Nature-Based Learning: Growing and Learning in the Earth’s Backyard

In this Adventure-Seeking Mom guest post, Liz Beaven, President of Alliance for Public Waldorf Education, explains how nature-based learning programs and adventures can help reconnect all children and families to ideal learning environments in the natural world. 

Learning in the Natural World

From playgrounds to the beach, from our backyards to the streets, the natural world is perfectly suited for the support of children’s play, learning and development.

It’s obvious when we remember that human beings have spent most of our evolutionary history in a much closer relationship to nature than we now experience. Even in the space of a generation, there has been a shift; for most of us grownups, playing and learning in nature was a foundational part of our childhood, and many of us are now concerned that our youngest generation is drifting away from those experiences.

Why is Nature-Based Learning Important?

Research has shown that exposure to nature and outdoor learning environments can promote children’s physical development, key cognitive and social skills, and mental health. Time with nature allows young children to expand the boundaries of their knowledge, develop the essential foundations for scientific thinking, and build a sense of connection to their local community and the larger world. It instills in them a love of adventure, a love of the outdoors, and an appreciation for protecting our precious environments (like the Everglades and the Florida Wildlife Corridor!).

Unfortunately, since the early 2000s we have seen accelerating trends of “nature deficit disorder,” a term to describe the growing disconnect between people and nature. Now-a-days, children spend less than half the time in nature than their parents did.

Everyone benefits from outdoor learning experiences – kids, educators, families, and communities. So how do we support the ongoing development of ideal learning environments and ensure that every child has access to nature-based learning?

Nature-Based Learning Activities and Tips for Parents

Parents have a key role to play in reversing the growing disconnect between the youngest generation and nature, both at home and as partners and advocates for educators.

1. Take advantage of your geography. Florida is ecologically diverse, filled with coasts and oceans, forests and uplands, wetlands and rivers, urban cities, and rural farms. There is no shortage of options for safe environments, plants, and animals to provide for our kids to explore. Start by learning what is available nearby and build from there. Nature is everywhere!
   Need some inspiration? Check out Adventure-Seeking Mom’s Florida outdoor adventure ideas.
   
2. Utilize your community. Get your friends together and establish a regular time and location for your children to connect and play outside. Open this group up to other parents and kids in your neighborhoods. This will be a strong tool for developing consistent nature exposure in your household while building a network of friendships and connections that will be impactful in the lives of you and your children.
   
3. Be intentional about childcare and education opportunities. Seek childcare facilities and school systems that prioritize developing ideal learning environments and nature access within their curriculum. Research the providers so you can sense how much nature-based learning could be incorporated into your child’s daily schedule.
   
4. Partner with teachers. Chances are your child’s teachers and learning community share your values and agree that incorporating nature-based learning is important – but they may lack the ideas or resources to make it happen. Be a partner and an advocate, and put this topic on your PTA agenda. Whether that means petitioning a board for more directed funding into these programs, initiating a parent volunteer program to assist educators with running outdoor activities, or establishing a policy that the regularly scheduled story-time, art time, play-time takes place in the playground a couple of times during weather permitting weeks. What can seem like small steps can really add up and make a difference.

About The Author

Liz Beaven has thirty-five years of experience in Waldorf education as a class teacher, school director, adult educator, researcher, and speaker.  She is the president of the Alliance for Public Waldorf Education and has spent two decades working on the expansion of the Waldorf approach into schools’ curriculum and methodology, professional development, educator development, and research. 

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