Montessori Education – the Need for Nature – Children Connect

Many of us adults can recollect and even relive the long hours that we were blessed with to spend outdoors. There was a time when we were called in only when it was dinner time or at the disappearance of the last ray of light. Even for reading purpose, we were advised to take our books and read the same in a tree. Today, it is an all indoors life for children that deprives them of the unlimited charms and opportunities that nature offers. We have to keep pushing our children saying “go play outside.”

Need for Connecting With Nature Today’s modern lifestyle has changed children’s world from the earlier way – enjoying most of their time outdoors to the present way – spending increasingly more time indoors. Inadvertently, our children are missing on the gifted developmental opportunities offered by nature.

Hearing gets stimulated by hearing the many layers of nature’s sounds. By observing how leaves sway and move in the wind, vision is developed. Smelling damp earth after rain or the fragrance of flowers awakens the sense of smelling. Several other sensations such as the cooling breeze amid summer heat, the feel of sand on bare feet, or the taste of sun-ripened fruit – all have a crucial role in children’s development through their senses.

The Changes in Outdoor Activities Until a few decades ago, most of children’s free time was spent in contact with nature. By playing freely outdoors, children had the chance to explore and interact with Mother Nature with no restriction. The scene has quite changed today. Children are no longer enjoying nature – they have only limited contact with nature, let alone freely exploring it.

How Does Nature Help the Learning Process?
Children will be able to create their own games with their own inventive rules, perform experiments with nature, and learn things that are normally not taught anywhere else. Such environment with no rules encourages them to develop innovative and inventive play while giving them a deeper understanding and passion about nature. Emotional and social wellbeing of growing children have been proven to be immense when they indulge in outdoor activities close to nature. For a healthy and happy life, exposure to nature proves to be a vital ingredient.

At Sharanalaya School, we teach children to respect nature, we design the curriculum in such a way that they get ample opportunity to experience and value nature, and help them develop an appreciative and respectful outlook about nature.

Parents who wish to enable their wards develop into mature and respectful citizens may approach Sharanalaya School. 

Log on to https://www.sharanalayaschool.com/ for more details.