Playin’ in the mud! That’s what I did growing up! Mud, a sandbox, a playhouse, and the cherry tree to climb are my memories of the past. Today, it seems that our children do not have time for these activities anymore. Being clean, watching TV, and spending time at the computer seem to have a higher priority.

So, we decided to do something about it! KinderNature was created to help early childcare educators, care givers, and parents to incorporate nature in their curriculums and lives. All the activities were reviewed for age appropriateness and the multiple intelligences. Representatives from the Iowa Association for the Education of Young Child, child caregiver, preschool educator, and kindergarten educator made up our advisory team.

"The years of early childhood are the time to prepare the soil," Rachel Carson said in her book, A Sense of Wonder. We are providing activities and ideas to do just that!

Our long-term goal is to have a website targeting preschool teachers and child care staff, to assist in learning , developing, and implementing a well-balanced environmental education (EE) preschool program.  The intent is for childcare providers to have developmentally appropriate programs which incorporates a variety of learning styles and stimulates within the child an excitement for learning.  Environmental preschool programs can spark an environmental awareness and lay a solid foundation for the school-age environmental education building blocks that result in adults having the ability to make sound environmental decisions.  

We want to hear from YOU!

We also encourage early childhood educators to send “nature/science” activities that have worked in your classroom or at home to us at lzaletel@storycounty.com.  We’ll review them and give you credit on the website. 

We hope you will check out our links page, too.  There are many exciting sites!