1000 Hours Outside School Handbook

As a general rule, we tend to equate learning with sitting and yet movement and sensory experiences are a foundational part of the learning and growth process. For a long time I’ve thought about what it would look like to include this central element of child development into the school year. Free play and open-ended time outside contribute to the types of skills and knowledge that often aren’t included on a report yard, yet the skills they help produce are still critical. The 1000 Hours Outside School Handbook is an approach to ensuring kids do not miss these components of learning that they truly need.

School has mainly become a list of standards and benchmarks to be checked off. These things are certainly necessary but equally important is time outside, specifically time outside with no agenda attached. Kids need chances to explore and manipulate what nature has to offer. Our world is full of adult-directed activities ideas but we also must trust what children bring to the table. Kids desperately need freedom and time to play, seek, examine, and imagine. The things that a child finds worthy are worthy indeed.

The format of this handbook helps ensure your school year incorporates these wonderful, mysterious, miraculous elements of childhood. At just over 120 pages, this guide is designed to take you through a 40-week academic school year filled with nature experiences. Depending on the age of your children and your climate this handbook is going to look different from child to child. School is fairly standardized but nature is full of wild variety. Kids need both!

You can add the school handbook to your existing homeschool curriculum, public/private school curriculum, online school curriculum, hybrid school curriculum, etc. Each week you will be prompted to include the following five components:

*outside time tracking

*child-led hike

*seasonal nature activity

*space to record movement milestones

*nature journaling pages

Every week has an inspirational quote and there are two appendix sections that include further resources as well as some of our very favorite seasonal activity ideas. This is not a book full of ideas (though there are some) but rather a guide that will help you include within your year what kids really need for optimal development. Beyond a way to intentionally incorporate and encourage nature time, an added benefit to this handbook is that it will automatically become a keepsake of nature memories that will last a lifetime.

The 1000 Hours Outside School Handbook is completely customizable and will work no matter where you live, how old your kids are, or when you begin. The beauty here lies in the power of nature. When we intentionally incorporate outdoor time and nature experiences into our learning environments kids benefit in every facet of development.

For a few (or more) hours a week we are going to set aside the checklists and the boxes and we are going to purposefully add in the dynamic learning components that you can’t possible recreate inside. Nature immersion in any form provides a broad foundation for lifelong learning. Use this handbook to enhance your school year, smooth out the rough edges of change, and embrace those parts of learning that we can’t easily measure but we know contribute to growth of the whole-child.

You’ve got your pencils. You’ve got your crayons. You’ve got your paper. You’ve got your textbooks. You’ve got your backpack. You’ve got all your supplies. Now it’s time to add the wonder.

Great of parents, teachers, and caregivers. Copies are allowed for single family or individual classroom use.

You can purchase the handbook here for $25 or checkout the bundle pack options and save some money!