ESC: Volunteering in Outdoor kindergarten

VšĮ Lauko darželis (en. Outdoor Kindergarten) is the first outdoor kindergarten and outdoor school in Lithuania. The kindergarten was established in 2014 in Vilnius. At the moment the organization has three branches of kindergartens (two in Vilnius and one in Kaunas). An outdoor primary school was established in Vilnius in 2018. The school has one group consisting of preschoolers (majority of the group) and primary school children (1st, 2nd and 3rd grades). The main goal of Lauko darželis is to take care of the preschool and primary school aged children on the basis of outdoor education principals and methods together reaching the goals of the general curriculum. For more than 20 years research in Scandinavia and in recent years in the United Kingdom has shown that having children outdoors all day and all year round has a positive effect on their learning and development.The benefits of outdoor education are that kids are healthier, more active, they are less sick, have more self confidence in themselves, becomes emotionally stronger and much more. Even though we spend most of the time outside we also have equipped indoor premises for a safe dry place to keep the belongings at, also for getting warm when it's cold season and for the specific activities during the cold time of the year. The learning method for achieving the goals in the school is integral learning which is combined with project based learning in the field of outdoor education. As we are the very first outdoor kindergarten and school in Lithuania we improve our knowledge while visiting other outdoor institutions abroad and have partnerships with many of them. These visits are funded by Erasmus+ programmes. The organization applies a family model in the children groups which means there are both male and female educators working with children. As the organization already works for more than 6 years, the community between children, educators and parents grew. There are nice traditions to meet all together outside the organization and celebrate the beginning of the school year and the birthday of the organization together with an international outdoor kindergartens day. VsI Lauko darzelis is active not only in kindergarten and school fields. We are also organizing outdoor celebrations for other people (birthdays, graduations, etc), also outdoor summer camps for the kids from other schools of Vilnius. We are organizing outdoor education seminars for other educators and parents on a national level. There are around 80 families and 30 employees that unites VsI Lauko darzelis.