Set up play area so that outside play equipment are scattered around the designated area this allows your child more freedom of movement and helps them to isolate the activities and focus concentration
Here are TEN tips to include some Montessori activities outdoors and in nature with your children:
- Seasonal activities – depending on the season you could take a basket to the local park or a nearby forest to collect leaves, acorns, shells, sticks, rocks, stones, and pine cones.
- Grow your own vegetables – you don’t even have to have a large garden to grow your own. You can set up a potting station with some soil, a scoop and some seeds. Have a watering can at the ready. Don’t forget about composting by adding your food waste to a compost bin or worm farm. Your children will learn in a very natural way about the food cycle and returning nutrients to the soil.
- Movement opportunities – climb trees, balance along walls or tree stumps or logs, hang from branches, swing from a tire, ride a balance bike (“loopfiets” as they say in Dutch), kick a ball, jump with a skipping rope, chase each other, run fast, and walk slow.
- All weather exploration – there is no such thing as bad weather, just bad clothing. So get some great all-weather clothing and shoes and stomp in those puddles, put on a hat and sunscreen, get out each and every day.
- Notice the beauty of the outdoors together – watch insects at work, droplets on leaves, the smell of rain, the colors of the sunset, the vistas from the mountains, the stillness of the lake or the ripples, the movement of the ocean, the wind in the trees, grab a magnifying glass to explore close up, or simply take in the gloriousness of the flowers and bees in a neighbor’s garden.
- Find moments of quiet – find a place to sit and watch the clouds, to sit in silence, or just to breathe.
- Make treasure hunts – make a list of pictures and work together to find all the items on your list. It could be in your garden, at the park, in the forest, or any outdoor place you have access to.
- Build your own hut, cubby house, obstacle course and invite around some friends.
- Make outdoor art – use mud, water, leaves, flowers, soil, seeds, grass and whatever other interesting pieces you can find. Lay them into patterns, make them into shapes, or work together to make a face or an animal.
- Make a musical wall – hang in the garden old pots and pans, bells, and any other objects that make some sound when banged. Find some sticks to make some music.
Bonus: Anything to do with water – spraying the windows, filling a bucket and painting bricks with a brush, running through a sprinkler, or making rivers with sand and water.