PEMBROKE — On a December day with temperatures hovering in the 40s, a group of students at the new Athenaeum Learning Center worked outside on arts and crafts in the midday sun. On an adjacent field, other students booted a soccer ball around, while still others took to nearby woods to show off a shelter they’d built out of old logs.

The children, who ranged in age from 4 to 11, looked anything but cold as they were learning, and that, according to Megan Buhr of Hingham, Athenaeum’s founder and director, is a large part of the concept behind the “forest school,’’ as such academic centers are known.

“A generation or two ago,’’ said Buhr, who opened the school last October, “kids would’ve been outside all day, exploring the world.’’

Athenaeum has three programs: early education for children ages 4 to 7, and two others for students in grades one through three and four through six.

What makes the school different, she said, is the stress on outdoor play. While engaging in a variety of indoor academic classes, including chess and Mandarin lessons, as well as reading, writing, and math, children in the youngest group spend as much as four hours a day in the elements. Older children spend less time outdoors.

“In the winter, they bundle up, but they’re running around and having fun, getting fresh air and exercise,’’ said Buhr, a mother of three. Her 6- and 9-year-old daughters attend the school, while her son, 7, is a Hingham public school student. “At that age,’’ she said, speaking of the younger children at Athenaeum, “what they need to know can be oral, storytelling, asking questions, exploring the world — all the while moving around, which studies show is better for cognition.

“Our philosophy for all ages,’’ Buhr said, “is very much built on the concept of the six C’s of education for the 21st century, developed by educational reformer Michael Fullan’’ — collaboration, creativity, critical thinking, citizenship in a global world, character, and communication.

Buhr also pointed to a study by the University of Plymouth in England that found, among other things, that outdoor learning improves physical and emotional health; decreases some symptoms of ADHD; improves nutrition, eyesight, and happiness levels; improves social skills; and gives students a sense of place and understanding of the environment.

Buhr received a degree in library science from Simmons College. She was a library consultant before she had children and always had an interest in alternative education, she said. She’d read about forest schools and wished there was one in her area.

“I realized the only time anything happens,’’ she said, “is when someone starts it.’’

Which she did, renovating a space in a strip mall on Columbia Road that had been a day-care center. She licensed it as a private school, with a full-time tuition of $11,250 a year, and is working toward accreditation with the Association of Independent Schools in New England, a process that can take up to seven years, she said.

She teaches at the school and has hired four other teachers as well. “I’m lucky to have found such fantastic teachers who love learning, love teaching and bringing in their wide range of knowledge and working with kids,’’ she said.

She took the name from Greek mythology’s Athena, the goddess of knowledge.

“Athenaeums were literary and science centers in the 19th century, popular for literary discussions,’’ she said. “We want this place to be for kids to gather and discuss and be academically curious and explore the world from a knowledge-based perspective, with some freedom.’’

Opening the nonprofit school with no business background was largely a leap of faith, she said.

“It’s been an interesting journey,’’ she said. “I’m good at organizing things but had no experience running a school. It’s trial by fire.’’

Outside, there are two-plus acres of running-around room, of which students take full advantage. In the woods at the rear of the playground area, some proudly showed off a rudimentary shelter they’d fashioned out of old logs laying about the forest floor.

“I like being in the woods and learning,’’ said Lavinia Claydon, 9, pointing to the shelter. “We gathered these logs from the ground to make this.’’

Asked for her favorite part of the program, 11-year-old Rose Follanshee said it was movie-making. “We made a little kind of horror movie,’’ she said. “We’re going to put it on YouTube,’’ she said.

That freedom is essential in learning, Buhr said.

“They come up with their own ideas, like movie-making, or writing comic books, and vote on them,’’ she said. “The teachers then guide them, making it a reality and teaching in project-based ways.’’

And all that running around outside in the cold has an added advantage at home, she said.

“By the time they go to bed,’’ she said, “they’re pretty tired.’’

Paul E. Kandarian can be reached at pkandarian@ aol.com.