L'asilo nel bosco - The Waldkindergarten

Per l'articolo in italiano vi mando al blog di Vivisostenibile --> http://vivisostenibile.net/2015/01/le-porte-del-bosco-il-waldkindergarten/

"Imagine a forest, children, a little wooden house, a wooden tent, a nest made of branches, three lovely, calm and cheerful teachers, a kindergarten with no enclosures, with no barrier for the body and the fantasy.

I’m in Germany to do a volunteering experience in a Montessori school as I’m interested to know how it works and also to improve my rusty German. I’m hosted by an energetic Bavarian family : four children, two part-time jobs, commitment in volunteering and charity projects, many summers spent in the beloved Country over the Alps. It is just thanks to their younger child that I had the chance to visit a little world which is so common here, but not for me: the Waldkindergarten, the kindergarten in the forest.

This kind of kindergarten is not a news; it was born in Denmark at the end of the ‘50s and it spreaded mainly in the North European Countries. It has been a revelation for me.

The meeting point is on the top of the hill at 8.30 am and at 9 starts the day with songs and rhymes accompanied by little wooden musical instruments. After that children can play among the beautiful trees in the park: a swing hangs from a branch, many dishes can be used to prepare delicious meals of leaves and berries, small rakes to clean the tent and a continuously changing underbrush, all to be discovered.

At 11 am there is a break, the children go in the little house heated by a wooden stove and eat their snacks. Than everybody listens to the stories of the wood, enchanted by the pleasing voice of the teachers and, of course, who can read is invited to participate!

Now, some children can stay in the cozy shelter to express their creativity and the others will go back to the open air to make a little walk all together, jump, run, laugh, discover what’s new in the big fallen branches, an insect, a green sprout, an ice crystal.. Yes, ice, rain and also snow; the children of the Waldkindergarten are outside all the time, in all the seasons, and I can assure you that in the so called Region of the Lakes, between Munich and the north face of the Alps, a temperate and mild climate is only a dream.

Here the winter ends in April and the smaller lakes are frozen for months, but the children are allowed to touch their land with their hands, simply developing their psychophysical abilities well equipped with winter boots and jackets, with the little hands which get dirty in the mud and learn wood carving using real knives and branches from the forest.

Nature is the best teacher, it doesn’t impose, you can discover it day by day, and this is the main occupation of the children of the wood. They are not constricted in closed, aseptic and overcrowded spaces and they show an incredible solidarity and friendship with each other, they rarely fight as they are completely immersed in familiar and continuously changing environment.

This zero-impact kindergarten, with no fences and ruled by simple and fundamental principles, with no bathroom and kitchen, is the demonstration that there is no need of big operas to give a great teaching, and this is one of the most ‘sustainable’ realities I’ve ever met.

And now the big question: it would be possible in our Country?

The answer is yes, it is. The first Waldkindergarten is born in Ostia Antica (close to Rome). It is a drop in the ocean, but I hope it will be taken as example in a Country with such a friendly weather, a Country rich of potential and will of become better."

#childhood #children #intothewild #intothewoods #love #natureconnection #sustainable #sustainableliving