What Is Rooted?
Rooted provides children with an opportunity to spend abundant time in nature. Coupled with children's literature, fables and storytelling, Rooted will help create resilient children who are life-long learners. Rooted will nurture children's hope for our world through a love and connection to themselves, their community and the natural world. Being a place-based nature-connection program, children are supported in critical thinking, creativity, and problem solving in their child-led, open-ended play. We learn together through inquiry, exploration, and wonder.
Our program is centered on outdoor play and exploration, with a focus on allowing the children to follow their natural interests and curiosities. Our place-based curriculum is tailored to be aligned with the changing seasons, helping children deepen their relationship to and awareness of their environment.
It is our belief that nature-play and exploration is foundational to healthy early childhood development, and to the mental, emotional, physical, and spiritual well-being of children. Our program holds high the importance of natural play. Play is a child’s work and is the unfolding of the natural way for children to learn. We believe children learn best when allowed to be guided by their natural interests. The educators serve as a support to the children in discovering interests and as a “co-learner” through their discoveries.
What are the Benefits of Nature-based Education?
Cognitive
- At Rooted children constantly get to work on the following skills: concentration, observation, exploration, building, sorting, experimenting and collecting. In the context of free play, children become deeply immersed in what they are doing instead of feeling as if they have to be doing these things.
- Studies have shown that children learn best while being active: moving, dancing, singing and playing, all of which are encouraged at Rooted
- According to studies done in Germany, children who participate in nature/forest schools have a better sense of problem solving and critical thinking than their peers from more traditional preschools when beginning formal schooling because of the teaching and learning style of nature/forest schools.
Social-Emotional
- Unstructured free play in nature encourages socialization and teaches cooperation, negotiation, compromise and teamwork/team building.
- Children are allowed to work through real life problems and scenarios through free play. This gives them a chance to make sense of the world around them and allows them to work through any anxieties they may have.
- By having open spaces and removing traditional toys and replacing them with the items nature provides, the potential for conflict is reduced (but not eliminated) which encourages healthier social development.
- Children are taught to be kind and thoughtful towards all life through modeling by our staff, while also learning how to communicate and work with others.
- Children develop a sense of self through unstructured free play.
- Children become more grounded, more calm, more relaxed, and more focused after prolonged quality nature immersion.
- Children have a chance to engage in restorative attention, or soft focus, while immersed in nature, leading to a sense of calmness. This can also lead to a decrease in attention/focus issues.
- Nature immersion provides children a chance to be quiet and still which can lead to a peacefulness that is often lost in today’s chaotic world.
Motor Skills/Physical
- Due to the amount of physical activity a child receives at Rooted, they become adept at: digging, running, hiking, balancing, skipping, tumbling, jumping, climbing, carrying heavy and large objects, coordination, and navigating uneven natural terrain. All in all, children in nature immersion programs develop exceptional fine and gross motor skills.
- Studies have found children in nature immersion programs have stronger immune systems leading to fewer illnesses.
- By being active as a young child, children are less likely to become obese and are more likely to become active adults.
- Children develop a sense of how to take risks and what is safe versus unsafe due to all the physical activities they engage in.
- Time spent in nature has been proven to improve children’s vision by encouraging refocusing from near objects to far away objects and back.
Spiritual
- Nature immersion encourages children to develop a sense of wonder and awe about the natural world.
- Children learn to see the beauty that exists all throughout the natural environment.
- By being exposed to nature as a place of calm during childhood, the children are able to grow up with an appreciation and love of nature and they are able to recognize nature as a place to be cherished and enjoyed.
In Summary
All and all, nature immersion allows children to be children. They are able to be loud and run around. They are also able to sit and be still and enjoy the peace and quiet provided by nature. The children are allowed to be themselves which is key to making them feel comfortable and maximizing their growth and development.
All of the above reasons are why we encourage you to allow your child to learn, grow, and BE a child in nature at Rooted in Nature!
About the Director
Rebecca DePue
As a child, I spent my days (with my sister) climbing trees, building bridges, getting lost for hours on hikes, and planning our someday-club house. We travelled a lot as a family and I developed a love for adventure, seeing beautiful sights, and in a word: Nature. I have made a point to pass on this love of adventure and thirst for wonder to my children. I see the peace that being in nature brings me and my children, and hope to give that realization of peace to others.
I am a New York State Certified Teacher, a Certified Forest School Teacher and Certified Forest School Director. I have taken countless nature classes and have continued to adventure, learn and be immersed in nature with my family.
