How One Family Child Care Provider Created a Magical, Natural Play Space for her Young Learners

“Can we sleep outside today? Please, can we sleep outside? Can we?”

It is early March, and jumping up and down before me, on the first sunny, 50-degree day in Illinois, are a group of preschoolers, giddy at the thought of trading in months of snow pants, boots and mittens and returning to hours under the sun. The success of outdoor naps was more than a happy memory, it had become a part of our routine.

Natural Sensory Learning

“How will they be ready for kindergarten if they just spend their days outdoors playing?”

As educators we are often asked about kindergarten readiness by nervous parents, looking to give their children the best in an early childhood program. It is important that parents understand the vast amount of learning that is available when children are connected to nature. Young children learn primarily through their senses. The natural world, with its constantly changing and stimulating elements, provides the ultimate sensory learning environment.

What If…?

What if “distance learning” meant learning from a distance of at least six feet from all adults? Or better yet, sixty! What if the “summer slide” was actually a slide? A tall, scary, risk-taking slide that a child creates from a tree limb without the help of an adult? What if our children actually learned through their own movements and played outdoors and followed their own interests, without a curriculum or a distance learning plan for the entire day? If every cloud has a silver lining, is the silver lining of the coronavirus the shutdown of schools and over-scheduled family time?

  • Description text goes here“Hello, Ms. Marilyn, would you like some of our acorn soup?” The children at our family child care, Under the Gingko Tree, have rushed with a cup of water, grass, acorns, and other pieces of magic, to our neighbor gardening in her backyard.

  • As we enter our sixth year of our Nature Explore Outdoor Classroom, I often find myself reflecting on how our program has grown along with the little bodies that visit it each day. Discovering Nature Explore was like finding that one puzzle piece in your 5000…

  • There in my doorway, stood a familiar face. The face of a parent whose third child had graduated from our program last May. She was quick to notice the new pergola, new bike path and walkways, and the additions to the music area. That wasn’t why she was here. She was here to share.