My previous role as an outdoor educator showed me the immense power of nature connection in the lives of children. I witnessed incredible transformations in children who were struggling in the conventional school system, or with regulating their emotions. I wanted to offer a program to my community that inspires kids and their parents to step into their curiosity and spend time in the natural world. I planned for this event by reviewing previous lesson plans that I had made for past programs and I chose the activities that would best suit the time frame and location.
Five families participated in my project. None of the families had met each other before, but they all lived relatively close by! They left making plans to meet each other again. One of the activities was a local scavenger hunt, and they decided to keep the sheets so that they could meet up and do the activity with each other again.
The best three things that happened during this project were the opportunity to sing songs with other people in the community, to watch the excitement and wonder on the children’s faces as they discovered new bugs or smelled pretty flowers, and to spend the day laughing, crafting, and playing games, even for the adults, seemed like much needed medicine!
