Sep 22, 2026 · 39 min · 13 segments
## September in the Outdoor Classroom: Notice, Adjust, Simplify, Repeat September is full of new routines, new children, and plans that don’t always work quite the way we imagined. But what if that…
Victoria HackettHost
We tend to think of September as the beginning of Time to get going, time to establish routines, time to teach the rules, time to introduce the curriculum, time to get everyone settled.

The first few weeks of showing us what we couldn't possibly know in August, they're showing us who we These children are together.

They're showing us where children can be independent and where we are as the adults where we're doing too much for them.

They're showing us where there's friction and they're showing us where there's flow.

Which means that when something isn't working in September, we don't necessarily have a problem.

And we ask ourselves, why isn't this working? What am I noticing? What are the children showing me? What could we change? And maybe most importantly, what could we simplify? So September is for systems.

If you've followed my work for a while, you know that I teach the five phases of teaching outdoors.

It's phase two, getting outdoors and creating those routines and systems for actually getting outdoors to make it easy.

They're probably not the things you're taking pictures of or posting on Instagram.

But systems are often the difference between an educator saying getting outside is just too hard and an educator saying, of course we're going outside.

And here's the part that I think is especially important at this time of year.

We tend to think of September as the beginning of Time to get going, time to establish routines, time to teach the rules, time to introduce the curriculum, time to get everyone settled.

The first few weeks of showing us what we couldn't possibly know in August, they're showing us who we These children are together.

They're showing us where children can be independent and where we are as the adults where we're doing too much for them.

They're showing us where there's friction and they're showing us where there's flow.

Which means that when something isn't working in September, we don't necessarily have a problem.

And we ask ourselves, why isn't this working? What am I noticing? What are the children showing me? What could we change? And maybe most importantly, what could we simplify? So September is for systems.

If you've followed my work for a while, you know that I teach the five phases of teaching outdoors.

It's phase two, getting outdoors and creating those routines and systems for actually getting outdoors to make it easy.

They're probably not the things you're taking pictures of or posting on Instagram.

But systems are often the difference between an educator saying getting outside is just too hard and an educator saying, of course we're going outside.

And here's the part that I think is especially important at this time of year.
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