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Childhood.

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This is one of just a few photos of me
playing outside as a young child.

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Growing up in the 1970s,
people didn't take many photos.

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And they certainly didn't take photos
of children playing outside,

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because it was very common
for a child to play outside.

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(Laughter)

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(Applause)

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My sisters and I spent endless hours
transforming our backyard

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into a cooking-show kitchen,
an airport, a hair salon,

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or some other imaginary place.

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We would pull the contents
of our basement playroom outside

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where there was more space
and greater possibilities.

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Often, our play would go
to the back alley,

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or it would go down the street
to our neighborhood friend's house.

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I have no memory of my parents
being anywhere close by

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or calling next door
to arrange a play date.

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I imagine that these memories
sound familiar to many of you

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sitting in the audience today.

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Think of yourself playing as a child.

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Now raise your hand
if your play took place outside.

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Leave your hand up if your parents
were nowhere in sight.

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(Laughter)

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Unfortunately,

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to far too many children today,
being outdoors is a far, foreign place.

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Kids with an interest in going outside

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are often guided
by their parents or society

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to stay indoors to avoid
discomfort and danger.

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Or they are distracted
by a wide array of electronic devices

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that passively entertain them.

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According to US research,

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over half of preschoolers
do not go outside on a daily basis

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with their parents.

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This photograph of a couple
of preschoolers on their iPads worries me.

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No. Actually, it scares me.

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Research in Canada suggests
that children ages six to eleven

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spend seven and a half hours
being inactive every day.

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In the UK,

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they found that over 40% of parents

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don't believe that children under the age
of 14 should go outside unsupervised.

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So what is society doing about this?

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I want to tell you today about
how we developed a Nature Kindergarten

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in our community

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to connect young children with nature.

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My story begins in 2010

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when our family took a four-month
sabbatical to Munich, Germany.

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Our son, Niko, was four at the time.

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And given my enthusiasm
about connecting children to the outdoors,

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you can imagine how excited
I was to enroll him in a Waldkindergarten,

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forest kindergarten.

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Forest preschools have been
part of a northern European tradition

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for over 60 years.

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There is no bad weather,

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only bad clothing.

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Send the kids outside, rain or shine.

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Have you ever noticed
that it's usually adults, not children,

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who don't want to go
outside in bad weather?

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(Laughter)

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Northern Europeans have long understood

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the benefits of taking
young children outside,

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and so they developed these programs
for three- to six-year-olds.

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Each day,

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a trained early-childhood educator
would take the children outside

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to learn and play in unstructured ways

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and often with limited adult supervision.

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While Niko's program
took place in a municipal forest,

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these programs have also been successfully
established on farms and in city parks.

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Ironically, Niko and I spent over an hour
commuting to his program -

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first by bike, then by subway,
then by streetcar, and eventually on foot

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to arrive at the forest.

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While the children
in Wurzelkinder Waldkindergarten

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spent part of their day
in and around these caravans,

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it was their daily excursion
to the forest or riverbank

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that was the part
of the program that is unique.

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Along the way,

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their educators would help them name
and notice berries, bugs, slugs.

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And when they got there,

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they would sit on the forest floor
in a circular fashion,

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give thanks to nature, enjoy a snack,
and then they would play.

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Occasionally, I asked
for permission to participate.

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I was amazed at what I saw.

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What a world of difference compared
to the co-op preschool model back home.

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I was intrigued by how young children
walked one- to two-kilometer distances

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without complaining

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and often out of the sight of an adult,

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how puddles became invitations
to create makeshift boats and get wet,

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and how the educators stood back

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and allowed the children
to independently struggle

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with the physics of getting
a stick into the ground

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to make a goalpost for soccer.

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I appreciated the care and detail

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that went into making crafts
out of natural objects,

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rather than paper and glitter,

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and how the change of seasons
were celebrated through song and dance.

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I was shocked by the risks that were taken

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when young children were allowed to swim
in the fast-flowing Isar River,

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when they tied ropes around trees,

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and the children would traverse
up and down the hillside in the dirt,

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when four-year-olds, my son included,
were given sharp knives

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so that they can whittle sticks

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in order to be able to roast
a sausage over an open flame.

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"Risk," it turns out,
is not a four-letter word

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to German parents and educators.

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It is a vehicle to independence.

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When I wasn't participating
in Niko's program,

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I took that streetcar
a few stops further along,

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and I sat in a cafe, and I leisurely read
a book or the newspaper.

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While this was initially
self-indulgent bliss

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for a full-time working mom
on sabbatical,

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the novelty ended, and I became restless
to become productive.

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I am German after all.

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(Laughter)

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So I shared my woes of non-productivity
with my remotely sympathetic spouse.

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And it is he who I should credit
with the idea of a Nature Kindergarten

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because he shifted my thinking,

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and my principled mind
started turning over new ideas.

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By the time we returned to Canada,

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I had not only experienced
forest preschools firsthand,

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but I'd also read a few books,

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and I talked to several
of Niko's educators.

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As the person responsible for
the district's curriculum and programs,

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I was well positioned to pitch the idea
of transplanting a Nature Kindergarten

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to a school district in British Columbia.

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My supervisor trusted in my capacity
to start a new program,

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and I knew where to find collaborators.

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Early-childhood professor Enid Elliot

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was my first and
most critical collaborator.

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Over a course of two years,

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Enid and I gathered
a community of individuals

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from a wide variety of backgrounds

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who were generous
with their ideas and their time.

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We all believed in the value
of our own time spent outside

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as young children,

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the importance of play,

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and the need to respond to the factors
that were keeping children indoors today.

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Together, we envisioned
a kindergarten program

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at a school that was adjacent
to a forest and a lagoon.

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And we envisioned children going outside
for two and a half hours every morning,

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regardless of the weather.

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They would follow the mandated
kindergarten curriculum

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outside in the morning
and indoors in the afternoon.

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We hoped that nature
would become their third teacher,

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that their mental
and physical health would improve,

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that they would become
stewards of the environment,

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and that they would learn
the Aboriginal ways of knowing

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of the First Nations people.

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Meet Lisa and Erin, kindergarten teacher
and early-childhood educator.

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Together, they took the idea
of a Nature Kindergarten

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and transformed it into practice.

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Observing great teaching
leaves me feeling charged up and hopeful.

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Spending a morning with Lisa,
Erin, and their students

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always leaves me
with this energized feeling.

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Each day, they go outside,
and they create a learning environment

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that develops organically according to
what the kids are interested in

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and the unknown wonders
of the natural world.

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Through self-reflection, collaboration,
and the occasional frustrated tear,

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they move their educational
practice forward.

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To date, 65 children
have completed our program.

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I am pleased to tell you

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that we have hardly used
our risk-management plan.

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No child has ever been lost,
endangered by wildlife,

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or seriously injured.

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Phew.

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(Laughter)

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Parents have overwhelmingly reported

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that the program has exceeded
their expectations.

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And when researchers
compared the Nature Kindergarten

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to a regular kindergarten class,

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they found significantly
greater gains in four areas.

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Those four areas were locomotor skills,
assertiveness, cooperation,

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and self-control.

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So let's go through them one by one.

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Locomotor skills.

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This log in the background
of the photograph

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is about 20 feet long, six inches wide,
and about five feet off the ground.

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Last year,

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it sat in the Royal Roads Forest
and got noticed by our students.

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At first, they hung off of it,

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then they bummed along it,

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then they crawled along it,

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and eventually - you guessed it -

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they walked across
this very long and skinny log.

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Fortunately,

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there were no concerned playground
licensing officers anywhere close by.

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(Laughter)

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We need to empower young children
to take age-appropriate risks

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on their own.

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We know that by doing so, they will lead
healthier and safer lives as young adults.

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These logs provide otherwise clumsy
and uncoordinated children

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with the ability to prove themselves
to be expert climbers.

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Picture Nature Kindergarten children
moving and playing

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for two and a half hours every morning,

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and you won't be surprised to learn

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that they improve their strength
and agility to run, hop, and climb.

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Assertiveness.

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Every day last year,

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the class walked past
a couple of anthills.

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The children became connected to the ants

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as they do to most living things
in "their" forest."

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As the year went along,

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they noticed that people were throwing
sticks and rocks on the anthills,

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causing them to get damaged.

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The children identified themselves
as the ants' caretakers,

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and they decided to voice their opinions.

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"You can't step on the anthills!
They're part of nature!"

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"We need to take care of them!"

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"Ants help pollinate flowers!"

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So they got together as a group,
and they made signs and posters,

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and they taught others
how to take care of the ants.

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Lucky ants -

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four- and five-year-olds
taking care of them,

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not squashing them with their boots.

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Cooperation.

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The children soon learn
that staying safe and happy in the forest

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means cooperating
and caring for each other.

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Cooperation is a team effort.

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"Help! This log is too heavy for me!"

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Ava's friends rush over,

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and they help her carry
the branch down the path.

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"You have to walk
one, two, one, two, one, two!"

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Ava's more confident friend
Eli offers up.

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And soon, their classmates
start walking at a similar speed.

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"My arm is getting sore.
When can we switch?"

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"You have to keep going!"
yells Zoe from the back of the log.

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No adults - just kids organizing kids.

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Self-control.

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Using sticks, rocks, and dirt,

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the children in the Nature Kindergarten
learn to focus themselves

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during listening times in the forest.

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Being outdoors in the wide, open spaces

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makes it easy to accept noises and actions

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that may be considered too loud
or destructive indoors.

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So the Nature Kindergarten children
realize that you can bark like a dog,

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or you can dig a hole
next to your classmate,

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and no one will be annoyed
with your unconventional ways.

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We did it.

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We transplanted a forest preschool
to a school district in British Columbia.

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What we didn't anticipate is how
the interest in this idea would grow.

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The Nature Kindergarten
was at the front end of a wave of interest

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in outdoor programs for young children.

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There are now over 20 programs
like this across the province,

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with several examples
in different school districts.

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(Applause)

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You can't do this overnight,

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so be thoughtful in your process

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and generous in how you
support your educators.

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Every generation is different,
but nature is our constant.

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Being outside as a young child
helped define who I am today,

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what I value, and how I spend my time.

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00:16:26,863 --> 00:16:31,473
I hope that my own children,
nieces and nephews,

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00:16:31,473 --> 00:16:33,682
and the children who I educate

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00:16:33,682 --> 00:16:36,981
will develop this same
connection to nature.

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00:16:37,711 --> 00:16:43,043
The future of our planet
depends on raising children

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who have reasons to protect
the world they live in.

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(Applause)