Have you ever thought about the ideal place to raise your children?

A place that is healthy, where they nurture their curiosity, where they learn respect for others and the world, where they play freely, where imagination has no limits. It may seem impossible, yet many such places exist, often closer than you imagine.

Growing up in the city certainly has its advantages and can be a stimulating place due to the presence of sports centers, cinemas, playrooms, museums and much more. Many other aspects, however, risk being overshadowed by an overstimulating and sometimes unsafe environment.

The fundamental question lies in the type of education one chooses for one’s children.

“Natural” Education

For many years now, a type of education has been spreading mainly in Europe focusing everything on being immersed in the green and aiming to educate children outdoors, through educational projects that place nature and direct and prolonged contact with it at the center of education. 

For example, there are educational realities in which lessons take place outdoors and not through the usual books or toys, but through the use of materials from the earth, so as to stimulate imagination and creativity. Children learn through direct experience with plants and animals, they “get their hands dirty” and socialize with their peers in a large and continuously interesting space.

Several studies show, in fact, that outdoor learning improves creativity, relationships with others, but also relationships with oneself by increasing the ability to overcome small challenges or solve problems more independently. 

Rediscovering the essentials 

Beyond the educational choices and schools to which you decide to enroll your children, it is still possible to teach this way of life through growing up in natural environments. Here, in fact, are some of the beneficial aspects of living in nature: 

• Improves health: it prevents a number of cardiovascular, respiratory or anxiety- and stress-related diseases. Being surrounded by greenery allows you to breathe cleaner air and restore your body’s rhythm.
• Has a calming effect: the sounds of nature are often used during meditation precisely because, unlike the metallic noises of the city, they have the power to relax and give us a breather. In addition, the soft colors of landscapes give our overstimulated senses some respite.
• Improves self-perception: we face many small challenges every day, and being able to overcome them, not without fatigue, brings with it a sense of extreme satisfaction and an increase in one’s self-esteem. 
• One learns to appreciate little things: growing away from excess is a good way to learn what really matters. It teaches us to pay attention to details and play with our imaginations, creating fantastic stories out of places and objects that might seem insignificant on the surface.
• Improves one’s relationship with the world: playing with nature by getting in touch with it, understanding and observing it, means learning to respect it, to be more aware of our surroundings and how important it is to have regard for the environment and its wildlife. 

These and many other benefits have led us to choose a different lifestyle than usual and, for the past few years, we have been living immersed in the Mercadante Forest, in the Alta Murgia Park. Here we opened our Cheese Bar, where you can savor a bit of our lifestyle and history through a taste journey guided by our cheeses, wines and local products while listening to and enjoying the nature that surrounds us.

Discover the experience here: Cheese-experience