What is the outdoor space like at your M. school?

[MaryCeleste]

Just wondering what the outdoor space is like at your children's M. school, and what sort of access they have to this space -- i.e., "whenever they want to," or "X amount of scheduled outdoor time."

I've seen pictures from the original schools in Rome, where the children spontaneously carried their tables and chairs outside to do sensorial and practical life activities on the patio. Dr. Montessori encouraged this, and also included gardening as part of the method. In recent years, the AMI video, "Montessori in Action," shows English children in their outdoor classroom caring for pets, going for nature walks with the teacher, and so on. By contrast, many of the Montessori schools around here (California suburbs) just have a play structure on some type of "safe surface," and maybe a shrub or two. A few also have a patio with some potted plants to water. In almost all cases, the children's outdoor time is scheduled, and limited to ~30 minutes a day.

DH and I have been back and forth about school vs. homeschooling, and were leaning toward school, but this might be a deal-breaker for us. I do have some Montessori training and a small selection of materials, but I can't offer the same experience that they'd get in a good classroom. Still, outdoor time is so important at this age. I'm thinking it would be better for them to run around in our little backyard most of the time -- with an hour or two of "Momtessori" here and there -- than to spend their days in a classroom, without sunshine and breezes, and with their only exposure to nature prepackaged in plant pots and fish tanks.

I guess we could look at other types of preschools, but they don't seem any better on this issue (apart from Waldorf, which wouldn't suit our family for religious reasons). And we really like Montessori. DH is actually willing to move to be near a really good M. school.

Looking forward to hearing about your experiences with this subject.

[lalaland42]

Originally Posted by MaryCeleste

Just wondering what the outdoor space is like at your children's M. school, and what sort of access they have to this space -- i.e., "whenever they want to," or "X amount of scheduled outdoor time."

I've seen pictures from the original schools in Rome, where the children spontaneously carried their tables and chairs outside to do sensorial and practical life activities on the patio. Dr. Montessori encouraged this, and also included gardening as part of the method. In recent years, the AMI video, "Montessori in Action," shows English children in their outdoor classroom caring for pets, going for nature walks with the teacher, and so on. By contrast, many of the Montessori schools around here (California suburbs) just have a play structure on some type of "safe surface," and maybe a shrub or two. A few also have a patio with some potted plants to water. In almost all cases, the children's outdoor time is scheduled, and limited to ~30 minutes a day.

DH and I have been back and forth about school vs. homeschooling, and were leaning toward school, but this might be a deal-breaker for us. I do have some Montessori training and a small selection of materials, but I can't offer the same experience that they'd get in a good classroom. Still, outdoor time is so important at this age. I'm thinking it would be better for them to run around in our little backyard most of the time -- with an hour or two of "Momtessori" here and there -- than to spend their days in a classroom, without sunshine and breezes, and with their only exposure to nature prepackaged in plant pots and fish tanks.

I guess we could look at other types of preschools, but they don't seem any better on this issue (apart from Waldorf, which wouldn't suit our family for religious reasons). And we really like Montessori. DH is actually willing to move to be near a really good M. school.

Looking forward to hearing about your experiences with this subject.

This is pretty much what DD's outdoor space is like (we're in Dallas). There is a garden plot that the kids tend once a week that looks a little like a small community garden. -They do grow veggies. DD only goes to school for 9 hours/week so I am not too worried about it. We do a lot of outdoor activities together to make up for this. The outside time is scheduled as well as the garden time, I wish that wasn't the case as well.

[carriebft]

The outdoor area at our school is huge. There is a pool, garden area, "toddler cottage" with more gardens and things outside that, a playground area, a deck around the school with pathways through the other areas outside. The outside area was definitely one of the things that swung us towards this particular montessori.

[mightymoo]

DD's school is in a old mill building - which is otherwise professional space, they don't have their own building. The playground is a fenced in area with sand covering with a playstructure, sand tools, a picnic table and a peace pole. They have to cross the parking lot to get to it. She goes half days (3 hours) 5 days a week and they go out at the end of the school day for 10-20 minutes.

Since she spends on only a small portion of her day with access to the montessori materials and has the rest of the day home with me to explore the yard and do outdoor stuff, it really doesn't bother me that she doesn't spend much time outside.

The other M school near us has its own building and a much bigger playground which is accessible directly from the classrooms, though I don't know what they do there.

[MaryCeleste]

When people say they have the rest of the day to do stuff outside with their children, it sounds like their schedule is pretty different from ours.

Let's say I pick the children up from school at 12:30. This seems about average for half-day programs in our area. The rest of the day would go pretty much like this:

12:30 - 1:15: go home and eat lunch
1:15 - 2:00: outside time
2:00 - 4:00: nap (often runs late... for instance, they're still asleep right now at 4:25 )
4:00 - 5:00: if awake, they play indoors, because I'm fixing dinner and can't supervise them outside
5:00 - 5:30: eat dinner
5:30 - 6:30: more outside time (by this point, I'm usually too tired to do much in the way of "outdoor activities" or "nature walks" )
6:30 - 7:00: bath, PJ's, snack, then bedtime

Maybe our children sleep more than average? In any case, we're pretty well convinced that a nap, or at least a "quiet time," is important for children up to and including age 4. And most preschools seem to encourage naps for the younger full-day students.

Not to mention, if I did keep them up during their nap, that would be the hottest part of the day... not always ideal for playing outside. "Mad dogs and Englishmen," etc.

Okay, my nappers have awoken... time to go.

[RubyWild]

Our school has an amazing playpark with amazing natural structures such as hills, boulders, and trees for climbing; a sidewalk that goes through arches and all around for bikes and skates; a stage; a giant covered sand area and swings and climbing structures and covered benches for conversations.

Then, each class has a special garden area that is enclosed (within the playpark and connected to their classroom) that is very pretty and has areas for gardening, having conversations, or picking fruit.

The outdoor areas are superb.

[gratefulmom]

I probibly will not describe it to its best but at our school each classroom has it's own outdoor environment. 3 children can be out at a time and they just have to get the outdoor necklace and go outside. They can do their work out there and there is also gardening, etc.
Our school is next to a field so the playground has a great wood play structure and a field.
the boys only go half days and they end their day at the playground

[Flor]

Our school does not own its own buildings and therefore keeps moving around every few years renting space in churches and using a empty public school classrooms. They've been around for 25 years but it is too expensive here for them to buy a building. So, we have that little sand box, monkey bars and a shrub. They do go for a lot of walks, but we live in a city, so . . . also, at their current site, the children can not go out whenever they want because the playground is not right next to the classrooms, they have to go down a hallway and exit the buiding. But, it's 8-11:45. Ds doesn't nap anymore since that causes him to be awake until 10PM, so he does have the rest of the afternoon to play outside. Oh, and they eat lunch at school so we don't have to do a lunch time when we get home. So, our schedule is more like:

12 home and play till 5ish when I make dinner. Inside play until bedtime (7PM). Your kids really take a two hour nap til after 4 then go to bed at 7? That is awesome!

[MaryCeleste]

Yes, my whole family are enthusiastic sleepers. DS has only climbed out of his crib once, but he's climbed INTO his crib quite a few times. I think I'm going to have to move their nap earlier, though. DD put herself to bed at 1:00 this afternoon, while I was getting the lunch on the table. And DS, at 23 months, actually still needs a tiny (15-minute) morning nap if he's going to make it through until 2:00. Without the "micro-nap," he's zonked by 12:30 or so.

Thanks for all the replies that have been posted so far. We've pretty much settled on homeschooling for now, but this could change if we move closer to a school that has high-quality indoor and outdoor environments. It's great to hear about the thoughtfully designed facilities that some of you have.

[Montessorimom8]

Our Montessori has scheduled times outside, but we're in Ohio with very variable weather! The kids do go outside most days for the last half hour of class, barring extreme weather. The older kids do go out after lunch, the grounds are pretty nice and the kids can sled down small hills in the winter time I also see some kids reading outside, etc. when the weather is fit, but for the most part it is 'scheduled'. By the way there are not swings, or any 'typical' playground equipment. The kids usually do some kind of just free play or when they are older, sports.

[chekhovgirl]

I'd say the best thing would be to check out schools in your area because this is going to vary widely depending on the outdoor resources that the schools has in additon to their philosophy.

The school I worked in had scheduled outdoor time for recess. The kids rarely went outside to do things other than recess, but it wasn't something that was prohibited. Usually when I saw a Children's House kid (3-6 years) it was because they were doing a work that was nailing nails into a tree stump.

As for the scheduled time, it did not include Montessori work, and although the kids were sent out in basically any weather as long as the temperature wasn't too low- they were required to bring rain and snow gear- the employees grumbled about it and it didn't always happen.

I think the main concern with having kids go outside was strangers wandering onto the property, though it was fenced in.

I think it would be perfect to have a school that had an outdoor space in the middle of the structure!

[Ilaria]

I don't think our school has scheduled outside time, unless there's work to be done there (watering plants/flowers, tending to veggies/animals, mopping, washing rags (all sinks are outside...). Many kids choose to eat their snack or lunch outside though.
There is also a large playground with a 'nipa hut' (traditional Filipino dwelling made with bamboo, on short stilts).

I have some pictures of it here:
http://www.thekeoghfamily.photosite.com/OwensSchool/

[MaryCeleste]

Originally Posted by chekhovgirl

I'd say the best thing would be to check out schools in your area because this is going to vary widely depending on the outdoor resources that the schools has in additon to their philosophy.

Having already visited several, and looked at the web sites of numerous others, I've come to the conclusion that upwards of 90% of them are pretty much as I've described (just a play structure on mulch or rubber surface; very limited time outdoors). I don't think it comes down to a lack of space, or a tight budget for equipment, since some of the play areas are actually quite big and expensive-looking. It seems more likely that it's a matter of staffing regulations, or liability concerns, or both.

I did find one school in California (not close to us) that has a dedicated teacher for their outdoor garden area, and another for their outdoor art area. These areas look fairly small and low-budget, but they're very "Montessori," and the children can use them any time they like. But it seems like the vast majority of schools either can't arrange something like this, or choose not to make it a priority.

P.S. to Ilaria -- I looked through your photo album when you posted it a while back, and your son's school is lovely. I can't tell how big their outdoor space is, but it looks like it's an integrated part of the classroom environment.