5 Easy Activities that Will Help Your Bring Nature-Based Learning into Your Home

Learning through play is an essential element of the Discovery Child Care Centre curriculum because it has the power to significantly impact the development of your child’s skills and abilities. When we connect play-based learning with a natural classroom, it results in increased attention span, healthy brain development and many other amazing benefits!

Our outdoor learning centres are the foundation of our natural classroom and offer numerous opportunities for individual learning. Learning through nature and play can be easily extended into your home or backyard by incorporating some of these fun activities!

Build a Garden. Growing your own vegetables may seem like a huge undertaking, but it doesn’t have to be! A garden of any size can create opportunities for learning for children of all ages. Designing, planting, harvesting, preparation, nutrition - the teaching opportunities are endless! If you are concerned about the time and space required for a garden, you can start with an herb garden or even a small boxed garden.

Go for a Nature Walk. Let your little one explore as you head out on a nature walk. Balancing on logs, observing and naming elements you discover, and measuring and digging, are all elements you can incorporate. You don’t have to take a trek in the forest to take advantage of the wonders in nature. Simply rethink your take on nature. While you likely pay no notice to a patch or grass or pile of dirt, your toddler would surely love to explore it.

Create Nature Art. Collect some natural items such as twigs, bark, pinecones, stones and leaves, and create your own masterpiece. This activity will drive creativity and imagination – let your little artist pick their own materials and start creating.

Play with the Mud. Do you have fond memories of making mud pies? Give your children the chance to get their hands dirty and explore the wonders of the earth. Use earth, soil, dirt, mud, water and let them go wild! Try not to worry too much about the mess – designate a place for “mud play” and have fun!

Create a Backyard Habitat. This activity is a great option if you’re limited on space. Make a simple bird feeder or butterfly house to increase the frequency and diversity of wildlife near your home. Your backyard habitat can be built to attract birds, insects, toads, frogs, turtles, butterflies, worms and much more!

As your child learns and grows, you can expand your natural “classroom” to include a wider variety of activities.

Contact us today to learn more about our flexible, play-based curriculum and how we help connect children with nature.

About Discovery Child Care

Barrie Based Discovery Child Care brings nature into the classroom and takes the classroom into nature, offering an environmentally aware foundation of early learning for children, from infants to school-age. We follow an Emergent Curriculum philosophy which means, your child will be provided with hands-on, play-based learning opportunities that will encourage active exploration, autonomy, choice, problem solving and plain old fun! Your child’s individual interests, abilities and needs will be considered when planning our indoor and outdoor programs. For more information, visit http://www.discoverychild.on.ca