Wellbeing Notebook - Up a Tree or in the Mud: How Nature-Based Free Play Contributes to the Wellbeing of Children

Dianne Hillsdon is an experienced classroom teacher and administrator who has noticed a decline in children’s wellbeing during the last 30 years. Most children live a highly managed life, full of structured activities organised and supervised by adults and while these activities may develop specific skills, they do not necessarily build confidence and resilience that transfer to new situations. Dianne notes that we live in a risk adverse society and so children are often not open to taking acceptable risk. Dianne, who has just completed her Forest School training from the UK, has read widely on the topic of building confidence and resilience in children and has found that “children who play outside are more confident and resilient risk takers.” After introducing the principles and ethos of free play outdoors to her last school in Victoria, Dianne is now in the process of transforming Manning Adventist School, where she is Head Teacher, into a Bush School. Dianne says, “Bush School is an ethos that encourages the development of children’s emotional and physical development through the outdoor space and activities including exploration in a bushland environment.” At Manning school, the children spend an afternoon each week learning in nature through free play, except when weather conditions are dangerous, such as high winds. Rain does not stop Bush School. There is no such thing as bad weather, only the wrong clothes. The children engage in “bug hunting, mud play, shelter and den building, knot tying and other creative and imaginative situations.” As it is now winter, the children are learning to light fires with fire strikers (no matches here) and to cook over the campfire. This week they started learning the skills of whittling and tool sharpening. During this time the teachers act as facilitators rather than instructors. A few basic principles underlie the Bush School philosophy, including perseverance, trust, collaboration, team-building and resilience (Knight, 2013; Warden, 2012a & 2012b). Dianne observes that confident children with high levels of resilience are also more likely to take acceptable risk. Acceptable risk is when the child learns to assess a situation, such as a tree, before deciding it is alright to climb; or a log, before walking across it. Dianne tells the students, “The risk that you take is something you have to sort out for yourself. If you climb a tree you have to get yourself down.” Students are supported by staff standing by while the children negotiate the challenge. Although this may sound radical, Dianne maintains that children are very good at assessing risk and do not put themselves in situations they cannot handle. Mud play enables the children to feel the water and mud between their fingers. To create dams and form bowls, cups and spoons. The feel of the mud on hands is a wonderfully sensory experience. There are plenty of smiles during mud play time. Mud play makes you happy, and new research suggests that the friendly soil bacteria in mud actually helps the release of serotonin which is a mood regulator (Lowry, Hollis, De Vries, Pan, Brunet, Hunt, . . . Lightman, 2007). Just another good reason to get grubby! What are the observable outcomes of this type of program? Dianne has observed changes in children’s confidence and resilience in “a remarkably short time.” Some children take a little longer to feel the joy of outdoor experiences. More importantly, the attitudes and experiences from Bush School flow over into classroom learning. Dianne has noticed that “