Learning at home doesn’t mean staying at home – there is plenty of family learning to be done outdoors. Time outside, whether in parks, gardens, woods, streets or town centres can stimulate talk, create connection and improve focus. It can change the mood and awaken the senses. There are lots of opportunities to see learning from school applied in the real world: there are numbers, letters, shapes, patterns, angles and measurements everywhere. The scale changes when you go outdoors – there is more space to move around and to learn with your whole body. You can count in tens with giant steps, physically make repeating patterns with leaves or experience for yourself the sounds and textures of a woodland in Autumn. It is challenging for schools to provide the range of hands on, practical experiences in different places. Taking learning out and about is a great example of how families can add depth and meaning to school learning.
Using what’s outdoors
There is a wealth of resources to use outdoors: sticks can be magic wands, swords, measuring devices or roman numerals; trees can be played around, described, measured and identified. The potential is not limited to natural environments either: city streets have endless things to spot, count, read, talk about and compare. The wider the variety of places a child has experienced, and really paid attention to, the more they will understand the descriptions of other writers and the richer their own language will be when they are writing.
Taking books outdoors
There are many sparks for the imagination outdoors. Children can immerse themselves further in the books they love by reenacting the experiences in them; building a den like the Famous Five, going on their own Bear Hunt, or pretending they are Paddington or Harry Potter at a train station.. Non-fiction books can prompt children to pay more attention to the world around them. There are city I-spy books, nature identification books, maps and mystery trails.
Asking questions outdoors
Questions and answer games can pass the time on a journey or a walk. Children can be encouraged to come up with the most intriguing ‘I wonder why’ questions about the things they see. Information can be collected to answer questions too. Which is the most popular car colour? Why not take a clipboard on a walk and keep a tally. Word games and story games promote connection and are a light hearted, fun way to develop vocabulary.
Building experiences outdoors
Real experiences can help children to make sense of what they are learning. Walking a kilometre gives a child a real sense of how far that is in a way that converting distances in a maths book doesn’t. Feeling wet and windswept or going for a walk in the dark will help them identify with the characters in an adventure story. Looking down at the world from the top of a climbing frame, using a compass or reading a map can help develop a sense of direction, position, turns and angles.
Popular Learning with Parents outdoor activities.
At Learning with Parents, we love to get outside. Whilst understanding that not all families will be able to do this, we often offer outdoor variations to our activities. Here are some of our favourites!
- Scavenger hunts – We have many of these: finding shapes, symmetrical things, colours or patterns.
- Number quest – As a family, how far can you get finding numbers in order? This could be a collaborative exercise over a holiday or a race!
- Alphabets – Can you spot something (a living thing, a vehicle, a food) for each letter of the alphabet?
- Time me! – Use the timer on your phone to complete challenges. For example, how long does it take to run to the fence and back? Or, how many skips can you do in a minute?
- Find it for 10 – race to collect a certain item, like pinecones. Score 10 for each you find.
