Outside Online
Free Forest School Wants Kids to Run Wild
Usually there’s a calm pool at the edge of Junction Creek that’s perfect for kids to play in. Not today. The first warm temperatures of the year have sent a torrent of snowmelt barreling through this wooded canyon near Durango, Colorado, and the placid creek looks more like a whitewater river. It might not be the safest place for a toddler, but 21-month-old Koven Marshall is unfazed. He wanders to the creek’s edge and begins chucking rocks and sticks into the current. A dozen or so other kids, ages ten months to six years, are doing the same.
Nearby, Koven’s mother, Aliisa, chats with other parents, keeping an eye on Koven but not interfering in whatever imaginary world he’s conjuring up. In this era of helicopter parenting and injury-proof playgrounds, it’s a relatively rare scene. And it’s happening because the families gathered here on this June morning are all members of Free Forest School, a nationwide nonprofit that encourages parents to let their kids take risks and run wild outside.
Although Free Forest School is guided by pedagogical principles, the organization isn’t a school in the traditional sense. It isn’t part of any formal educational system, and attendance isn’t mandatory. Families can show up once, skip a few weeks, then attend again when they feel like it. Plus, caregivers must be present—no dropping your kid off and heading to work.
Instead, Free Forest School is more like a playgroup where parents get together once a week to let their kids explore nature, use their imaginations, and get dirty. Like, really dirty. A half-hour into its Durango meetup, three toddlers have stripped off their clothes, moved from the creek to a giant puddle, and painted themselves with mud. Again, their parents don’t seem to mind.
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