The 1000 Hours Outside Podcast: If You’re Outdoors, Your Kids Are Learning

Ginny Yurich, founder of 1000 Hours Outside, is on a mission to help everyone - parents, educators and children themselves - match nature time with the average amount of American kid screen time, which she says is about 1,200 hours per year. 

In her May 10 “The 1000 Hours Outside Podcast” episode, “If You’re Outdoors, Your Kids Are Learning,” she and Rachel Tidd, author of Wild Learning, Practical Ideas to Bring Teaching Outdoors, talk about how nature’s influence on children’s learning experiences, plus practical tips and advice for parents and educators interested in transitioning to more outdoor-based learning. 

Tidd is an educator who’s spent 20+ years exploring the benefits of outdoor learning. Through her work, she advocates for the importance of play-based and child-led learning and how we can use nature as a tool to enhance children’s learning experiences.

Tidd and Yurich agree that playing outside and learning outside seem counterintuitive, and many think it’s distracting for young children, but the opposite is true. 

Yurich mentioned significant research around the attention and motivation that come from simply going outside. One study had educators take the exact same lesson they would have done inside and asked them to teach it outside instead. The results? Attention and engagement in the lesson increased, and not just there; when the students went back inside, that effect lasted well into the next lesson. 

The educators did mention that you may experience an initial attention issue if you rarely go outside because it’s new and different. That doesn’t mean that children are more distracted outside but simply need time to adjust to something new. If you make learning outside a regular practice, it becomes routine and is less distracting. Just like getting children into a new routine at the beginning of a school year, bringing lessons from inside to outside will take time, practice and patience in the beginning.

Exposure to nature can help children develop their senses and connect with the world around them. As Tidd describes, going outside is a sensory experience in itself. 

“You have wind and temperature. You have sunlight. You have smells. The rules change - what’s accepted outside is different than what’s accepted inside. You can move bigger, run, jump … be louder. Everything is more relaxed and rules are a little less strict, and that can help make learning more accessible for everyone,” she explains.  

One misconception educators have is the idea that you can only teach in a natural area, but that’s not true. You have teaching opportunities wherever you’re located and should focus on areas that are easiest for you to access. Nature books break things down seasonally, but Tidd says we should be breaking down what’s easiest to access. In urban areas, you can do a lot with chalk and games. In neighborhoods you have real life examples of numbers and words on signs where you can teach phonics, multiplication, shapes and arrays. The opportunities are endless. 

As Tidd explains, you have permission to use what you have: sit on steps or sit in the grass. Some teachers like to prep all materials themselves ahead of time and Tidd counsels not to do that. By allowing students to find materials themselves and construct things, it builds excitement, engagement and learning. 

So where should you start? Tidd says to start small, build as you go, and link your outdoor lessons to what you’re already doing inside. Maybe at first you take one lesson outside, and next you spend half a day outside, and eventually build up to a full day outside. 

Tidd also suggests to build in some free play time outside because it’s important and helps kids engage more when they are supposed to focus.

Yurich said it best: “Nature is a natural scaffolding for skills and nobody is falling through the cracks. If you’re outdoors, kids are growing. If they’re outside, there’s opportunities for growth above and beyond the learning outcomes that you’re going for.” 

We can help add some simple nature-based classroom elements to your outdoor space or do a full transformation from plastic-based playground to a beautiful and all-natural custom nature classroom. Regardless of what you need and where you are on the journey, reach out so we can help.