The Art of Play Early Learning Center

 

With the support of my wonderful husband (Dusty if you are reading this know that I appreciate all you have done to make my dreams come true), family, friends, and the very generous grants and resources from the PA Keys and PennAEYC, I have been able to take my passion and respect for early childhood and create a program that allows children to thrive through authentic and meaningful experiences. My program is a Reggio Emilia based preschool that is child inspired following the emergent curriculum philosophy of teaching and learning.

The summer of 2025 will mark 25 years in the field of early childhood education and the 17 year
anniversary of The Art of Play. The program is accredited holding a STAR 4 rating with Keystone STARS. As an educator, I hold both a Bachelors and Master of Education in Early Childhood Education from Liberty University along with my Pennsylvania state teaching license for Nursery/ Kindergarten.

I have a deep passion for the outdoors and the positive impact it has on children. I began my journey to create an outdoor classroom when I began seeing the benefits first hand as a teacher and decided to embrace the teaching practices from Finland, Sweden, and Norway and follow their saying “There is no such thing as bad weather, just bad clothing”. Once I was able to fully engage in nature with the children, I knew that I had to do as much as I could to bring learning outside.

Creating a Nature Explore Classroom not only became a passion for me as a teacher but also a desire as a parent. I have four boys; Hunter, Ryder, Archer, and Walker who (like all children) were naturally drawn to the outdoors. It became my mission before they were born to give them an early childhood experience that would foster their growth and development, but once I saw their fascination with nature it became my new mission to be able to foster that growth in the outdoors with the most authentic and child lead environment I could.

 

Learn more about this classroom on their certification page!