It is an educational approach that:
- Involves regular and repeated access to the same natural environment.
- Promotes experiential, inquiry-based, play-based, and place-based learning.
- Supports risk management where children learn to work through challenges, experience risk, and learn from mistakes and successes which helps to build self-confidence.
- Involves educators playing a facilitator and mentorship role – lead by example, support child interests, learn with the child, provide resources and materials to extend learning, and observe the child’s progress.
- Involves individual and collaborative learning opportunities.
- Allows for the learning experiences to change with the seasons, landscapes, presence of loose materials, who is in attendance, and the child’s interests, among other factors.