As I come across research and articles online, related to outdoor time, nature study, unstructured play, I will share the links here.  Check back often for new postings!

I have not read, in detail, every single article posted here.  I have skimmed many, and posted others so that I can easily find them to read at a later time.  I trust that as discerning adults you will read from it, taking the meat, and leaving the bones, so to speak.

(The) 6 Best Toys of All Time

Kidoinfo's List of Top 10 Toys for Kids

Place-based Education:  Connecting Classroom and Community

Look, Don't Touch

The Best Way to Learn About a Tree

Licking Banana Slugs and Poking Scat

Starting Early:  Environmental Education During the Early Childhood Years

Hartsbrook School to launch 'Forest Classroom' to integrate play, nature and learning

The Journal's the Thing:  Teaching Natural History and Nature Writing in BAja California Sur

Creative Connectng:  Early Childhood Nature Journaling Sparks Wonder and Develops Ecological Literacy

Growing with the Children:  Bringing Nature Preschool Practices to Elementary Schools

Nature Preschools:  Putting Nature at the Heart of Early Education

Out of the Classroom and Into the Woods

 Overcoming Objections to Outdoor Education

Nature Study

Nature Study - The Duty of a Christian Homeschooler

The Eye of a Naturalist:  Teaching Your Child to Observe

Transformative Nature Study

What Early 20th Century Nature Study Can Teach Us

How Might Contact With Nature Promote Human Health?

How Nature Can Help Heal Us From Grief

5 Health Benefits of Playing Outside

An Investigation of Unstructured Play in Nature and it's Effects on Children's Self-Efficacy 

Fact Sheet:  Children's Health and Nature

Heath Benefits 

Health Benefits to Children From Contact With the Outdoors and Nature

How Walking In Nature Changes the Brain

Improved Health From the Natural Environment Where Is the Evidence?

It's time we gave our children permission to get outside and get dirty.

Learning to live with 'boy energy'

Let Kids Run Wild in the Woods

Medical:  Spending Time Outside Has Many Health Benefits

The Overprotected Kid

The Radical Political Implications of Spending Time Outdoors

There's a reason they call it the great outdoors.

Who's Afraid of "Big Bad Nature"?  Far Too Many Kids

Why Are Kids Afraid Of Nature?

The decline in play in preschools - and the rise in sensory issues.

If Kindergarten Wasn't So Much Like First Grade, We Wouldn't Need to Delay It

The Joyful, Illiterate Kindergarteners of Finland

Aaaand Another Study Says Preschool Hurts, Not Helps

The Decline of Play in Preschoolers and the Rise of Sensory Issues

Can Free Play Prevent Anxiety and Depression in Kids

Children Who Play More Do Better In Life

The Criminalization of Natural Play:  It's Time to Look for Solutions

Help!  My Five Year Old Won't Do School

How Schools Runined Recess - and Four Things Needed to Fix It

How to Get Kids to Play Outdoors

 Importance of Play for Adults

 Play:  It's the Way Young Children Learn - 4children.org - May-June 2007

Play and Children's Learning - NAEYC Article 

Play and Learning in Early Care and Education Settings - researchconnections.org -  March 2011

Report Debunks 'Earlier is Better' Academic Instruction for Young Children

 Summary and Recommendations of Crisis in Kindergarten:  Why Children Need to Play in School - from Alliance for Childhood by Edward Miller and Joan Almon

The Day I Stopped Saying 'Hurry Up'

The Power of Play:  A Research Summary on Play and Learning

Dr. Rachel E. White

Unstructured Outside Play

Whole Child:  Developing Mind, Body & Spirit Through Outside Play

Why Preschool Shouldn't Be Like School

Charlotte's Webpage

Screen Time and Childhood

Toddler's becoming so addicted to iPad's they need therapy.

Unplugged Schools

Wired Kids:  How Screen Time Affects Children's Brains

Spiritual Lessons Learned from Nature

Nature Deficit Disorder:  Spiritual fallout from our disconnect with God's creation

We Don't Need No Education

Nature in the City:  Teaching urban kids to recognize, appreciate Mother Natuer

Nature Study in an Unnatural Environment

Want to become an urban naturalist?  Try trailing a toddler.