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This chapter is part of a book that is no longer available to purchase from Cambridge Core

Chapter 2 - Children in the natural world

from PART 1

Julie M. Davis
By
Sue Elliott
Julie M. Davis
Affiliation:
Queensland University of Technology
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Summary

EDITOR'S NOTE

In this chapter, Sue Elliott makes the case for deep, authentic experiences in nature as foundational for young children's holistic and healthy growth and development. She emphasises that play in nature is fundamental to young children's learning. Sue argues that early childhood education has a long history that supports play in natural playspaces that must not be eroded.

Equally importantly, she argues that play in nature is not sufficient as a form of early childhood education for sustainability. Sue asks readers to contemplate their own relationships with nature and the outdoors while provoking them to deepen and widen their ideas and practices. She argues that early childhood educators have an important role in embedding nature into children's play environments and in sharing with children their enthusiasm and wonder about the natural world.

STORIES FROM THE FIELD

When visiting an early childhood centre during morning snack time, I asked the obvious question of a child munching on an apple: ‘Where do you think apples come from?’ The child replied promptly, ‘The supermarket’. I then asked, ‘Well, I wonder where the supermarket gets apples from?’ She replied [demonstrating with her hands] ‘Oh, they just get some yellow stuff and squash it all together, then they put more stuff on the outside’.

Early childhood educators are highly familiar with the somewhat amusing perspectives children express about how the world works. But, should we view this anecdote as a source of amusement or a source of alarm? How disconnected from nature have children become when an everyday food item such as an apple is perceived as a manufactured product? […]

Type
Chapter
Information
Young Children and the Environment
Early Education for Sustainability
 , pp. 43 - 75
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2010

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