I love history and I love the outdoors. I often find myself wondering who has walked down the same worn cobbled path, or climbed the same rickety stile. I am intrigued about a toy car I found in the garden, and speculate about who it might have belonged to. I look at the oldest tree in a park and wonder what it has seen, who it has encountered, the dramas it has seen unfold. I am curious and eager to know more.

Children are much the same. They are emerging historians. Their natural dispositions are to wonder and to ask questions. These dispositions are nourished through enquiry with adults who willingly support them in seeking answers. However, for questions to be generated, children need something to pique their curiosity. Children need time and space to wonder, reflect and encounter history. The outdoors provides the perfect context...