The article examines the field of outdoor learning and play, within it represents the forest education as the concept with many positive effects on the child's overall growth. The theoretical part of the thesis describes the development of the concept and establishing of the first forest school and nursery school, which are located into the natural environment and provide a regular visit to nature in all seasons. They give emphasis on constructivist and experiential learning through unstructured play. Various studies show that such approach has a positive impact on the child's health, motor development, cognitive, emotional and social development, and the development of ecological awareness. The represented advantages are also supported by an example of good practice of the English forest nursery school Dandelion.
Despite proven positive effects of the forest pedagogic, children in Slovenia spend less time outdoors than children in the Scandinavian countries, where forest school and nurseries come from. The natural environment is also not specifically defined in the Slovenian Curriculum for Preschools, but there were established the Institute for Forest Education and the Network of forest school and nurseries of Slovenia, which are responsible for the development of forest pedagogy in this country.
The empirical part of the thesis presents the results of survey questionnaires, carried out on a sample of 42 educators. It shows that children spend an average of approximately seven hours a week on the open, within the time are mainly dedicated to motor activities, a walk and unstructured games, in which educators often involve themselves in order to recognize the characteristics of children and raise their game to a higher level as more competent partners. The results also show that teachers most often organize leisure time at the playground, and they rarely go in nature with children. The aim of the research was to study how children experience the outdoor living. The results of a shorter project, carried out with a group of preschool children from the Nursery School Tržič, unite Križe, show that children experience outdoor activities as a delightful activity that can give them a sense of success and present new challenges.
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