Outdoors at school (also known as recess?)

Daria: What types of things do the children learn at Sudbury School?

Mimsy: Well, I think they learn every type of thing but there are some things that I think every kid has to learn here because you can’t be here and not learn them. One of those things is to love the outdoors. Kids can spend as much time outside as they want here and that’s very healthy for their minds, their hearts, their souls, their bodies. There’s not a kid who’s gone to school here who doesn’t afterwards talk about how important the outdoors was to them.

(from a radio interview transcript here)

Some typical examples of outdoor/nature play at Sudbury Valley School and other Sudbury Schools:

– Forts and outdoor play at The Circle School

– Some very elaborate outdoor pretend play that goes on for days and weeks at a time

– Outside at Sudbury Valley

– A few photo galleries: The Slate Store, Fishing, Rocks, Forts, Sandbox
more epic forts

– I regularly catch glimpses of basketball, football, ultimate, wiffleball games with kids as young as 4 and as old as 17.

– … Kids still outside doing pretend play or nerf-gun pretend battles or home-brew tag games or playing in the stream, etc. etc. even though it is a late fall afternoon and starting to get dark and is less than 40F. It’s not uncommon to arrive at around 4pm to pick up my kids and there to be 20-30 kids outside. Or to arrive and have only a few kids outside — already eating lunch at the picnic table even though it is 10am and cold.

Just depends on the day.

LOVE IT.