Ep 36 | Outdoor Learning, Risky Play, and Food Education with Louise Licznerski
A school that smells like mud, woodsmoke, porridge, and possibility? Well…that sounds perfect!
In this episode of Play Nature Podcast, Rusty chats with Louise Licznerski about outdoor learning in Scotland, where children run, wander, forage, climb, get muddy, and settle into the slow, steady rhythms of the earth. This conversation is all about what happens when children are trusted with space, time, nature, and real play.
Louise shares how outdoor nurseries and school-age nature programs can help children feel calm, curious, capable, and connected. They talk about child-led play, mixed-age learning, emotional regulation, seasonal rhythms, muddy immune systems, and why the forest can sometimes teach better than fluorescent lights ever could. There are sticks as wands. Puddles as science labs. Chickens as bedtime teachers. And children finding their way back to themselves outside.
Louise reminds us that children everywhere need to play, but each place has its own gifts. Start with the land around you. Work with nature, not against it. Dream big. Start small. And maybe, just maybe, go big or go home.
Top three takeaways from Louise:
- Children regulate, learn, and thrive when they have freedom, space, and nature’s rhythms.
- Outdoor learning can support children of all ages, not just the wee ones.
- Start with what is around you: your weather, your landscape, your food, your community.
Links:
httscottishoutdoorlearning.co.uk
@littlebugsoutdoors on Facebook
Learn More: rustykeeler.com | @rusty_keeler_designs
Rusty’s FREE Outdoor Loose Parts Guide
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