WINNER OF THE 2018 NURSERY WORLD STAFF RESOURCES AWARD There is a growing realisation that children in the Early Years benefit from being involved in wild spaces. They need dynamic and complex outdoor environments and opportunities for risk and challenge, to play with abandon, have first-hand experiences – places where there is adventure, delight, daring and joy! In this exciting book, outdoor education guru Niki Buchan offers ideas for natural learning in the Early Years. She provides a background to forest school and its relevance to Early Years settings, outlines the challenges and benefits of free play and a risk-taking disposition in children, and uses case studies from educators to explore the concept of nature-based practice. A Practical Guide to Nature-Based Practice presents ideas for outdoor learning that can be used all year round, whatever the season. This full-colour book will help adults and children alike to reconnect with their local environment making it a must-have for any Early Years setting!

The Buddha said that "everything we need to know about life can be found inside this fathom-long body." Then why is most people's spirituality--whether Buddhist, Christian, or Jewish--completely cut off from their body? In this provocative and groundbreaking book, you'll discover that enlightenment comes not from "out there," but from a deep understanding of our own personal biology. Using the Four Foundations of Mindfulness, a traditional Buddhist meditation, Nisker shows how cutting-edge science is proving the tenets first offered by the Buddha. And he provides a practical program, complete with meditations and exercises, that enables readers to become mindful of the origins of emotions, desires, and thoughts. One of the great synthesizers of East and West, Nisker shows how to incorporate the traditional understanding of the Buddha with the latest scientific discoveries while on our spiritual journey. He shows that we are not separate from nature and the evolving universe. The way to enlightenment lies within our very biology. Most important, Nisker offers a practical program--complete with meditations and exercises--so readers can take their own evolutionary journey into their bodies to find the origins of emotions, desires, and thoughts. Nisker provides a liberating way for each of us to incorporate into our lives the understanding, proven by the latest scientific evidence and foretold in the great traditional teachings of the Buddha, that we are not separate from nature and the evolving universe. Our biology is not our destiny, but our way to enlightenment. -->