6

VOICES FROM

THE FIELD

Seasoned nature-based educators share wisdom about more ways adults can explore nature with children. Many tips and ideas are offered here, often closely linked with a child’s development, social interactions, and personal connections with nature. You’ll receive guidance on the role of caring adults as children build confidence and hone the ability to assess risk during outdoor play. Some of these voices are educators as well as parents, which provides tempered insight about the dual role parents have as their child’s first teacher. These activities and gentle suggestions come from professionals who specialize in facilitating outdoor learning with children. Read on for more fun ways to explore nature as a family!

Much more could be said on important topics such as equitable access to safe wild spaces, considerations for children with diverse needs and abilities, acknowledgment of indigenous cultures, and native ways of knowing the land. While we can’t cover all of the topics and barriers that concern families in one book, the voices that follow have touched on a few of these topics with thoughtful insight to help frame parents’ understanding. We encourage you to use the resources at the back of the book to learn more.

NEW TO OUTDOOR PLAY?

MORE IDEAS AND TIPS FOR PARENTS

SUSIE WIRTH, OUTREACH DIRECTOR (RETIRED)

Arbor Day Foundation and Dimensions Foundation

I’m often asked how families can bring more nature into their children’s lives in their own backyards. My answer is, “Keep things simple.” Nature play is not about knowing the name of every plant or animal but about having shared observations, discoveries, and fun. It is helpful to have a green space, no matter how small, with more diversity than just a lawn.

Here are a few inexpensive tips for families wanting to develop a nature-rich backyard space that is engaging for children:

• Create a cozy green nook where children can have imaginary play. Together you can build a sturdy teepee frame and plant vines (gourds or beans) around the perimeter, which soon will grow up over the frame. Or plant a small tree (such as a dwarf redbud) or a couple of adjacent shrubs to establish a shady, child-size space.

• Provide plenty of natural materials (age-appropriate-size shells, acorns, seedpods, stones, and so on) that children can use in creative ways.

• Devote a space to larger, natural materials where children use stump sections, logs, sturdy branches, or big tree cookies to build their own forts or castles. Make sure to have a soft layer of wood chips here.

• With your child, plant fragrant herbs and flowers that have diverse colors, sizes, and bloom times. If space allows, provide a small raised-bed garden where children can dig in the soil, planting and tending whatever flowers or vegetable appeals to them.

Most importantly, foster your child’s sense of wonder and creativity. Ask open-ended questions. Invite them to tell you what they see, hear, smell, and feel. Encourage them to tell you what they like in the space. Follow their lead.

To get started, families can find free, easy-to-use, developmentally appropriate activities shown to engage families in exploring the natural world together at natureexplore.org/family-resources.

YASH BHAGWANJI, ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR OF EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION

Florida Atlantic University,
Boca Raton, Florida

Last spring, during an exploration of a nearby scrub habitat with my undergraduate students, we came upon a “fuzzy” looking creature on the trail. The students huddled around the creature and the conversation among the twelve or so students and myself went something like this:

Is it dead? Maybe it is playing dead. It’s dead. Yes, it’s dead. What is it? A squirrel? A mammal of some kind? Looks like a rat. Let’s check the guidebook. Also check internet. It’s an eastern mole. I wonder why it’s dead. Could be the cold spell we had last night. There may be other eastern moles living here. Should we move it aside? Let’s leave it there. It will decompose and turn to soil. Or something else might eat it.

As described above, adult caregivers such as parents, grandparents and kin, friends and neighbors, and teachers alike may all initiate journeys of empowering children and inspiring discovery of the caretaking process by first being in and learning about nature. The following habits or routines are recommended:

Being with Nature. Places of nature can be backyards, gardens, nearby ponds, wooded areas, parks, different types of habitats, nearby natural areas, and more. Nature is all around us—it is the fields, streams and rivers, clouds and sky, puddles after rain, groves of trees, shrubs and bushes, and bees and wasps buzzing around grasses and weeds—in fact, nature can be found anywhere where life finds an opportunity to grow. Being with nature also means an extensive amount of time is spent in and together with nature. A great way to be with nature is for caregivers and children to make frequent outings in nature a routine part of daily life.

Enjoyment in Being Part of Nature. This simply means children are provided with plenty of unstructured time and experiences in and with nature. Enjoyment occurs when children directly engage in all kinds of firsthand sensory experiences and discovery of the small and big ideas related to nature. And through easygoing conversations, caregivers should plan to support the development of children’s kinship with nature too. The development of kinship with nature is specifically supported when caregivers emphasize or explain the value of nature in enabling cycles/processes of life and mutual benefits among many types of life forms.

PETER DARGATZ, KINDERGARTEN TEACHER

Woodside Elementary School,
Sussex, Wisconsin

Let the child lead. While it is your duty to keep your child safe, it is not your duty to save them from risk. You might cringe a little the first time you see your child jump off a stump. Your heart might skip a beat the first time they pick up a stick. Your parental instincts might kick in and you will want to intervene or “teach” them about what to do. Bite your tongue. They can do much more than we give them credit for when out in nature. They are amazing risk assessors, creative thinkers, and problem solvers. But unless we let them hone their skills independently, they will never reach their fullest potential. Use a hands-off, eyes-on approach. Be present and positive and enjoy the things your child will teach you.

BETH SAVITZ, HEAD OF PARENT AND CHILD PROGRAMS

Irvine Nature Center,
Owings Mills, Maryland

Connecting your toddler with nature can be very simple even if you don’t live near a natural setting or have much money to spend:

• Make binoculars from cardboard tubes and head outdoors to watch birds.

• Create a simple bird feeder with a pinecone, nut butter, and birdseed. Hang it near your home to attract birds or even a hungry squirrel.

• Create a leaf rubbing by putting a leaf under a piece of paper and rubbing with the flat side of a crayon. Toddlers love to see the leaf magically appear!

• Make a nature scavenger hunt or find one online. Then head outdoors with an empty egg carton or other recycled container to collect your finds.

• Use the natural treasures that you find to create a feely box, nature journal, or collage.

• Search for signs of animals like tracks, scat, partially eaten nuts or leaves, feathers, fur, nests, holes in trees or the ground, bones, shells, or antlers.

• Collect and observe insects, amphibians, invertebrates, or aquatic life, then return the critters back where you found them.

• Take a night hike and listen to the sounds or gaze at the night sky.

• Visit the library to find books about aspects in nature that your or your child love. Then find a quiet outdoor space to read together.

NATURE PLAY AND CHILD DEVELOPMENT

PETER DARGATZ

Research is clear about the positive impacts experiences with nature play have on whole-child development. When it comes to socialization and the skills involved with relationship building, nature play is a wonderful equalizer.

A few years back, I was honored to have a student in my class who was on the autism spectrum. For much of the year, he struggled with peer relationships. In the traditional classroom, he often played alone, sometimes by his own choice but often because of failed social interactions with his peers. He struggled to read social cues and often put his own wants and desires ahead of those of his peers and our agreed-upon class expectations. While his demeanor was generally happy, it was evident that he thirsted for positive peer interactions.

He quenched this thirst in our outdoor classroom. When given the chance to be in child-led nature play, not only did he interact with his peers more frequently and more positively, others sought him out because of his creativity and leadership qualities. Even though I aim for my classroom to be inclusive and collaborative, he still saw it as “my classroom.” He knew nature was for everyone, so there was no battle for control or any need to live up to anyone’s expectations. He could simply be himself. He used his love for engineering to create construction scenarios with one of our space’s fallen trees. Deeming himself the “foreman” of the forest, he worked well with his peers on different electrical, plumbing, and design projects, transforming the tree into a skyscraper. Slowly but surely, these transferred to the indoor classroom. Though he still struggled at times interpreting social cues, he became a more vocal part of our classroom discussions, initiated play independently, and accepted ideas and suggestions from others, even when he disagreed with them. In his mind, his skyscraper towered in the forest. In reality, his social skills were what grew to new and impressive heights.

BETH SAVITZ

The natural world provides limitless opportunities for toddlers to stretch their wings and learn to fly! Not only is nature’s playground free, but it also offers a huge variety of spaces and structures for physical development and full-on fun.

Ways to Improve Gross Motor Skills

• Walk on a fallen log to practice balance.

• Lift or roll logs, rocks, and branches to build upper-body strength.

• Jump, climb, crawl on, or navigate around fallen logs to engage large muscle groups.

• Climb trees, hike, or run to build leg strength and locomotor coordination.

• Wade in shallow water to encourage balance on varied terrain.

• Shovel or rake dirt and sand, or using sweep nets to collect insects and engage arm muscles.

• Act out animal movements through pretend play to support whole-body motor skill development.

Ways to Improve Fine Motor Skills

• Use fingers to pick up natural items such as rocks, nuts, leaves, flowers, and feathers.

• Use hands to build a fairy house or create a nature mandala.

• Stack sticks or arrange them from smallest to largest.

• Cut grass or flowers with scissors.

• Squeeze, build, or paint with mud.

• Hold or touch worms, snails, salamanders,
or toads.

• Use a magnifying lens or binoculars to observe natural elements.

MARISA SOBOLESKI, FOREST SCHOOL COORDINATOR

New Mexico School for the Deaf,
Santa Fe and Albuquerque, New Mexico

Opportunities to play in nature offer plenty of benefits for all children, including stronger immune systems, increased attention, and memory. Within our general population, many marginalized groups gain from experiences in nature just as much as atypically developing children, perhaps more. What is considered supplementary for most is likely necessary for deaf children.

I am a deaf educator, a part-time homesteader, herbalist, forager, seed saver, and a mother of two children, one who is also deaf. I run a forest school program once a week and a school garden, bringing our deaf students outside on a regular basis. Our forest preschool program is the only currently running program for deaf children in the United States, and one of two known internationally. Many of our deaf students have additional challenges such as behavior and attention issues, as well as cognitive and physical disabilities. Offering accommodations such as pre- and post-teaching, visual/tactile aids, maximizing on teachable moments, and access to incidental learning all support deaf/hard of hearing children in experiencing the outdoors through nature play.

Approximately 5 percent of the world population is deaf or has other types of hearing loss, and deaf children make up a very small percentage of that. More than 90 percent of deaf children are born to hearing parents. This often means that acquiring a new language is a task that is new to many families with deaf children. Learning sign language is a fundamental human right for deaf children; this offers them a foundation that is easily accessible to them from an early age. Those who acquire sign language young frequently have better skills for maintaining attention, controlling impulses, and organization.

The prevalence of depression, anxiety, and other mental health needs are more pronounced in the deaf community. A study of 1,900 adults by deaf developmental psychology researcher Dr. Poorna Kushalnagar shows a strong and clear link between early life adverse communication experiences and adulthood chronic illnesses in the deaf community. Furthermore, it has been shown that deaf adults who lack early language skills have difficulties integrating interpersonal skills later in life. The possible causes for the chronic disorders are ongoing language deprivation issues, social isolation, adverse childhood experiences, and persistent communication barriers. This leads to increased stress, attention issues, and impulsive behavior.

On top of that, lack of freedom appears more pronounced with deaf and/or disabled children, which means their opportunities to experience nature and unstructured play is exponentially reduced as compared to their hearing peers. The children seem to be often “bubble wrapped.” This happens because of communication barriers, especially if their parents do not sign or communicate with them clearly. For example, hearing adults may assume that a deaf child may not be attuned to possible risks found in nature. Many children live at residential deaf schools, and their opportunities to experience and learn from risk through unstructured nature play may be reduced and limited.

Nature play offers tools for developing resilience and grit, along with tools for problem solving. In the natural world, positive emotions and mindfulness can come instinctively. Being outdoors helps children unwind, slow down, observe more, and be in tune with their sense of wonder. Nature is a fantastic teacher that offers the opportunity to become curious and ask questions about Earth and the life that it supports. During our forest school sessions, the small creek and mud kitchen is a favorite element, especially in the high desert. One day, one of our students noticed that the creek dried up. She quickly signed to me, upset, that there was no more water. Other students ran to her and reassured her that it was temporarily “away.” This led to conversations in sign language about where water came from, where we could find water, and how we could conserve and protect this finite resource. This supported the children in their inquiry, reflection, creative problem solving, and initiative, all in their natural language.

Deaf children as a linguistic and cultural minority often offer perspectives that are outside the box when it comes to social issues. Their unique views on social issues can offer creative solutions to many problems that affect our world. Parents can help nurture nature play by offering deaf children access to nature and sign language. Strong access to both helps them thrive and become essential members of our society.

Access to wild spaces is just as much as a human right as access to sign language for deaf children. Nature play offers them the opportunity to become curious, be creative, and connect with their parents/caregivers and peers.

PATRICIA LEON, PROGRAM DIRECTOR, PARENT AND CHILD INSTITUTE

Miami Nature Playschool,
North Miami, Florida

One of the benefits of nature-based programs is the wide-open spaces they provide for play. When there is great physical distance between children, they verbalize their needs to different members of their peer group instead of relying on communication with a teacher or parent. Because of proximity, teachers may be more inclined to put words in the children’s mouths in indoor settings. But by contrast, open outdoor spaces necessitate the use of language with others because the play can span widely across the landscape.

Nature-based programs have other surprising benefits for dual-language learners: open-ended outdoor play lends itself to hearing, mimicking, and naturally attaining words in other languages. Language starts exploding! Unhurried exploration and freedom to play at their own pace means children have plenty of time to hear and pick up new languages. Just as children may learn the call of a familiar bird or frog through repetition, they also learn the names of animals in more than one language. When children are exposed to a variety of languages in a natural, no-pressure environment, language acquisition blossoms. They discover there are many ways to ask for help and express ideas to communicate with others. Just as animals have many languages and modes of communication, so do people in the communities that we live in. Thanks to unstructured nature-based learning, children have opportunities to assimilate concepts born from social play, language-rich environments, and quality time spent in nature.

LAUREN BROWN, DIRECTOR

Asheville Farmstead School,
Candler, North Carolina

I witnessed a moment of play between two students in one of our outdoor spaces called Pine Play. These students helped the Farmstead in the orchard by planting apple, pear, persimmon, and mulberry trees. It became a regular weekly task to check on and care for our new trees. During their play, these two students moved logs around to create a growing space and dug holes to plant fruit and nut trees. They found sticks to represent trees, planted these sticks, and then remembered that they needed water too. Following the imaginary planting, the students took turns monitoring the growth of their “trees.” This allowed the students to call on each other to help look for pests, bring more water for the plants, and eventually help with the harvest. They worked hard to care for these new trees they had planted and used their imagination to water, check for pests, and pretend to harvest. Socially they had to navigate one another’s emotional responses, compromise, work together, and effectively communicate. They were also working on gross and fine motor skills, all while soaking in the vitamin D.

GOING OUT IN THE COLD

SHEILA WILLIAMS RIDGE, DIRECTOR

Shirley G. Moore Lab School, Institute of Child Development, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota

Engaging in cold-weather play can be exhilarating and provide opportunities for a huge variety of activities. For families, building quinzees or snow forts is a wonderful and easy project, and there are ways to incorporate art, dramatic play, and large motor activity for children and adults. It can also be fun to extend this play into building multiple forts and talking about neighborhoods and communities. There are quinzee-making directions available online. Be sure to build them safely, and do not allow children to crawl on top of them when someone is inside.

Another fun cold-weather activity that I personally enjoy is sledding. For young children, you don’t have to venture far or go to a designated sledding hill, just a small hill built out of what you shoveled from your driveway provides more than enough slope to make it fun.

The last cold-weather activity that I will share here is freezing colorful pieces of ice and using them to build outside on a small table. They work like ordinary blocks and can be used with snow or on their own. Just fill a variety of ice molds, add a few drops of food coloring or watercolor, and leave out overnight.

For any cold-weather play, the keys to enjoyment are engagement and comfort. Whether children are doing an activity at a table or building a large structure like a quinzee, they may experience different levels of warmth and comfort. Helping children understand their bodies and how to care for them is an important skill, and by listening to their concerns about heat or cold during outdoor play, we can help them learn to listen to what their bodies need. Often when I am building a snow fort with children, they get overheated and need to remove a layer or at least open a jacket. While doing a stationary project when it’s cold, they may get cold feet or hands, so we can take a break and move around, or add some wool socks or warmer mittens.

Cold weather also allows children to think more broadly about their place and the world around them. They often ask questions like “Where are the birds when it’s cold?” or “Is it spring yet?” when they see small plants starting to emerge. These experiences are key in developing a sense of place and understanding seasons and weather, and later they will be helpful for children to understand more complex issues like climate change.

Snow provokes responses that reach right back into childhood.

—Andy Goldsworthy

PAIGE VONDER HAAR, DIRECTOR

Bunnell House Early Childhood Lab School, Fairbanks, Alaska

Nature play helps form a child’s sense of place, bonds them to the unique area where they reside, and provides time to develop appreciation for the natural world in all its transformations.

The intimate connection to place formed in childhood endures throughout life, often expressed in fond and emotive recollection. The children’s book Roxaboxen by Alice McLerran represents this experience beautifully. Recall your own childhood and your nature memories specific to where you grew up. Did you wade in bubbling creeks and catch crayfish in your hands? Did you build forts from tumbleweeds? Your particular location afforded you the outdoor experiences of your childhood.

Winter is probably the most underappreciated season for outdoor play, but winter has its own unique richness, beauty, and learning opportunities. In winter, the environment is made over by crunchy leaves, frost, ice, and snow. Children view the outdoors through a new lens as they explore and imagine in a transformed world.

Whether children live near beaches, forests, rivers, ponds, fields, trails, deserts, or mountains will have an impact on their individual nature experiences. Children encouraged to venture outdoors in winter will be rewarded with the magical memories only winter can offer as they negotiate icy paths and snow-covered spaces; observe changes to the earth, water, and air; and discover the twinkling beauty of frost and the slushy cold of a winter puddle.

Exposure to and participation in traditional outdoor winter activities bond children to the culture around them and enhance children’s development of a sense of place. For example, cross-country skiing, ice fishing, aurora borealis viewing, and dog mushing are prevalent winter activities in northern Alaska communities. Many children there both observe and participate in them. Activities unique to place—structured and unstructured—are valuable in helping form a child’s understanding of the culture in which they live.

Nature play in winter is an essential experience for the well-rounded development of a child’s sense of place. While it may take a little preparation, young children genuinely enjoy cold-weather play when they are dressed to be snug and dry yet are still able to move and navigate the winter environment. Winter is an amazing season. Dress children warmly and take them outdoors to explore and discover what winter uniquely offers!

NATURE PLAY IN URBAN SETTINGS

MONICA FRENCH, COFOUNDER AND DIRECTOR

Wild Haven Forest Preschool and Childcare, Baltimore, Maryland

Often when people think about connecting to nature, they picture themselves in wild, faraway places like forests, mountains, and meadows. With this mentality, it’s hard to imagine that city dwellers can connect to nature in the urban environments in which they live. This simply is not the case! Altering the lens through which you view experiences in diverse, bustling cities can lead to an explosion of nature discovery that was once overlooked.

The biggest misconception is that green spaces are needed to connect with nature. Although they help, true nature connection starts with simply opening your senses, slowing down, and becoming more aware. Feel the ground beneath your feet, look at the sky overhead, and notice how the weather feels on your skin.

Practice using a keen eye and spotting signs of life in your neighborhood. These opportunities are everywhere: plants grow in cracks and crevices, moss grows on sidewalks and buildings, insects may be scurrying underfoot! Encourage children to engage with the nature that you discover. Perhaps they would like to start a nature collection: stones, pine needles, leaves, berries—what will you discover in your neighborhood? Add to your community by potting plants into containers. Research what native plants will attract pollinators and help out the local ecosystem while you’re at it!

Children learn best through play. When children have time to actively explore their environment, they learn how the world works. When they have opportunities to freely engage with nature, their imaginations run wild. Found objects such as rocks, sticks, leaves, dirt, and puddles provide open-ended props for play. For example, let’s explore all the ways a child may learn when playing freely in a puddle: they may explore the early concepts of density when they see a leaf float but a stone sink, or learn how to gauge depth by seeing how far a stick will go when inserted, or see how waves travel when watching ripples. When children get the opportunities to freely learn and play in nature, it leads to increased comfort in spending time outdoors, creating a lifelong connection to the natural world.

The best way parents can nurture unstructured engagement with nature is to simply let children play. Set clear boundaries to ensure safety but try not to limit children’s interactions. Children everywhere deserve opportunities to get dirty, be curious, and cultivate a relationship with the natural world.

INDIGENOUS PERSPECTIVES

SALLY ANDERSON, MA, DIRECTOR AND LEAD EDUCATOR

Sol Forest School, Tijeras, New Mexico

What are some appropriate ways parents can include indigenous perspectives with respect to exploring the landscape?

Although forest and nature schools are enjoying a surge the world over, indigenous people have been offering meaningful, land-based education to their children for millennia. Native American approaches to education (and countless other indigenous cultures) emphasize experiential learning and peer-to-peer learning and require people to take responsibility for their own learning. Nature play creates a similar experience because this type of play is experiential and typically child led, allowing the child to take responsibility for what they are learning.

With at least 15,000 years of intellectual and cultural traditions, oral stories, and educational experience on our lands, knowing something about Native American perspective on education, as well Native American history and culture in your “neck of the woods” can bring a deeper understanding of the place you inhabit. In turn, sharing this knowledge with your children will allow them to create a deeper respect for and sense of place.

There are several ways to include indigenous people and/or perspectives with respect to exploring the landscapes where you live. The first and most obvious is to reach out to indigenous communities, if there are communities near you. In New Mexico, there is a diverse indigenous population of over twenty tribes. To me, it is my moral obligation to know a little bit about the people who inhabited this majestic land long before I did. In relation to my work running a forest school, I have made it a point to invite local Native leaders to our opening day each year. They bless the site we use for communal gatherings and confer a blessing for the school year over our children and families. Oral stories, anecdotes, and songs are shared, as well as kid-friendly activities, a potluck, and lots of conversation and laughter. This day serves to ground us in place while also reminding us that we are all more similar than different, and that we all live under the same sun.

If there are not indigenous groups in your area to visit or reach out to, you can visit a museum and/or cultural landmarks to learn about the people who had originally inhabited the place you call home. You can also set an intention to read Native American stories and legends to your children, especially those coming from people with a history linked to your location. Most North American indigenous tribes are deeply connected to viewing life through the Four Directions. This philosophical view of the world is deeply Earth-based and therefore connected to the land and the environment. It tells us about who we are as human beings; a balanced person is composed of a well-developed emotional, physical, spiritual, and intellectual self. Parenting through this lens, with a focus on your child’s four directions of development (emotional, physical, spiritual, and intellectual), is a holistic approach to child-rearing akin to the approach taken in many indigenous communities.

Finally, you can make a point of educating your children about Native peoples and their lands. Native people have never forgotten that we belong to the Earth (not the other way around) and sharing these stories of struggle will help grow children who have empathy for other humans, as well as empathy for our earth.

We don’t inherit the earth from our ancestors,
we borrow it from our children.

—Unknown