmark. Children in these programs in Europe can spend up to half of their day outside regardless of the weather. Just the idea gives all that fancy raingear in the window a whole new purpose.