We get it. Sending kids out to play in cold, wet weather can feel completely counterintuitive. Who wouldn’t rather be indoors by the fire with a cosy hot chocolate?

At Forest School, though, we believe there’s a time and place for everything. Weigh up the real benefits of outdoor play in colder weather — like the boost it gives to the healthy brown adipose tissue kids naturally carry more of — and it becomes clear that hot chocolate by the fire should follow the muddy, wet outdoor play, not replace it.

To show just how enthusiastically kids embrace wild, wet winter weather — and everything they learn along the way — we asked our educators to share their favourite, funniest and most memorable winter Forest School stories.

Engracia’s Story

“We were facilitating a birthday party last month, it was really cold, everyone came dressed super warm with long pants, jackets and beanies – you name it. As facilitators of forest school education we did what we always do and laid out the relevant activities and materials in areas or zones where they were most likely to inspire spontaneous play.

The kids saw the fishing nets on poles as an invitation to play in the river, so they summarily rolled up their jeans, and, after a few minor initial complaints about the water being too cold, they just got on with it, wanting to be in the water more than out of it. “Look my feet are going red,” said one little boy”. But he carried on playing. “I’m jumping out for a few seconds to let my feet recover,” another kid remarked, hopped out, danced on the grass a bit and then went straight back in.

Play spaces and scenarios like this help kids discover how their bodies work and the thing is, they know their own limits. Parents need to trust their children to feel their own bodies and make decisions based on their own lived experience. That is how they learn – through cause and effect! They won’t stay in the water until their feet fall off!”

What Engracia’s story highlights

  • Kids have a natural tolerance for small amounts of self-determined discomfort which helps them build resilience
  • They genuinely enjoy pushing their bodies to their own felt limits
  • Taking on slightly challenging, seemingly “crazy” things together as a pack builds strong friendships and memorable shared experiences

Pamela’s Story

“It was a very rainy day at Forest House Playgroup. We encouraged those who wanted to get their rain gear and waterproof kit on and play outside. Some of them chose to stay inside the house and didn’t want to come out and play. They were nice and cosy with their drawing pastels. Those that wanted to were excited to move their bodies and so they ran out into the rain and splashed in the puddles. One of the children stood under the gazebo and there were the rain accumulated on the edges, he tried to drink it off the side of the tarp where it gathered and fell down. Because it has this kind of waterfall effect and the rain fell down like a shower basically on that edge so after trying to drink some the child smiles big and starts trying to capture the water with buckets. We joined in and all talked about how amazing this water would be for tea. And that this water was really old and has been falling onto the earth in many cycles for many many millions of years. So we decided to make ‘million year ago tea’ or ‘living tea’ as some of the kids called it. Yeah – we really made tea and celebrated making tea with water from many many many years ago. This activity inspired the following week’s educational material and we learnt about the water cycle of rain, rivers and oceans.”

What Pamela’s story highlights:

  • This is what we call an emergent curriculum, when children learn from their own interests and what sparks them
  • Children embrace nature in action through spontaneous play
  • Nature sparks curiosity, prompting questions about origins and how things work
  • Children naturally gravitate toward joyful celebration, in every season

Julie’s Story

“So on one of our Forest School Playgroup walks on the Alphen trail after a serious bout of heavy rain, we came upon a section of the trail where the path had basically turned into a big puddle of mud. The kids obviously immediately pointed out with excitement “Oohh look how ginormous that puddle is – it’s even bigger than my garden!” I gently reminded them – because we walk these paths often – that that section of the path dips down a bit and so the puddle is probably quite deep and perhaps this one was best walked around not through. But they had all their rain gear on and they wanted to go through the puddle. But no one wanted to go first. And so they began to jokingly nudge and push each other in that jostling “no you go first” way. Eventually one brave soul ventured into the middle of the puddle but then got stuck. Like proper stuck.

And so he was saying “Help I’m stuck, I’m stuck! My legs won’t move” And then of course the kids went in one by one to help get their friend out – and then they all got stuck. It was so funny as they tried to pull on each other to get out and wibble wobbled around. They were proper proper stuck in the mud. So of course, Julie had to put her back pack down and go rescue the kids. I still remember saying ” I did not sign up for this!” But I couldn’t get them out by digging their shoes out, so I literally had to lift them out of their gumboots and wellingtons and carry them over to the grass, plop a kid down and go back for another one. They all found this very funny. After I had all the kids out, I of course had to go dig out their shoes!

Now when we go walking on the trail past a big muddy puddle they all call out “Julie – are you signing up for rescue!!!???” It’s become a great big joke to them. And because we do actually often play a game called stuck in the mud, the game now has a whole new meaning to them as they know what it feels like to be really stuck!”

What Julie’s story highlights:

  • Kids enjoy the camaraderie of adventure — and the fact that adventure rarely goes smoothly. Every story has an arc: situation, challenge, solution, outcome
  • They’re willing to embrace uncertainty, sometimes discovering the literal depths of things
  • They learn new lessons by overcoming difficulties together
  • They treasure shared experiences they’ve navigated together, which become lasting, collective humour

In short

Winter has many faces. Some are revealed by the river, some through the rain and some through the soaked soil. In these three sweet stories, with three kinds of wet weather, we discover one common thread: when kids are given the freedom — and the right gear — to play through winter’s mayhem, they don’t just cope with the cold. They learn from it, laugh through it, and come out a little more resilient.

So go ahead, light that fire and warm up the hot chocolate — and enjoy the mud caked stories that will be shared beside it.