Article Link: http://exchangepress.com/article/risk-it!/5019261/
[Play in natural environments] fulfills basic childhood needs of freedom, adventure and risk-taking.Jim Greenman (1993)
Children in the Mindstretchers Nature Kindergartens in Perthshire, Scotland, are skilled at assessing risk. We all have different attitudes to risk and the adults in the Kindergartens take their lead from the children who have done their own risk assessments. What is an acceptable risk to one adult or child might not be acceptable to another. One practitioner might be very happy to allow children to jump two metres off a tree trunk while another might become anxious and prevent children from jumping a metre!
In the Nature Kindergartens we remove hazards that children do not see, so we remove deadwood from the tree canopy. But we do not remove challenges or risks that children do see and then choose to undertake. Children can choose to climb up a tree and determine for themselves how far they feel comfortable climbing. If we remove all challenges, children lose the ability to risk assess. Our philosophy is to be risk-aware and not risk-averse and to employ a sense of perspective when assessing risks; whether they are real or perceived, they are everywhere!
Children in the centre are aware of ...