This study examined play and learning in the natural environment and on the playgrounds of Slovene preschools. It included 140 preschool teachers and 264 parents of children who attended preschools in 21 Slovene towns. Data were collected through questionnaires with questions referring to time spent outdoors, children's outdoor activities, barriers to outdoor play and learning, opinions regarding safety as well as parents' perspectives of outdoor play and learning. The results show that, on average, Slovene children spend 23% of their time at preschool outdoors during the warm months and 13% during the cold months, of which they generally spend three hours per week in the natural environment during the warm months and 1.5 hours during the cold. Answers to the question about children's activities in nature and on the playground indicate that the potentials offered by the outdoor environment are not effectively used. Parents' opinions show a positive attitude towards outdoor play and learning. The majority of both parents and preschool teachers thus share the opinion that Slovene preschools should dedicate more attention and time to play and learning in the natural environment.

Incorporating nutrition topics in the primary school curricula should support the acquisition of nutrition knowledge in different ways and indirectly the development of healthy eating habits in children and teenagers. In Slovenia, nutrition education is part of all primary school education levels and may take the form of compulsory and/or elective school subjects. The main goal of the study was to find out the effectiveness of nutrition education of 6 th graders where home economics is taught as a compulsory subject in ninegrade primary schools. The sample involved 630 pupils from 28 Slovenian primary schools. The nutrition knowledge was assessed by a knowledge test at the beginning and the end of the school year. The results show that the nutrition knowledge of students significantly improved. The students who scored lower on the test at the beginning of the school year made most improvement, and the students who scored best on the same test did not improve significantly. The results show that students' knowledge and understanding of the facts about energy and nutritive values of the foods is poor. Understanding a particular nutrient's role in human nutrition, or the energy value of the foods, requires certain abstract thinking ability, which the students, due to their cognitive developmental level, find difficult. Therefore, nutrition education should be adapted to the cognitive level of students and later, in the third triad of primary school, reinforced with interdisciplinary and constructivist approach.

Purpose – Children's eating habits are influenced by numerous social and individual factors. The present study aimed to evaluate the connection between nutrition knowledge of children and their eating habits as well as their attitudes towards healthy eating habits. Design/methodology/approach – The research study included 630 11-year-old children from 27 randomly selected Slovenian schools. During the research, children attended the sixth grade of the nine-year elementary school and on average were subject to 38.6 h of mandatory nutritional contents, which are planned in the curriculum of home economics. At the end of the school year, nutrition knowledge was checked with a knowledge test consisting of 27 questions. Considering the achieved results, children were classified into three knowledge categories: low, fairly good, and good nutrition knowledge. Children's eating habits were assessed with a food-frequency questionnaire, while the five-degree Likert scale was used to assess their attitudes to healthy eating habits. Differences in children's eating habits and attitudes in reference to the category of knowledge were determined through analysis of variance. Findings – The results demonstrated that children with better nutrition knowledge have healthier eating habits and a more positive attitude towards them than children with poor nutrition knowledge. Originality/value – The study results demonstrate the link between children's nutrition knowledge and attitudes on the one hand and eating habits on the other which justifies the importance of providing formal and informal nutrition education to children.

The higher quality of life of people with spinal cord injury is closely related with their reintegration into the social environment. Social reintegration is a demanding and complex process, requiring individuals to become active again and acquire age-, gender-, and culture-appropriate roles and social status. It also involves independence and productive behavior as part of multiple interpersonal relationships with family, friends, and others. In order to establish whether individuals with spinal cord injury who are physically active subjectively rate their quality of life to be higher compared to those who are not, sixty-two respondents from Slovenia with spinal cord injury were interviewed. Thirty-one of them were physically active, and 31 were not. The level of injury of the responders was from Th6–Th12. The participants gave the highest assessments to their interpersonal relationships, and the lowest to their satisfaction with material prosperity. Data comparison showed that subjective estimates in all areas of quality of life are higher in respondents who were involved in physical activity after their injury. The results may encourage persons with spinal cord injury to participate more often in sports programs, and also encourage others to do so.

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Purpose -The purpose of this paper is to establish where four-year old children think certain basic foods come from. The authors explored how much children can learn about the origin of food through outdoor activities in the garden at preschool and on local farms. Design/methodology/approach -An experiment was conducted with a control and an experimental group, which consisted of 32 children each. Before activities the authors used semi-structured interviews about the source of food for both groups to explore children's prior knowledge. The experimental group practised activities at local farms and in their small vegetable garden. Then the authors repeated the semi-structured interviews about the source of food for both groups. Findings -Before their experience on the farms, many children had no idea where food comes from (milk 62 per cent, eggs 47 per cent, juice 78 per cent, and beans 84 per cent), while afterwards children in the experimental group showed a statistically significant improvement in their knowledge about the origin of food. Most children could tell us exactly where milk (84 per cent), eggs (84 per cent), juice (69 per cent), and beans (84 per cent) come from. Originality/value -The paper concludes that through outdoor activities on farms and in the garden, even preschool children can learn that food comes from living beings.

Learning through gardening is known to be an educational strategy in which a garden is used as a teaching tool. Systemic reviews of the impact of school gardening on academic performance and dietary habits foreground the need for additional quantitative studies that would use strong experimental designs. The aim of the present research was to establish the impact of school gardening on children’s knowledge of and attitude to the consumption of garden vegetables. A quasi-experiment was conducted including one control and one experimental group, with each group consisting of 15 children aged 6–7 years. The children’s prior knowledge and attitude toward the consumption of garden vegetables was identified through individual interviews. Participants in the experimental group then carried out their activities in a school garden that was built in co-operation with an organic farm located in close vicinity of the school. Following these activities, interviews were repeated in both groups to establish any newly acquired knowledge of and changes in the children’s attitude to garden vegetables. The results revealed that the children in both groups had poor general knowledge about garden vegetables at the beginning of the experiment. After their work in the garden was concluded, the knowledge of garden vegetables in the experimental group of children improved to a statistically significant degree. The children’s attitude to consuming garden vegetables also became more positive than before they engaged in the gardening activities. The results of this research indicated that school gardening activities improved academic outcomes and the children’s attitude to the consumption of vegetables. Therefore, the research suggests that gardening should be considered a vital part of school education. Keywords: active learning, garden-based learning, organic gardening, outdoor education, school garden.

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