Earthroots Field School’s Jodi Levine helps children up a bank after checking out a creek on Tuesday, June 11, 2024. (Allen J. Schaben/Los Angeles Times/TNS)
Jodi Levine, executive director of Earthroots Field School, helps a summer camp attendee make a nest in Silverado Canyon on Tuesday, June 11, 2024. (Allen J. Schaben/Los Angeles Times/TNS)
Zoli, 4, plays with yarn and sticks at Arroyo Nature School in South Pasadena on July 16, 2024. (Christina House/Los Angeles Times/TNS)
Children play beneath the trees on a warm summer day at Arroyo Nature School in South Pasadena on July 16, 2024. (Christina House/Los Angeles Times/TNS)
Youngsters use artificial eggs and natural materials to create nests during forest kindergarten summer camp at Earthroots Field School in Silverado Canyon on Tuesday, June 11, 2024. (Allen J. Schaben/Los Angeles Times/TNS)
1 of 5
Earthroots Field School’s Jodi Levine helps children up a bank after checking out a creek on Tuesday, June 11, 2024. (Allen J. Schaben/Los Angeles Times/TNS)
A large number of programs are unlicensed and therefore unable to tap public funding, prompting criticism that they’re only accessible to wealthy families who can pay tuition, and the movement is contending with a stark lack of diversity that hasn’t meaningfully improved even as programs multiplied.
According to Alliance’s recent survey, white children made up 78% of the student bodies of nature preschools, compared with roughly 47% of the U.S population. Latino and Black children are underrepresented relative to the broader population. (Addressing racial disparities is top of mind for many nature educators, and this past year saw the creation of the
Lila Seidman | (TNS) Los Angeles Times
LOS ANGELES — On a glorious summer day, a preschooler named Roger teetered on rocks dotting a creek in eastern Orange County, unsure if he could make it back to where his classmates and caregivers were waiting.
A volunteer youth mentor with Earthroots Field School stuck out her hand, reassuring the 3-year-old, who grasped it and took one confident step toward her. Then another. “There we go!” someone called out as he cleared the burbling waterway.
Pushing edges — like learning to balance on rocks without a parent swooping in — is a central tenet of nature-based education, according to Angela Capps, a teacher at the school, one of a rapidly growing number of early education providers that are centered around the natural world.
Nature-based education — sometimes called forest schools, nature preschools or outdoor kindergartens — is based on a straightforward premise: “that it’s really good to have kids outdoors a goodly chunk of their day,” said David Sobel, professor emeritus at Antioch University New England and author of “ Beyond Ecophobia: Reclaiming the Heart in Nature Education.”
Indeed, researchers have found nature-based learning supports creativity, resiliency, executive function, school readiness and a host of other benefits for the body and mind.
Scandinavia-originated forest schools arrived in the U.S. in the 1960s and are part of the broader nature-based education movement. In recent years, the concept has exploded amid worries about children getting lost in the virtual world and the country’s youth mental health crisis. The pandemic turbocharged the trend, as schools closed and parents sought safe learning environments for their preschoolers.
As of the last school year, there were about 800 nature preschools in the U.S., a 200% increase since 2017, according to a survey by the nonprofit Natural Start Alliance, which supports access to nature-based early childhood education. California is among the top three states with the highest number of schools, which primarily serve children ages 3 to 5.
Proponents say children immersed in nature are happier and healthier — and may be poised to become the next generation of climate warriors. An early connection to nature can plant the seeds for its stewardship.
“We only protect that which we love,” said Lia Grippo, president of the California Assn. of Forest Schools. “If we want children to grow into adults who can carry the burdens, honestly, we and previous generations have created for them, then they have to be in love with the land they live on.”
While the movement is suffused with optimism — as growth shows no sign of slowing down — there are challenges.
Earthroots Field School’s Jodi Levine helps children up a bank after checking out a creek on Tuesday, June 11, 2024. (Allen J. Schaben/Los Angeles Times/TNS)
Jodi Levine, executive director of Earthroots Field School, helps a summer camp attendee make a nest in Silverado Canyon on Tuesday, June 11, 2024. (Allen J. Schaben/Los Angeles Times/TNS)
Zoli, 4, plays with yarn and sticks at Arroyo Nature School in South Pasadena on July 16, 2024. (Christina …read more
In one of the most surprising developments of the early season, Arizona State faces a major trap game this week at Texas State. Bad teams don’t encounter trap games. They are the trap. But for the first time in three years, the Sun Devils aren’t a bad team. That doesn’t necessarily mean they’re good — […]
FREMONT — The spotting of a single mated female Mediterranean fruit fly has sent 71 square miles of southern Alameda County into a quarantine as officials focus on eradicating the invasive pest, the California Department of Food and Agriculture’s Plant Health and Pest Prevention Services Division announced Friday. Residents and any growers, wholesalers and retailers of […]
UNLV would not be “structurally” tied to Nevada in the event the Pac-12 offers membership to the Rebels during the second wave of its expansion phase, according to a member of the Nevada Board of Regents whose comments contradict the public sentiment following a major shakeup in college sports on the West Coast. Immediately after […]
