Our colleague at Better Kid Care and valued member of the Pennsylvania OLE Workgroup, Jenn Onopa, also attended the trip. Read about Jenn's exciting journey through Scotland here!

To empower your part in this Initiative, we invite you to use the engagement tools to share about the benefits of connecting children with nature every day, with your community! If you need any additional tools, or have questions, the Nature Explore team is here to support you.

Hands-on gardening with young children tunes their taste buds to fresh fruit and vegetables and the enjoyment of healthy eating early in life. The sensory impact of gardening creates a positive understanding of how seeds turn into plants helped by soil, sun, water—and human care. Young children learn essential gardening skills for healthy living: planting, caring, harvesting, and ultimately preparing tasty eating experiences. Designated production gardens in childcare center outdoor learning environments can inspire lifelong healthy eating habits and provide replicable models for the families they serve.

The Recommendations for Licensing Outdoor, Nature-Based (ONB) Early Learning and Child Care Programs is a comprehensive resource for communities, including regulatory agencies, in expanding children's access to safe and high-quality outdoor and nature-based learning through policy and systems of regulation and support. The Recommendations draw from the expertise and collective review of representatives of the outdoor, nature-based (ONB) early learning professional community across the Natural Start Alliance and allied organizations. The draft also incorporates guidelines from relevant national regulatory agencies, and findings from recent research into children’s health and education. 

This edWebinar introduces a clear and practical approach to designing outdoor environments that support meaningful play and child development. Grounded in the Ecology of Play, the session explores how observation, diversity, and resilience can guide everyday decisions in early learning settings.

Attendees will gain a simple lens to understand how environments shape behavior, engagement, and learning. The focus is on seeing outdoor spaces as living systems that evolve with children, educators, and community context. Through real project examples, the edWebinar highlights how intentional design can support movement, social connection, creativity, and a strong sense of belonging.

In this session, Kimberlee Burt Hendricks, The Play and Learn Leader at A Child’s Space 2, will guide participants through an exploration of how play is not just for children, it’s a vital practice that nurtures creativity, connection, and emotional well-being for adults as well. Through stories, research, and reflective experiences, Kimberlee will illuminate how neuroscience and well-established leadership models reveal that play is not a distraction from leadership, but a catalyst for it.

You’ve explored why play matters—now it’s time to focus on how to make it work. In this practical follow-up to The Science of Play, Amanda Morgan—author of Not Just Cute: How Powerful Play Drives Development in Early Childhood—will dive deeper into the Recognize–Emphasize–Maximize Framework to show how intentional, guided play can support meaningful developmental outcomes without co-opting the play itself.

All kids love playing with water. Whether it’s jumping in a puddle or playing at the water table, it’s always a big hit. At this workshop, learn how to set up your own water wall with some tubing, connectors, and ties. The best part is that these water walls take up vertical spaces and are set up on a chain link fence. Children can work together at this activity while they control the amount and direction of the water. Add food colouring and the children can have fun creating new colours. There’s so much potential in such a simple activity.

In this action-focused webinar designed for program leaders and administrators, experienced early childhood nature-based program leader and author Dr. Rachel Larimore will share her Trail Map for Leading Change—an approach for inspiring and supporting staff as they move toward nature-based teaching. In previous ECI webinars, she focused on the big picture of the Trail Map for Change and Step 1: preparing yourself as a leader. In this webinar, she’ll focus on Step 5 of the Trail Map: reimagining teaching practices to embrace nature-based pedagogy.

Kisha Reid and Madeleine discuss the impact of freedom on human development. Madeline shares about her journey home schooling from the jungle to the forest. She gives practical tools for parents to offer play and nature to their children. Madeleine is a former teacher at Discovery Natural Learning Center.

What if the change we keep waiting for... is actually us? In this powerful and honest conversation, I'm joined again by the incredible Kisa Marx to talk about her new book We Are Who We're Waiting For and the deeper truths behind it. Together, we explore what's really holding education back, why neutrality might be our biggest barrier, and how systems can be working exactly as designed...

This week, we dive into the significance of building relationships in the realm of nature-based early childhood education. How intentional are we about fostering connections within our educational environments? Are we building relationships with small, consistent actions?

Claude Stephens talks about Bernheim Forest outside of Louisville, KY and it's Natural Playcosystem. He wants children to engage with the natural world to promote curiosity, wonder, and belonging.

(^ We love Claude!)