Outdoor Learning Builds Character

All of our students love spending time outdoors. Outdoor Learning is filled with discovery, direct
experience and exploration, and helps one gain a sense of self in the natural world. The child’s
involuntary attention to nature, allows their directed attention to “rest” and restores their
attentional capacity. The cognitive benefits of this transfer to classroom learning by
strengthening the child’s determination and willingness to master a skill.

Playground adventures, hikes in the adjoining woods, community service projects, observing pond wildlife, and stream exploration, are all part of the WCM student’s education. Time spent outdoors often stimulates success in the classroom challenges of academic learning. When a child has excelled in accomplishing new heights in outdoor “gross motor” activities, they return to the classroom, ready to settle into the “fine motor” activities of “reading, writing and arithmetic” with just as much enthusiasm, excitement and sheer love of learning.