Nature is Our Living Classroom

The 16th episode “Nature is Our Living Classroom” of The Positive Fantastic podcast features the subject of outdoor education. 

As Covid closed schools throughout much of California and in other parts of the country, a desire for outdoor classrooms has been sparked like never before in our collective imagination. I really believe that nothing could be healthier for children than to be outside, playing in nature’s living classroom. 

For the last dozen years, my friend Jessy Jane has facilitated a nature based pre-school program in Covelo, California. The day camp and the children are both lovingly referred to as “Earth Stars.” Through her efforts, she has created an opportunity for children to immerse themselves in a landscape and establish a relationship with a place. Children’s work is play, and Jessy Jane’s commitment to fostering healthy beginnings for our littlest members of the community is an activism that will help heal our society. 

When I arrived in Covelo, I joined along on the children’s adventures. Although the Earth Stars have a beautiful, Waldorf inspired natural building where they can meet, the great outdoors serves as their primary classroom. They also tend to a small garden at base camp where the children get to sow seeds and cultivate plants. 

I was immediately impressed by the way that play in the great outdoors was emphasized, prioritized, and supported. Jessy Jane and the other mentors lovingly guided the children through their daily rhythms.

Earth Stars merges early childhood development socialization with a respect for the natural world. Beyond their classroom, the children run, hike, play, and explore as they move through natural spaces with inquisitive eyes. Every leg of the journey is crafted to give the children a natural flow as they adventure in nature. As outdoor education becomes more popular, and people see the importance in giving their children the gift of being able to grow up outside, I hope that programs with children’s best interest will start popping up like wildflowers. At every step of the journey, nature offered up the lesson for inquiry and investigation.

As I joined the children for one day of their play, I was able to observe as the Earth Stars made their way over different ecosystems

* They wound their way through open meadows full of bird song toward a majestic stand of oaks

*As a group, they practiced tracking on well known paths, stopping to play along the way. They gleefully travelled down a natural dirt slide that they invented and developed themselves to play on 

*Some of the children removed their shoes at times to play barefoot —which provides both kinesthetic intelligence and heightened proprioceptive ability as little feet make contact with the earth and balance on the landscape

*They often climbed on rocks in the landscape, feeling the geology intimately. Sometimes rocks are launch pads and other times large stones serve as nature’s chairs for moments of friendship and reflection

*The earth stars wildcrafted claytonia. After identifying it as a known and tasty edible plant, they even elected to voluntarily eat their greens, happily munching away.

*Being in nature for creative play with the natural materials available like rocks and twigs  allowed the children to engage their imaginative capabilities to the fullest

*And finally the earth stars happily circled up for a story fest with their nature mentor Jessy Jane to enjoy the ancient art of storytelling. 

*With ample opportunities to journal, look at nature guide books, and discuss some of the magic they found along the way, these children are receiving a quality of education that we can believe will nourish healthy human relationships with the land for several generations. 

Join us by tuning into this episode as we explore nature deficit disorder (spoiler alert, the solution is being in nature), the practice of risky play, and how we are all infinite beings. 

I hope that you, whoever you are, whatever age you are, will be inspired by this blog and this podcast episode to go outside and explore the world around you. Find a plant, check out a bug, and let your earth star shine. 

Also, listen to the featured song by The Freys about children’s wonder at the natural world with “Treasure Chest.”

The PSA for this episode is: Go Play Outside! Nature is our living classroom and the best place to explore our connection to nature is in the great outdoors!

Check out my channel at YouTube.com/morinatura to a see video of the earth stars in their outdoors, living classroom. 

You can contact Jessy Jane for consultation regarding outdoors programs at jessyjane2008@gmail.com (707)889-3898 and you can follow her on her instagram handle @wildhome_freeplanet

This 16th episode of the Positive Fantastic is brought to you on the new moon. Consider all the ways that nature is our living classroom and get outside to celebrate our connection to nature. Listen to the podcast episode outside while you’re on a walk. Pause to appreciate the beauty that you discover. Cheers and may your journeying be fantastic.