The Nature Explore Classroom at

I started in 1989 and have grown in many ways in the last 33 years, but the most I am proud of is our outdoor time. I have always spent a lot of time outside with my childcare children for obvious reasons. When COVID hit, I remained opened and decided for the safety of the children that were attending we would try to spend our days outside as much as we could.

I had wanted to apply for Nature Explore certification earlier but was not convinced that I would be accepted as we were outside but I did not believe it was enough for this honor. We are now outside most of our day, even napping outside. This year I even invested in outdoor cots for the children and they love it!!

We keep adding items like tunnels to crawl through or sit in and read, tires to climb, a water pump, spray bottles and water dispensers for water play. We do lots of messy art outside on our CREATE table. We have also embraced bringing the indoors out. We love magnet play on the garage door, playdough, block play and bring the babies outside.

Thank you! The Nature Explore Certification program has pushed me to view our outdoor classroom in so many new ways.

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Oshkosh, WI