Research shows (and common sense suggests) that outdoor learning benefits children's health and teaches them to value nature. As a result, children spend all day in the forest at this Helsinki nursery.
"Mornings are now easy. When I say 'it's time to leave the house', he picks up his bag and says 'OK, let's go'," says Juho Pietarila, whose four-year-old son Kauko recently started attending the forest group nursery in the Finnish capital Helsinki.
Kauko is now in the nursery's Samoojat group. 'Samoojat' is an old-fashioned Finnish word for people who forage in the forest. "These children are outdoors all the time, exploring nature, even in the winter," says Pietarila. "It doesn't matter if it's raining or snowing. My son says it's always good weather for the Samoojat."
It's quite a statement from a four-year-old who lives in a city with an average winter daytime temperature is -2C (28F) and permanent snow on the ground for at least two months. As they say in Scandinavia: there's no such thing as bad weather, only unsuitable clothing.
Throughout the year, on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, the Samoojat group of 21 children aged three to five trek for up to 40 minutes in the forest to get to their base camp. They spend seven hours outdoors, eating lunch in an open shelter and taking a nap in a tent before walking back to the nursery mid-afternoon.
A wealth of studies have shown that spending time in natural spaces has many health and psychological benefits for children, such as reduced obesity, improved mental wellbeing, increased resilience and faster cognitive development. It can also encourage the development of environmentally conscious behaviour by fostering an appreciation and respect for the natural world.
A Finnish study found that playing in grass and forest undergrowth, such as heather and blueberry planted in nursery yards at four daycare centres, boosted the immune systems of three to five-year-old children within 28 days.
Scandinavian-style forest schools and nurseries are spreading all around the world. Outdoor learning is increasing seen as an important way of connecting children with nature.