My Friends
Christian Child Care & Preschool
We were excited to celebrate 10 years of My Friends’ Nature Explore Classroom. It was the first of its kind in Minnesota. Now, a decade later, it’s great to see so many NECs across the state in a wide variety of settings! My Friends continues to welcome visitors who are curious to see how a NEC can be in a location like ours.
This past year, My Friends was a contributing program in a University of MN Duluth study, “Flourishing in Winter” by Emily K. Johnson, Master of Environmental Education Program, and Julie Ernst, PhD, Professor of Childhood Nature Studies. There are SO MANY developmental benefits for young children in a NEC!
My Friends is proud to provide the wonderful outdoor classroom experience to the children enrolled in the program. It is also important to Natalie that she is able to support children beyond her program through interactions with other Early Childhood Education professionals and the adults who are important in the lives of children.
The children plant a garden each spring. Last summer the squirrels enjoyed the works of their labor before the children had a chance to pick their vegetables. In hopes of the planted produce growing, being harvested, and eaten instead of stollen by squirrels, a new garden topper was built and placed on the garden. Under the topper grows a variety of tomato plants, sweet peppers, lettuce, and sugar snap peas.
NEC areas invite hours of child-directed play and discovery! Children work together in Dirt Digging. They collect water, leaves, and pinecones with a friend, for a recipe in the Mud Kitchen. The Messy Play area, under a canopy of evergreens, invites both quiet and active pretend scenarios. Children might paint the Boat with water or use bright colors at the Easel, then create nature patterns in the Art Area. Whether the children are running, riding trikes in the open Yard of grass, reading books in the Playhouse or examining a dragonfly up-close, they are getting dirty knees while developing important life long skills. It is uninterrupted time in the NEC where their brain pathways for critical thinking form. That kind of development doesn’t happen inside, during adult-directed activities that move children from one to the next.
Children thrive when they are given the time and freedom to be children, to engage, to explore, to experiment, and to excel at their own pace.
Learn more about this classroom on their certification page!
