Task 16.

Some parents are concerned about the perceived risk of interference by strangers in a public park. In a city, equipment or half-completed projects may not be found the next day as they were before; they may have been interfered with by strangers overnight. These parents may already be helicopter parents, victims of a culture of fear or may be unwilling to let their children explore such a wilderness. They may be concerned about exhaustion and it does take time for a child to build up the strength and experience to participate fully, risk of per­sonal injury, or a lack of manufactured educational "resources".

Task 17.

In rural areas, and historical times, access to nature has not been a problem. Over the last century, with increasing urbanisation and "nature deficit disorder", there have been many changes in stance on outdoor education. In 1914, the socialist political activists Rachel and Margaret McMillan set up an "open-air nursery" but little is known of the details, ex­cept for an improvement in child health.

In Sweden in 1957, an ex-military man, Goesta Frohm, created the idea of "Skogsmulle". "Skog" means wood in Swedish. "Mulle" is one of four fictional characters he created to teach children about na­ture, along with "Laxe" representing water, "Fjall-fina" representing mountains and "Nova" representing an unpolluted nature. Forest schools based on Frohm's model, called "I Ur och Skur" (Rain or Shine Schools) moved the idea from occasional activities to formal nursery schools, being set up by Siw Linde in 1985. Juliet Robertson's review of Skogsmulle is a valuable mod­ern-day summary.

Task 18.

Also in the 1950s, Ella Flautau created forest kindergartens in Den­mark. The idea formed gradually as a result of her often spending time with her own and neighbours' children in a nearby forest, a form of day-care which elicited great interest among the neighborhood par­ents. The parents formed a group and created an initiative to establish the first Forest Kindergarten.

Forest Kindergartens have existed in Germany since 1968, but were first officially recognised as a form of day-care in 1993, enabling state subsidies to reduce the day-care fees of children who attended Forest Kindergarten. Since then, the forest kindergartens have become increasingly popular. As of 2005 there were approximately 450 forest kindergartens in Germany, some of which offer a mix of forest kindergarten and traditional daycare, spending their mornings in the forest and afternoons inside.

Task 20.

Benefits of forest kindergarten work:

• Forest kindergartens are also generally less noisy than closed rooms, and noise has been shown to be a factor in the stress level of children and day-care professionals.

• Merely keeping sight of natural features improves self-discipline in inner-city girls.

• Playing outside for prolonged periods has been shown to have a positive impact on children's development, particularly in the areas of balance and agility, but also manual dexterity, physical co­ordination, tactile sensitivity, and depth perception According to these studies, children who attend forest kindergartens experience fewer injuries due to accidents and are less likely to injure them­selves in a fall.

• Playing outdoors strengthens the immune sys­tems of children and day-care professionals.

Improved skills: knowledge and skills in specific subjects, reading (despite not having used books formally!), mathematics, constructive contributions to learning, asking questions and interest in learning, motivation, sports, music, art and creativity, positive so­cial behaviour, religion, concentration, handling writing and painting equipment