At this conference we will explore promising practices in nature-based early childhood education. I will be presenting the workshop Supporting the Development of Executive Function through Outdoor Games.
Author David Sobel will give a presentation based on his new book, “Best Bike Rides in New England,” in this Zoom webinar. Sobel will reveal some of his favorite rides, discuss the variables he uses when designing a ride, explain how to design rides using online tools like “Map My Ride” or “Strava,” advocate for incorporating bike riding 3-5 times a week into your personal wellness goals, and suggest a great ride in or around your community.
David Sobel (Antioch University), academic and educator, the author of world-known books like “Childhood and Nature: Design Principles for Educators” or “Place-Based Education”, has accepted our invitation for WEEC. In his speech “Why 21st Century Children Need Nature”, he will review some of the research on why nature is good for children and will provide examples of how families, schools, and communities are re-introducing children to the natural world. Learn more here.
David will give the keynote at this event titled, “The Sky Above and the Mud Below: Lessons from Nature Preschools and Forest Kindergartens.” Learn more here.
David will facilitate the What Have We Learned from the Pandemic about Outdoor Learning panel. Learn more here.
Come to the Juniper Hill School barn, at 180 Golden Ridge Road in Alna, Maine, on Thursday, Nov. 14 at 7:30 p.m. for “Why 21st Century Children Need Nature,” a free community talk with David Sobel. Sobel is the author of eight books and more than 70 articles on children and nature, and Professor Emeritus at Antioch University. David Sobel raised his children in the heart of nature and lectures widely to show “other parents how they can counter today’s pervasive ‘nature deficit.’”
8 a.m.- 4:30 p.m., Friday, November 1, 2019
David Sobel will be giving a keynote on place-based education. He will also be facilitating a Principal’s Symposium on Whole School Nature/Place-based Education. More information on the conference is forthcoming. Contact Christina Wild at christina@uvtpc.org for additional details.
A course in the Nature-based Early Childhood Certificate program at Antioch University New England in Keene, NH. Available as an individual course for audit or credit for interested students not enrolled in the Certificate program.
9 a.m. – 5 p.m., September 14-15, 2019
Faculty: Ellen Doris and David Sobel
The best forest kindergarten and nature-based preschool teachers are knowledgeable about young children and local natural history. This course will focus on learning the natural history of northern New England that most directly relates to being outdoors with children. Wildflowers, fungi, bugs and tadpoles are some of the topics considered, along with nature art, tracking, wild edibles, and using children's literature as a vehicle to nature exploration. Seasonal events of autumn will serve as a model for how to discover nature’s surprises at any time of year. We’ll be outside regardless of the weather, and discuss ways to keep children engaged under cold and/or wet conditions.
For registration information: contact Sarah Wilson in the Admissions Office at admissions.ane@antioch.edu, 800-552-8380.
David will offer a Keynote on “A Sense of Place Education for the Elementary Years” and other workshops on mapmaking with children. The conference theme is Geography: Feeding the Mind and Nourishing the Imagination.
Click here to read full conference information.
David will be offering a morning workshop on Childhood and Nature: Design Principles for Educators, 10:30-noon. Click here to read the conference brochure.
When David Sobel’s children, Tara and Eli, were toddlers, he set out to integrate a wide range of nature experiences into their family life, play, and storytelling. Blending his passion as a parent with his professional expertise, he created adventures tailored to their developmental stages: cultivating empathy with animals in early childhood, exploring the woods in middle childhood, and devising rites of passage in adolescence. Sobel weaves together parenting experiences, stories he told his children and developmental theory to present a model of healthy parenting in concert with the natural world.
Richard Louv’s Last Child in the Woods identified the urgent problem of “nature deficit” in today’s children, sounding the alarm for parents, educators, and policymakers. Wild Play is a hopeful response.
David is co-ordinator of this conference. Click here to read the conference brochure.
15 March 7:00-8:15 p.m.
Keynote: Why 21st Century Children Need Nature: Nature Preschools and Forest Kindergartens
The original kindergarten — the children’s garden —conceived by German educator Friedrich Froebel in the 19th century, was a place where children learned through play, often in nature. That idea is fast eroding. Children aren’t playing in the garden anymore; instead they’re filling in bubbles on worksheets. The new movement of nature-based early childhood education can reverse that trend. There are thousands of forest kindergartens throughout Europe and new programs opening every month in North America. Let’s examine the promise of this healthy approach towards living and learning outdoors with young children.
16 March 9:15-10:30 a.m.
Workshop: Childhood and Nature: Design Principles for Educators
When children have access to free play in natural areas, they do the same things, around the country and around the world. They make special places, go on adventures, develop fantasy games, go hunting and gathering, craft small worlds. These recurrent play patterns can be used as design principles to help structure compelling outdoor activities with children, and these engagements can lead to environmental values and behaviors in adulthood. We’ll recollect some of our own significant experiences from childhood. Then we’ll explore the nearby environment using some of these recurrent play motifs and design appropriate activities for young children.
