to Grow up REspecting the Environment and lEarning from Nature

The project aimed to achieve the following objectives: To foster, through the realization of a transnational event, the exchange among all partners of best practices in the projection and realizat...

The project aimed to achieve the following objectives: To foster, through the realization of a transnational event, the exchange among all partners of best practices in the projection and realization of outdoor activities, structured as true educational paths that are integrated to all the educational program To create a toolkit for educators with activities to be conducted outdoors with children and their parents; To improve the quality of education provided to children from a very early age, enriching it with new educational proposals able of stimulating the child's sensory perceptions and creativity, promoting greater contact with nature; To contribute to raising parents' awareness on environmental issues so that they do not dissipate the educational results achieved by educators, but instead become protagonists in the process of environmental education

The activities implemented in line with the project's initial planning, were focused on the searching of educational activities to be carried out outdoor with the children and their parents. All activities were invented and tested with the children, and finally into a final tool composed by 3 chapters. The final manual was further tested in June 2023 when Bottega dei Talenti hosted delegations of educators, children, and their parents. In this way, activities from the manual were introduced to the children. The children had the opportunity to meet peers from other nations, the educators were able to compare notes firsthand, evaluating the work done more effectively, and the parents could reconnect with the environment, understanding how to support the school in advancing an environmental education based on the direct relationship between child and nature.

The most evident result of the project was the manual composed by 3 chapters that we uploaded to the E+ results dissemination platform. In addition to the final product, we can say that the project was a valuable tool for experimenting with methods useful in bringing children closer to nature, sometimes also drawing on some forgotten traditions like in the case of the lead organization, which, as an activity to simultaneously bring students and families closer to the ecosystem, organized some grape harvesting Sundays as was done in the past before the industrialization of processes. In general, the project also allowed educators to enhance their skills in designing an educational approach where the relationship between the child and nature is central. The project also helped reeducate the parents of the involved students towards a more genuine contact with nature, making them aware of the importance of supporting, in collaboration with educators, an education in contact with the environment for their children.