Waldorf Outdoor Play: Time Outside in Early Childhood and the Grades

In Waldorf early childhood, children usually go outside every day, rain or shine. They play freely, walk the same paths through the year, dig in the garden and help with outdoor work. In the grades, outdoor play stays part of every day. Some main lesson blocks, like farming and local geography, move the learning outside. There's no official Waldorf figure for time outdoors, but health guidance gives a useful floor. The WHO advises at least 3 hours of physical activity a day for children aged 1 to 4. For ages 5 to 18, the NHS advises an average of 60 minutes a day of moderate to vigorous activity.

What outdoor play looks like in Waldorf early childhood

Picture a Waldorf playgroup on a wet Tuesday. Snack is finished, the bowls are washed, and the children pull on rain trousers and boots. Then they're out in the garden, digging in the sandpit, stamping in puddles, carrying sticks from one end of the yard to the other. The teacher might be raking leaves or pulling weeds. A few children help. Most play.

That's close to how the Waldorf School of Garden City describes its playgroup morning. After a blessing, a warm snack and washing up, the children go out to play in the school garden "rain or shine".

Some Waldorf schools now hold whole classes outside. The Waldorf School of Tampa Bay's "Waldorf in the Woods" meets in a local park for toddlers through age 3, walking woodland trails and spending time in a butterfly garden. The Waldorf School of the Peninsula has run an outdoor series at local nature preserves for families with children up to 36 months.

What these have in common is that the adults don't lead a nature lesson. The children play, and the adults either work or watch. If you've read our guide to Waldorf kindergarten at home, this is the long outdoor stretch in the middle of the morning.

How much outdoor time does a child need?

Waldorf schools don't publish one number, and we haven't found an official guideline for time spent outdoors as such. What does exist are guidelines for physical activity, and outdoor play is one of the easiest ways to meet them.

• Ages 1 to 2: the WHO advises at least 180 minutes a day of physical activity at any intensity, spread through the day.
• Ages 3 to 4: at least 180 minutes a day, of which at least 60 minutes is moderate to vigorous. The NHS adds that this should include active and outdoor play.
• Ages 5 to 18: the NHS advises an average of at least 60 minutes a day of moderate or vigorous activity across the week, and less time sitting.

Three hours sounds like a lot until you watch a four-year-old in a garden. Running, climbing, digging and pushing a wheelbarrow all count. None of it needs organizing. The WHO also advises that young children shouldn't be held in a pram or high chair for more than an hour at a time.

In practice, many Waldorf families at home plan for one long stretch outside every day, often an hour or more in the late morning, and another shorter one in the afternoon. The Waldorf homeschool daily rhythm shows where these fit around lessons and meals.

Weather: dressing for rain, cold and mud

Waldorf early childhood teachers often quote an old saying, often credited to Scandinavia or to the English fell-walker Alfred Wainwright: there's no such thing as bad weather, only unsuitable clothing. Their advice on what that clothing is gets practical fast.

Bright Water Waldorf School and Charlottesville Waldorf School both suggest layers:

1. Next to the skin: long underwear in wool, a wool-silk blend or a synthetic. Both schools say not cotton for this layer. Bright Water wants something that doesn't trap moisture.
2. Everyday clothes on top.
3. A warm middle layer, such as a wool sweater or vest. Fleece works too, though Bright Water notes it can make some children overheat and then feel chilled.
4. A waterproof outer layer: rain trousers or bib overalls and a hooded coat, or an insulated snowsuit and coat in snow.
5. Hands, feet and head: waterproof boots with room for a thick wool sock, mittens and a hat that covers the ears.

Bright Water gives a rough guide by temperature, starting the wool base layer at around 60°F (about 15°C) and adding the full outer layer below about 40°F (about 4°C). They also say every child is different, and suggest checking the back of the neck and the hands to see whether your child is warm enough.

Charlottesville has two small tips that save a lot of fuss. Tuck each layer into the next at the waist, ankles and wrists. And pull the rain trousers down over the tops of the boots. Bright Water adds that rain gear is just as useful the day after rain, when the play yard is all mud.

Some weather does keep everyone in: storms, lightning, extreme heat or cold, poor air quality. Follow your local weather and health advice on those days. Waldorf's "rain or shine" is about ordinary drizzle and chill, not danger.

What to do outside

For children under 7, you mostly don't need to plan anything. Leave room for play, and let them see you working.

Free play with loose things. Sticks and stones, a bucket of water, a pile of sand. A child can play for an hour with a puddle and a stick.

Real outdoor work. Raking leaves and sweeping the path. Planting bulbs in autumn and pulling weeds in spring. Children often join in without being asked.

The same walk, often. Choose one route, perhaps round the block or to the park, and walk it several times a week. Your child will notice the first buds, the conkers, the frost on the same fence.

Something to bring home. One leaf, one stone or one feather for the nature table. The nature table is where the outdoors comes inside, and it changes with the seasons.

Songs and verses on the move. A walking song, a verse at the garden gate. Circle games from the morning often work just as well outdoors.

Outdoors in the grades

After the 7-year change, formal lessons begin, but the time outside doesn't stop. Your child still needs to move every day, and several main lesson blocks take the teaching outside.

Grades 1 and 2: nature study. In grade 1, nature stories sit alongside walks, gardening and weather watching (see grade 1 nature stories). Grade 2 nature study is mostly time outdoors with an adult who notices things, as our article on grade 2 nature studies describes. Starpath's free guides to grade 1 nature studies and grade 2 nature studies include ideas for walks and seasonal observation. The grade 1 curriculum guide shows how nature study fits into the first year.

Grade 3: farming and building. The practical-life year puts children in the garden and on building projects. See the grade 3 farming block.

Grade 4: local geography. Children's maps widen from their own room to the street and the town, and finding north from the sun happens outside. See grade 4 local geography.

Grade 5: botany. Plant study starts from real plants where they grow, often on one walk a week to the same place. See grade 5 botany.

Outside the blocks, the everyday habit is the same as in the early years: a long stretch outside, every day, in most weather.

What to do this week

1. Pick one outdoor time that happens every day, even when it's grey. Late morning suits many families.
2. Check your child's rain gear. Waterproof trousers and boots that fit are the two items that make the most difference.
3. Choose one walk you'll repeat at least twice a week.
4. Take a job outside with you, like raking, watering or sweeping, and let your child join or play nearby.
5. Bring one thing home each week for the nature table.

In a group, outdoor time needs a few agreed boundaries and an adult who stays outside. Outdoor play in a Waldorf co-op has a short list of rules to copy.