As our children grow up surrounded by digital media, these resources have increasingly influenced their lifestyles and their understanding of the world. However, despite technology quickly becoming an essential part of their daily lives, good ‘old-fashioned’ outdoor play remains crucial to children’s healthy development, especially in their early years.

Being active outdoors can provide children with valuable experiences and skills beyond the classroom walls and directly impact their overall development. This educational approach drives our Outdoor School Singapore’s (OSS) holiday programmes, which aim to provide a wide range of outdoor learning activities to develop children’s varied skills.

Established in 2019, our Outdoor School Singapore programmes offer specially curated outdoor adventures to nurture confident, curious, and well-rounded learners for lifelong success. Each programme is designed to offer participating children a separate learning experience and achieve different learning outcomes. The goal is also to change the mindsets of those who spend significant time on screens and have never been exposed to open-ended resources.

Many of those who enrolled in our programs were initially surprised when given the freedom to explore, unsure of what to do and even saying, “What is there to play? It’s so boring.” In response, our educators ask, “What do you think you can play? What’s interesting here?” By prompting them to rethink the concept of play and encouraging their imagination, children can flourish and develop essential lifelong skills.

1. Social Skills

Through outdoor learning, children get to meet and interact with new friends in a safe and positive environment, many of whom come from diverse backgrounds. This experience helps them become more comfortable collaborating with others while enhancing their communication, teamwork, and problem-solving skills, which will benefit them well into adulthood.

2. Communication Skills

Through interactions with others, children naturally develop an awareness of others’ feelings and emotions. These experiences foster healthy communication between peers and teach them how to build relationships independently of their parents or guardians.

3. Problem-Solving And Critical Thinking

No matter how creative a classroom session is, it remains confined within four walls. In contrast, the unstructured nature of outdoor learning provides children with the freedom to think outside the box, explore freely, and develop innovative solutions to challenges.

For instance, when trekking across a natural reserve, a child may encounter various obstacles they must navigate. One such challenge might be determining the best way to cross a small creek. Should they use a rock or a log? Allowing children to solve these problems on their own helps them develop critical problem-solving skills that benefit them for life.

4. Teamwork

From learning to start a fire outdoors using only natural resources to guiding each other through an outdoor escape room, outdoor learning provides children with plenty of opportunities to work together and hone their teamwork skills.

Our early childhood educators are a vital part of our OSS holiday programmes, as they are responsible for inculcating a love of nature and valuable life skills among participants. That is why we ensure our teachers are well-equipped with the skills and knowledge to implement our outdoor learning activities for young children successfully. 

Teacher training will include theoretical and practical aspects as part of the curriculum, covering two hours of indoor and four hours of outdoor training, respectively. Aspiring educators will also attend a full-day training in the wild. We have eight training runs carried out annually, targeting nearly 90 My First Skool educators from more than 50 centres.

While Outdoor School Singapore started out by offering outdoor camps to spark children’s interest in the environment and its protection, we have since introduced a range of exciting new programmes to develop young leaders and aspiring entrepreneurs. The aim is to extend outdoor learning to as many preschoolers and young children as possible, enabling them to experience outdoor adventure learning while developing global citizenship, relational skills and positive traits, such as risk-taking, resilience, and responsibility.

To date, the Outdoor School holiday programmes have reached approximately 140 My First Skool and Little Skool-House centres, with approximately 6,000 children and 300 educators on board for these programmes. By breaking free from the confines of the classroom and allowing children to explore their creativity and imagination in the outdoors, we instil essential life skills such as teamwork, communication, and critical thinking. These skills will stand them in good stead for future academic and career success. 

If you are interested in learning more about our innovative outdoor holiday programmes and the benefits they introduce to preschoolers, young children, and early childhood educators, check out our holiday camps or contact us with any questions!