Physical Challenges For Children in Nature

I wrote this post as a parent education piece a couple of years ago while I was teaching at a nature preschool. As today's weather in Minnesota oscillates between winter and spring, I think about the children navigating the ice, snow, and water out on the sidewalks. While the setting at the preschool I write about below isn't urban, certainly the physical challenges presented could be replicated in most any setting. Consider how your backyard, a neighborhood park, or an exploratory walk around the block could be used in gross motor development for your child, and how letting them take small risks can be good not only for their physical development, but for their confidence too.

Physical Challenges in Nature

Winter 2015

The natural terrain at our school provides children with physical challenges every day. Weather and the seasons continually change the environment. In this scenario, children do something that children everywhere do – they use their strength and balance to try to walk a straight line. Using the sandbox retaining timbers as a “tightrope,” children experiment with strategies for staying on the timbers and making it from one end of the sandbox to the other. They have walked these timbers many times, but today they are wearing boots and snow gear and the timbers are slippery and covered with snow.

One child (M) asks for help moving from logs to the timbers. She is given help at first. Others want to play this game. Soon we have many children testing their balance, trying out strategies such as putting their arms out, walking with slow, small steps, and asking each other for help. After walking with help, watching her peers, and the assurance that teachers are here to help if she needs it, M walks along the timbers by herself. “I did it!” 

We move our balance activity to another space just outside of the playground where the slack line is set up between trees. Here, children are about two feet off the ground and use a log as a step up to the

slack line.

Teacher: How is the slack line different from the timbers around the sandbox?

M: It’s the same because it’s really hard to do!

S: This one is more wobbly than the one at camp (another slack line). I can’t put my arms out like on the boards but I can hold onto the rope!

M: This is fun. I think I can do it myself!

Teachers always make sure children are safe, but encourage them to take small risks so that they can enjoy successes such as these.