ABSTRACT
Adventurous play outdoors is a long-standing feature of provision for young children. Friedrich Froebel, the pioneer of the kindergarten, argued that children should have opportunities for being ‘brave and daring’ in their play outdoors. Climbing trees, playing in streams, making dens, exploring the local landscapes were just some of the experiences available to children. He recognised the sense of joy and freedom to be gained from exploring beyond the limits of everyday experience. Even a walk outdoors was, for a toddler, ‘like a voyage of discovery and each new object is an America, a new world to explore’ (Froebel in Lilley 1967: 112). He believed that we should respect children’s awareness of their own abilities and focus on the benefits of challenging activities rather than just the risks. Using an example of tree climbing he argued that,
To climb a new tree is … to discover a new world; … If we could remember our joy when in childhood we looked out beyond the cramping limits of our immediate surroundings we should not be so insensitive to call out, ‘Come down you will fall’.
(Froebel, in Lilley 1967: 126)