Starting a forest preschool was never part of Abi Reddish’s plan. She’d never worked in a nursery, never pictured herself running one and wasn’t even qualified in early years.
I trained to be a childminder back in 2014, with redundancy looming and a decision to make about what came next. I liked the sound of working for myself, setting my own hours, being around before and after school. My mum had childminded when I was growing up, so our house was always full of other people’s kids, and I genuinely loved that. Helping look after them felt natural. My son was nine by then and the timing made sense. I trained, left my job and started taking on children.
It was during those years as a childminder, between 2014 and 2020, that I met a little boy who I still think about more than most. He came into my care at two, cautious and sensitive. He liked to stay close. New situations made him nervous, and saying goodbye to his parents was hard for him. He’d watch the world for a long time before he ever joined in.
I never tried to fix that. I just wanted to build a calm, predictable space where he could feel safe in his own time.
What I noticed early on was the difference being outside made. Indoors he held back, reluctant to get stuck in. Outside, he was a different child. The boy who clung to me at the door would, bit by bit, drift further away, first a few steps, then more, pulled along by puddles and sticks and beetles and just the sheer space of it.
There was nothing to perform outside. No sitting still, no set activity to follow. He could move how he liked, focus on whatever caught his eye, and come back to me whenever he needed to. That freedom gave him something I don’t think he’d had before: time to learn he could trust himself.
Want to read on? The rest of Abi’s story, including how that little boy grew in confidence, what he taught her about school readiness and how she and her husband rescued a derelict Victorian gatehouse, is in our autumn issue, out now.
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Abi Reddish is the founder of Wild Days Lodge Forest Preschool in Mapperley, Nottingham, where children learn through play, relationships and time outdoors in all weather, inspired by Danish early years practice. wilddayslodge.co.uk
