Open-air schools where children live in contact with nature to learn to know and respect it: these are forest kindergartens, which are gradually winning over Italy too.
Playing outdoors and observing the changing seasons at close hand are activities that have fallen out of fashion for a great many children today, who find themselves spending their childhood shut between four walls. Forest kindergartens — genuine open-air schools, already well established in countries such as Germany and Denmark, and growing (slowly and with difficulty) in Italy too — are now trying to dust off this healthy but faded habit.
We spoke with Valentina Caracuta, a 38-year-old educator (and mother of two) with more than 15 years of experience behind her, who in September embarked on this new educational adventure — completely immersed in the nature of the Castelli Romani — together with her colleague Simone Di Monte. An experience full of surprises, but also of important confirmations, where the pedagogical choice of "accompanying the child while allowing them to express themselves freely" fits perfectly with the natural setting.
What does a forest kindergarten involve, and what need does it arise from?
It's a place where (almost) all activities take place outdoors. We go on educational walks, play around the fire, play with mud, tend the dynamic vegetable garden and observe nature every day, learning to know it closely and to respect it. Getting back to spending time outside has, in our view, become a fundamental urgency today, because children have fewer and fewer opportunities to do so.
Where is your school located?
We are in Lanuvio, near Genzano, in the Castelli Romani. Our kindergarten is situated inside a social-purpose farm called La casa di Pietro. It's an enormous place, with a cultivated area, an olive grove, a path leading into the woods and a stream, beyond which there is an ancient woodland. For now we use a room as our base — we call it the rifugio, which is actually a multi-purpose space — but we are equipping it with areas of interest, such as a structured adventure hut and other spaces that will be brought up to code.
Can you tell us how this whole adventure started for you?
Simone Di Monte, the other educator who works with me, and I have many years of experience in education behind us and had been waiting for an initiative like this for some time. At first we were thinking of an agri-nursery or farm school, which are somewhat different things. The spark was lit when we came across l'Emilio, a private nursery and infant school in Ostia which in 2013 completed its first experimental year as a forest kindergarten, making use of the park surrounding the school, and is now in its second full year. They paved the way a little — they went to the Ministry and are also doing a great deal of training at a national level. In Bologna, for example, I know that the local authority has been experimenting for some time with various forms of outdoor education. Little by little the idea is spreading.
What is the legislative situation in Italy?
There is no law in Italy for outdoor schools, and moves are now being made to seek answers on this issue. In Germany and Denmark there are actual state schools of this kind, so a family can freely choose them. Formally, we are currently a cultural association, Arti in viaggio, which organises a permanent workshop in partnership with a group of parents.
What is the pedagogy behind your project and how does it draw strength from the outdoor experience?
The pedagogical idea underpinning everything for us is to create a place that can respond to children's need for autonomy and freedom. A place where the child and their needs are respected. We also draw on that part of the ministerial curriculum that deals with the body and movement. In our view, these aspects can be particularly stimulated in an outdoor space, where there are no boundaries other than those we set ourselves for safety reasons. In an open environment, children can move their bodies freely, experience the risk of getting hurt and learn to protect themselves: all things that enrich a child's physical and psychological knowledge and skills. Nature is truly the perfect integrating backdrop for giving space to these needs.
What is the role of the educator in this kind of experience?
To guide and accompany the child. We are there, alert and attentive to their safety, yet we allow them to express themselves physically, to climb, to go up and down a ditch, to play with the earth. The sensory and perceptual dimensions are fundamental. Getting to know the world also comes through getting to know smells, colours and everything that nature has to offer. So what better place than a forest to learn all of this?
How has the experience gone so far?
We opened in September with four children aged between 2 and 4 and a half, but for next year we already have ten more requests and we are thinking of extending our hours. For now we are open only in the morning, from eight until one. In total, we have spent only a couple of days indoors, when the weather was particularly bad.
Was it difficult for you, after so many years as an educator in more traditional settings, to work in such a different context and without all the classic materials you normally use?
At first I had a feeling that something was missing, but over time that feeling disappeared entirely. We have very few toys and we are careful to use eco-sustainable materials, such as plant-based paints, which we make ourselves with fruit and other natural things, and a starch-based glue. We use a small wheelbarrow to carry things, and other simple materials such as small bricks and pieces of wood, which are in fact just offcuts from a joinery. Then in the shelter we have some books, a rug with cushions and a few small toy animals.
And how do the children get on without the classic toys?
Wonderfully. I have had further confirmation that children really need very little to enjoy themselves and let their imagination run free. A fenced-off patch of earth became an ocean for them! By digging up the soil, we first discovered the microcosm of insects and little creatures living beneath it, and then, little by little, that space became a lake for them, and so we built fishing rods…