5 Ways To Sprinkle Key Forest School Approaches And Ethos Into Your Own Parenting Routine.

Today, I will be sharing my 5 ways to sprinkle key forest school approaches and ethos into your parenting routine. Many parents, like you, love the way forest school helps their child develop important life skills and habits.

When parents get it, Forest School’s key ethos and approaches are something they wish to mirror in their own parenting journeys. However the approach, until I began this podcast was quite mystical and filled with technobabble for many parents, leading to a misunderstanding of what Forest School is.

Take a look at other Forest School providers. What’s one of the first pieces on their websites? What is Forest School?

I was guilty of it too until I had an incredible realisation. You may be still at this point and have found this podcast to help you clear the murky waters.

If this is you, I would stop now and go back to some of our earliest episodes which build upon each other in explaining the whole movement. If you’re upto speed, today I have something super cool for you.

Here are my 5 ways to sprinkle key Forest School approaches and ethos into your parenting routine.

#1 Choice.

Everyone likes to have choices in the things they do, especially children. Parents often feel they need to do all the planning for their child, but at Forest School the children do that through the child led way of learning that is promoted.

Giving your child choices helps them feel like they have some power and control over what they do and it’s a step in growing up. Making good choices is a skill that your child will use for the rest of their lives. The key to giving your child choices though is to introduce limited choice.

To learn more about this take a look at our previous podcast episode The Power Of Choice At Forest School which is linked below.

#2 Independence

This is the ability of your child to work on their own, free from the over influence of an adult .

One of the key skills for life that we want to empower our children with is independence, both in relation to their actions and their thinking.

To become independent, your child has to be confident in their own abilities otherwise they will remain over-reliant on the support of other adults or their more confident peers.

Their confidence grows through opportunities to try new things in a safe and supportive environment with lots of positive reinforcement for their success and strategies to support any failures they may have along the way just like how we work at Forest School.

Young children are on the whole very resourceful and very resilient, and when left to their own devices or given opportunities to be independent they can often surprise us, right.

By not allowing your child their independence they may display learned helplessness which I have discussed in more depth in another episode called Learned Helplessness and the role of forest school.

#3 Watch closely — help only when needed

When you’re out an about watch how your child plays, moves, speaks and interacts with others. During these periods you may have a huge urge to step in to either stop, help or move them on. But don’t.

Each day and what’s included within is the prime learning opportunity .Try to be in no hurry to get round or get whatever your doing done. Wallow for a while in the time.

Watch those beautiful moments as your child’s mind and body develops right infront of your eyes through the power that is play. It also allows them to test themselves against the person that really matters… themselves, develop competence, independence and empowerment.

The only time for you to step in is if they are in danger or if they should invite you to help following you watching them try and try again. Here you will be able to offer advice or break their play choice down and build it back up in a way that helps them succeed.

Stop and think in these moment though. Is what I’m doing, doing it for them? If the answer is no then you my friend are on the right path. Help by all means but let them figure the world they live in by themselves. They will thank you for it in the long run and never become helpless, instead helpful members of our community.

#4 Explore the outdoors.

The outdoors provides so much challenge, intrigue, curiosity and creativity do use it as a resource to help you both grow. Children are forced to think out of the box in the outdoors as there are no pre set things to play with.

All they have is their imagination. Also the outdoors is incredible for their and your mental health. To find out more about mental health and the outdoors take a listen to our previous podcast episode called Children, the Outdoors and Mental Health.

#5 Don’t shy away from risks- little by little

Finally and perhaps most importantly. Children neeeed risk in their lives. Managed, age appropriate correctly supported risk. Risky play arguably prepares a child, for future survival.

Through exposure to risky play, children are able to test and become familiar with its possibilities, their own limits and abilities. How they interact within a given perceptively risky play situation involves a stand off between two oppressive emotions; exhilaration and fear.

If you keep saying no they will one day go ahead and try it in a way that lacks judgement, practice and knowing which may end in avoidable errors. More worrying still is the under development of emotional processing.It can be super scary, right?!

I get that but when children are given the opportunity to manage risk they become very good at it and so develop personal control and understandimg of emotions, increased social connection and an increase in happiness; all of which offset anxiety.

Such experiences build to form an ever evolving portrait that a child relies upon as they grow into adulthood. It is perhaps best viewed as ‘training for the unexpected’. When children are successful at taking risks, identifiable merits are seen within character such as self esteem and self worth.

Children do not set out to hurt themselves. They wish to avoid pain, like all of us. But bumps, bruises and cuts are part of the process. Way markers in the journey of discovery and development. It’s all about allowing risk but minimising the harm and maximising the learning potential.

To find out more on how to manage and help your child to take appropriate risks take a listen to our other episodes dedicated to this topic which are linked also below.

Go Forth And Test Them Out!

How cool were those 5? Go forth and test them out for yourself. But remember these will never be able to replace your attendance at a real Forest School.

However they can go someway to embedding, instilling and reinforcing key ideas and ethos in your child’s home life that they learn at Forest School so helping with their holistic develop.

Also Forest School and it ethos was never designed to be a quick fix. Forest School is done over a long term, repeated process just like these should. Keep putting the work in on them each and everyday.

You can’t hack child development. If you did or do then your child will miss some key building blocks that are crucial to their future. Have fun with it and I’d love to hear how you get on.

You’re Just One Session Away.