How Does Time Outside Help Learning

It’s no secret that we all benefit from time outdoors, and this is definitely the case during our working day or school day.

Time outside helps our focus and concentration. It helps to calm and settle our minds, and a calm mind has a greater capacity for learning and retaining knowledge. 

We all know that feeling, we’re sat at our desk with tasks to complete but we just can’t keep our focus. Our mental energy and capacity to concentrate is getting increasingly difficult. What can you do to keep your focus and be productive? Well heading outside is definitely the answer, it helps to declutter your mind and unwind so when you return to your desk you are feeling sharper and more alert. 

So if we as adults struggle, and let’s face it, we adults are generally more appreciative of time sat still - how do children cope?

How can they find their focus, their calmness of mind and their capacity to learn when sat indoors for long hours? 

By taking learning outdoors and expanding their opportunities to learning outside it can help improve engagement, improve focus and improve their capacity to learn and retain information. 

Time out in nature acts as a reset, it helps to settle a frazzled mind and builds the ability to hold focus with a positive outlet for energy. 

Outside activities are generally more engaging to children. There are more opportunities for hands on activities and the more tactile nature of natural materials helps to increase sensory awareness of the task at hand. 

The more that children have the opportunity for hands on outdoor learning, the more that the positive aspects can be seen in other areas of their life. 

Hands on tasks - whether shelter building, firelighting, campfire  cooking or  whittling something creative - all transfer into the classroom setting. These activities improve dexterity and focus, which in turn helps handwriting. Activities that help a child settle physically so they become more settled mentally. Activities that are built on in a series of steps, helping a child learn the ability to break tasks down into manageable steps. 

An overstimulated mind can’t focus. A frazzled mind struggles to retain facts. An overwhelmed child can feel mentally out of balance and disengaged with their surroundings. But time outside acts as a reset, the opportunity for calm focus, contented learning and most importantly - happy children…after all, that’s the main aim, right?