How To Raise Your Own Little Forest Folk

Leanna Barrett is a pioneer of the outdoor education movement in the UK. She started Little Forest Folk, the UK’s first full time outdoor nursery when she couldn’t find the type of nursery setting she wanted to send her own children to. Her vision quickly grew in scope. The organisation now has seven full-time outdoor nurseries, the UK’s only fully outdoor primary and secondary school Liberty Woodland School in South London, it has received numerous accolades, won many prizes and has been presented with an award from the Queen for innovation as well as having the support of big names like Sir David Attenborough.

Here Leanna gives us her tips on how to help your children if they are suffering from eco-anxiety and how to encourage them to love the outdoors.

Nature-based outdoor play is so beneficial for children, but it can be daunting to consider how you are going to encourage children outdoors. If your child hasn’t engaged in much free-play outdoors before, it can be helpful if you join in with them and plan out your first outings. First of all dress well and appropriately, and make sure you are modelling as a parent the great wonder there is to explore in the natural world. Plan out an area to go and explore, take lots of yummy snacks or plan an activity so you have a bag full of exciting incentives and challenges you can offer to children to extend their play. Another great way to get children playing in the natural world is to take their friends. One of the easiest days out for me has always been to bring a friend and her children out with my own children, head to a forest and then sit and chat while the children amuse themselves for hours. It’s a strange aspect of parenting that often looking after six children is easier than just my own three!

Many parents are concerned about children experiencing eco-anxiety as they themselves are feeling the pressure of the climate crisis. We have to be careful as parents in how we choose to talk about our own anxieties to and in front of our children. Similarly to when the world was feeling anxious about covid and, as parents we didn’t pass on all the scale of those worries to our children, we need to choose our words carefully when talking about climate change. For the majority of young children, they will be unable to comprehend the scale of the climate crisis, so they will form their thoughts based on what is shared by their parents and community. I recently learned about the work of child psychologist Caroline Hickman who believes we should reframe ‘eco-anxiety’ as ‘eco-empathy or eco-compassion’ as this is a healthy response to the situation we are facing, that shows awareness of the problem and a willingness to face the challenge of solving it. This generation of children are passionate about and aware of climate change. It’s important to acknowledge that children aren’t alone in their feelings. We should be having discussions in which we validate children’s concern, ensuring we are giving age-appropriate answers to any questions they have and researching together when we need to find out more information.

I am also inspired by Kate Marvel, the NASA climate scientist, who said: “As a climate scientist, I’d like you to know I don’t have hope. I have something better – certainty. We know exactly what’s causing climate change. We can absolutely 1) avoid the worst and 2) build a better world in the process.” Let’s use this eco-empathy that young people have and turn it from an anxiety where young people can feel powerless and isolated into a collective force for good.

We need to equip these passionate young people with the skills and knowledge they need to have a positive impact on the world and support them in taking positive steps to work on solutions to the problem. This can be from reading books to educate ourselves more, collecting litter, committing as a family to using fewer animal products and recycling more. There are so many small changes families can make. Taking action feels positive, it feels empowering and rewarding. I believe we can inspire and develop our young people to be the future custodians of the planet and be the generation that solves the problem of the climate crisis.