As academic expectations in public elementary schools have become more demanding over the past decade, some educators have turned to the outdoors as a means of providing meaningful, relevant and tangible experiences for their students. The Forest Kindergarten movement, which took hold in Europe about 50 years ago, adopted a very different approach towards early childhood education. Instead of focusing on early literacy and numeracy skills, nature preschool and forest kindergarten educators aspired to developing social competence, individual resilience and a readiness to learn in young children.