ABSTRACT
In 1993 I was among a group of lecturers from Bridgwater College who took their early years students on a study trip to Denmark; we’d heard about the good practice there and wanted to see for ourselves what made it so good. I remember my first visit to a ‘skovbørnehave’ (forest kindergarten). I was totally bowled over by what I saw – children free to play and roam the wooded area beside their kindergarten. The children were confident and competent in their play, climbing trees and imaginatively making up games using the natural materials around them, and although there was a language barrier, they took delight in showing their skills and knowledge. I remember seeing a child high up in one of the trees, and I called to a pedagogue close by, ‘there’s a child high in the tree’; the pedagogue replied, ‘yes, there is’. Horrified, I said, ‘but they may fall out!’; ‘yes,’ said the pedagogue, ‘they might, but they don’t usually!’
