'This is what childhood is': Nova Scotia 'forest school' aims to connect children with nature

First at Five: Forest School First at Five visits a forest school – where children are encourage to turn-off technology and connect to nature.

Tideview Nature School in Cole Harbour, N.S., wants to connect children to nature.

“If we think back to our childhood, this is what childhood is, it’s being outdoors, it’s playing, it’s engaging with the community,” says Jessie Zhao, co-founder of Tideview Nature School.

After moving from British Columbia, where there were numerous forest school options, Zhao and her husband, Mike L’Italein, started their own program after not being able to find any locally.

“The cognitive engagement, the focus, the creativity and even being able to challenge themselves physically, mentally that’s just not something you get in a very structured indoor environment,” says Zhao.

At forest school, the classrooms are local parks throughout the HRM, where, with supervision, the students create the lesson plan.

“It’s child-led focus, so we see what they want to do. We brought them over to the shelter to build a fort and eventually it turned into throwing rocks in the water, and then it turned into an excursion along the coastline where they’re just jumping from one rock to another, and then after while their boots get muddy and nobody cried,” L’Italein says.

L’Italein says feedback from parents has been positive.

“Most importantly they’re just noticing their kids are getting tougher so other words more resilient. They’re learning to adapt to issues that they might not have adapted to otherwise,” says L’Italein.

“Some parents notice a really big development in kid’s social development. So they are more comfortable meeting people, talking to people, interacting with other kids,” Zhao adds.

Tideview Nature School focusses on two age groups right now. There’s a pre-school group geared toward two to four-year-olds that runs in the morning and a school-age group for five to nine-year-olds later in the day after their traditional school hours.

The school runs seven days a week, year-round. Their goal is to one day open a full-time alternative school and expand throughout the province.

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