Outdoors part-time preschool, a good or bad idea?

[Anonymous]

We're looking into part-time play-based preschool options for our 2 year old, who will turn 3 a couple of weeks after school starts. One option that checks a lot of boxes apparently started being more of an outdoors school since Covid. They have a decent size playground split into two sections to separate younger and older kids as needed. It is not a huge space, but seems to be adequate for the number of kids enrolled.

Parents drop off their kids at the playground, where the kids remain until lunch, at which time they go inside but come out again after lunch until dismissal. All in all, kids probably spend 3-3.5 hours outdoors, rain or shine. If it's below freezing or there is a big storm, they remain indoors.

We toured the facility, and the classrooms inside look almost abandoned. They even have sheets covering certain play areas, I guess, to keep the dust away, since they don't get much use.

I know time spent outdoors is valuable for kids at this age, but is this a bit extreme? Would you be concerned about your kid's well-being and/or ability to prepare for kindergarten? (Or for any other reason)

[Anonymous]

That sounds like a fabulous preschool, and if my kids were young, I would sign them up in a heartbeat.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We're looking into part-time play-based preschool options for our 2 year old, who will turn 3 a couple of weeks after school starts. One option that checks a lot of boxes apparently started being more of an outdoors school since Covid. They have a decent size playground split into two sections to separate younger and older kids as needed. It is not a huge space, but seems to be adequate for the number of kids enrolled.

Parents drop off their kids at the playground, where the kids remain until lunch, at which time they go inside but come out again after lunch until dismissal. All in all, kids probably spend 3-3.5 hours outdoors, rain or shine. If it's below freezing or there is a big storm, they remain indoors.

We toured the facility, and the classrooms inside look almost abandoned. They even have sheets covering certain play areas, I guess, to keep the dust away, since they don't get much use.

I know time spent outdoors is valuable for kids at this age, but is this a bit extreme? Would you be concerned about your kid's well-being and/or ability to prepare for kindergarten? (Or for any other reason)

100% yes. Your kid will be so tired and able to (likely) self-direct outside with play.

[Anonymous]

I would wonder more about what they do outside. Are they doing outside activities - like tending to a garden and learning about plants or learning about seasons and finding season specific things while outside or are they just playing on the playground the entire time?

If they have lots of structure to the outside time, I think that would be great. If they just have free time, I would be less interested in this set up.

[Anonymous]

We live in San Francisco and our kids did an outdoor preschool. They have a building for bathrooms and snack and supplies but you dress your kids for the weather, including rain. It's apparently really good for little kids and there are no drawbacks. They are not just free-playing - they did circle time where they talked about .... stuff? Then lesson time about nature stuff, then science experiments, playground time, free play time, nature walks, etc.

Both kids went off to kindergarten just fine.

[Anonymous]

We sent our kid to a preschool like this during the height of Covid. We were grateful for a spot.

My one reservation based on my experience is this: is the outdoor focus due to a belief in maximizing kids time outside, or is it based on Covid paranoia? Not Covid cautiousness, which I get, but paranoia?

The reason I mention this is that while outdoors is AWESOME for kids, it is important to have a functional indoors space that they are willing to use when the weather, or the kids, require it. Our school would avoid indoor time at all costs. This meant that they often did outdoor time through freezing rain (we sent the kids bundled with rain gear on top), would do outdoor snack when mosquitos were biting the kids over and over, did outdoor story time when construction was pounding down the street, and so on. It felt like the school itself was terrified of bringing the kids indoors for any reason except using the bathroom. Even outdoors, all kids and caregivers wore masks.

Obviously this was during a different time when fear around Covid was at it's height and a lot was unknown. Which is why we stuck it out. But I would not do it again unless I could see how the school had re-embraced indoor time when it is necessary.

Spending time outside is awesome. If that's the main goal, the school will likely bring the kids inside when the situation merits it, which is good. But if the outdoor focus is driven by fear or paranoia around illness, that could lead to weird decision-making. Just keep this in mind.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We sent our kid to a preschool like this during the height of Covid. We were grateful for a spot.

My one reservation based on my experience is this: is the outdoor focus due to a belief in maximizing kids time outside, or is it based on Covid paranoia? Not Covid cautiousness, which I get, but paranoia?

The reason I mention this is that while outdoors is AWESOME for kids, it is important to have a functional indoors space that they are willing to use when the weather, or the kids, require it. Our school would avoid indoor time at all costs. This meant that they often did outdoor time through freezing rain (we sent the kids bundled with rain gear on top), would do outdoor snack when mosquitos were biting the kids over and over, did outdoor story time when construction was pounding down the street, and so on. It felt like the school itself was terrified of bringing the kids indoors for any reason except using the bathroom. Even outdoors, all kids and caregivers wore masks.

Obviously this was during a different time when fear around Covid was at it's height and a lot was unknown. Which is why we stuck it out. But I would not do it again unless I could see how the school had re-embraced indoor time when it is necessary.

Spending time outside is awesome. If that's the main goal, the school will likely bring the kids inside when the situation merits it, which is good. But if the outdoor focus is driven by fear or paranoia around illness, that could lead to weird decision-making. Just keep this in mind.

+1 there is a school that got shut down because they had the kids napping outside in a gazebo with kerosene heaters

[Anonymous]

OP here. Thank you all very much for the responses and helping me clear my thoughts.

I was taken by surprise during the tour that they were primarily outdoors, and I didn't ask what I now realize were the right questions as I was trying to take it all in while freezing, since I wasn't dressed appropriately.

I think the majority of time spent outdoors is for gross motor development, so playing on the playground, i suppose. They do have tents for each age group, but it wasn't clear what they were doing in those tents. The setup didn't look very organized.

I had not even thought about mosquitoes. My kid has very sensitive skin and mosquito bite marks take a couple of weeks to heal.

As it stands, I don't think this will be a good fit for us.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We sent our kid to a preschool like this during the height of Covid. We were grateful for a spot.

My one reservation based on my experience is this: is the outdoor focus due to a belief in maximizing kids time outside, or is it based on Covid paranoia? Not Covid cautiousness, which I get, but paranoia?

The reason I mention this is that while outdoors is AWESOME for kids, it is important to have a functional indoors space that they are willing to use when the weather, or the kids, require it. Our school would avoid indoor time at all costs. This meant that they often did outdoor time through freezing rain (we sent the kids bundled with rain gear on top), would do outdoor snack when mosquitos were biting the kids over and over, did outdoor story time when construction was pounding down the street, and so on. It felt like the school itself was terrified of bringing the kids indoors for any reason except using the bathroom. Even outdoors, all kids and caregivers wore masks.

Obviously this was during a different time when fear around Covid was at it's height and a lot was unknown. Which is why we stuck it out. But I would not do it again unless I could see how the school had re-embraced indoor time when it is necessary.

Spending time outside is awesome. If that's the main goal, the school will likely bring the kids inside when the situation merits it, which is good. But if the outdoor focus is driven by fear or paranoia around illness, that could lead to weird decision-making. Just keep this in mind.

This sounds like the preschool where I worked and I left primarily because of the paranoia.

Thankfully, they are now back indoors but spending more much time outdoors than they used to.

As a teacher in that environment, the outdoor time did allow us to become very creative and we did things with the kids that we never did before - we really let them play in the mud and rain and get filthy dirty. It was great when it was warm and hypothermia was not a concern. We painted snow one day. We had kids shoveling snow. There was one day we had chunks of ice on our tables and the kids played "air hockey!" It was amazing watching their creativity bloom. I developed a new appreciation for a sunny, low humidity 25 degree weather - it wasn't cold as long as you had the right outdoor clothing. We did have structured time and a schedule.

If I were a parent, I would ask what they do on the pouring down days when it is 50 degrees or below. Those were the worst days. We couldn't keep stuff dry and it became difficult to do anything except free play. We also didn't want anyone sitting still because of hypothermia (I'm totally serious.). I had a waterproof coat that goes down to my ankles, waterproof pants, waterproof lined boots, wool long underwear, a down coat that went under my rain coat and a battery heated vest. On those rainy days I still became chilled after about an hour in the rain. I have PTSD just thinking about it.

[Anonymous]

Outdoor nursery school did that for at least the first 1.5 years of the pandemic. It was wonderful! I don’t think they really started using the inside until last winter, and even then primarily stayed outside in all weather.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Outdoor nursery school did that for at least the first 1.5 years of the pandemic. It was wonderful! I don’t think they really started using the inside until last winter, and even then primarily stayed outside in all weather.

They did a great job with it. Told parents to buy more rain wear and cold weather gear and it was great. But the teachers there have always been big believers in the value of being outdoors and so know how to have kids outdoors and still have structure. Not sure the place OP is describing sounds the same.

[Anonymous]

I really liked outdoor nursery school but it didnt work out for us

[Anonymous]

Audubon Nature Preschool is great. Structured time plus free play. Highly recommend it!!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I would wonder more about what they do outside. Are they doing outside activities - like tending to a garden and learning about plants or learning about seasons and finding season specific things while outside or are they just playing on the playground the entire time?

If they have lots of structure to the outside time, I think that would be great. If they just have free time, I would be less interested in this set up.

this

[Anonymous]

Mayne they do it because of covid?