Traditional understanding often depicts a child as an unfinished and incomplete being and childhood as a transition phase, that prepares the child for adulthood and maturity. New perspectives see a child's competence, therefore showing him as a capable creator of his own life and his environment. Within new perspectives, there is the idea of nurture and education which is based on education in nature. The philosophical concept of returning children to nature by Jan Amos Komensky and Jeana-Jacquesa Rousseau prompted many pedagogues such as Johan Heinrich Pestalozzi and Friedrich Frӧbel who emphasized the need for contact with nature for the round development of the child. In the 20th century forms a new pedagogical direction – Waldorf pedagogy which is the foundation of forest pedagogy. Forest pedagogy bases itself on practical and experience-based learning, therefore encouraging the whole development of the child. Bases of forest pedagogy are playing in nature and risky play which positively influence the development of a child's health on cognitive, social, physical, and emotional levels. First forest kindergartens started working in the early 1900s and from the 1950s this movement rapidly started to grow in European countries, especially in Sweden, Denmark, Germany, and Great Britain. Although the Croatian Forest kindergarten curriculum still is not recognized, the need for the introduction of activities in the natural environment has been identified, so many educational institutions in their regular program introduce elements of forest pedagogy.