ABSTRACT
The key to ensuring children make progress in the earliest years of their life is to allow them enough time to explore freely in a range of environments. This is crucial both indoors and outdoors, but what stops practitioners from developing experiences outdoors is usually one of two things: a lack of freedom, often due to the stringent safety measures surrounding taking children off the premises, or a lack of motivation to engage children outside in activities that excite them. Soil- and plant-based activities also tend to be something that adults shy away from with young children, but the author truly believe that when the adults supporting children have the knowledge and confidence to support babies in their activities, the children get so much more out of them. Babies love collecting things, and this is a lovely little invitation to collect natural found resources and objects of interest and get a beautiful child-led outcome to treasure.
