Natural Start Alliance

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Natural Start Alliance

A coalition of educators, parents, organizations, and others who want to help young children connect with nature and care for the environment.

At the Natural Start Alliance, we believe in great beginnings. We know that hands-on experiences in nature help build stronger, smarter, and happier children, and we believe that quality education for young children includes regular opportunities to connect with nature and the local environment. We also believe that as children learn to care for themselves and others, they also begin to learn to c

are for the world around them. Experiencing and learning about the environment in early childhood builds a foundation for lifelong environmental literacy.

08/13/2026

🌱 Proud moment for our network! The Baltimore Banner just spotlighted Atiya Wells, a member of our Black Educator Network, and the outdoor pre-K she's launching this fall at BLISS Meadows—a 10-acre nature oasis in Northeast Baltimore with a pond, orchard, farm animals, and 30 bee colonies. in Northeast Baltimore.

Wells is building one of Maryland's first licensed fully outdoor preschools with a pay-what-you-can model, so more children of color and low-income families aren't priced out of the benefits nature-based learning brings.

We're also proud to see Natural Start's national nature preschool survey data referenced in the piece! The article cites our findings that the number of nature-based programs more than tripled between 2017 and 2022, underscoring both the incredible growth of this field and the urgent need for it to become more inclusive and accessible.

Read the full story and learn about the work Atiya is doing to open up outdoor early learning to more Black and Brown children 👉️ bit.ly/BLISS-Meadows

08/12/2026

Nearly every early learning framework in Canada champions outdoor play, risk-taking, and land-based pedagogy. So why does licensing still prioritize fencing over pedagogy?

A new environmental scan from the Lawson Foundation looked across all 13 Canadian provinces and territories and found a stark "four-way disconnect" between what frameworks say and what regulations actually support — including the finding that only about 7% of post-secondary ECE programs include any outdoor or land-based coursework.

We can't replicate this exact scan across the US, but the patterns — the framework/regulation gap, the missing risk-benefit tools, the licensing barriers that shut outdoor programs out of funding — will feel familiar to anyone working on outdoor learning policy here too.

🔗 Full scan and jurisdiction-by-jurisdiction breakdown: bit.ly/CAN-Environmental-Scan

08/11/2026

🌿 Meet Simin, our new Grad Student Network Co-Lead!

Simin is a doctoral student in Child Development and Early Childhood Education at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln, researching how children's interactions with nature shape their self-concept and environmental identity. She's also a Graduate Research Assistant with UNL's LEAF initiative, helping early childhood centers across Nebraska create and use nature-rich learning environments.

Simin's path into this field started in Iran, where she co-founded and served as executive director of Kavikonj — the country's first nature school. Her work is driven by a deep belief in the role nature plays in shaping who children become, and a commitment to ensuring every child has equitable, everyday access to the natural world.

She's looking forward to connecting with fellow grad students exploring children-nature research — welcome, Simin! 🍃

08/06/2026

📣Call for Children's Nature Art!! Submissions due tomorrow, Aug 7! 🌿

The Hechinger Report is producing a special printed edition for attendees at the upcoming National Association for the Education of Young Children convention in Washington, D.C., and Natural Start would LOVE to see some nature-based/inspired children's artwork featured 🤩

Chosen artists (aged 8 and under) will receive copies of the paper as well as have their work included in the entire print run that will be shared nationally. The paper will be distributed at the NAEYC conference and other events.

Learn more and submit at bit.ly/Childrens-Nature-Art

08/03/2026

Climate change is showing up in nature-based programs, requiring staff and families to navigate unhealthy air quality, extreme heat, flooding, and other significant climate impacts. Yet few resources or frameworks speak directly to the unique challenges for nature-based practice.

To meet this moment, Natural Start is hosting a Climate Impact Forum on Monday, August 10 at Noon ET/9 AM PT.

Facilitated by Claire Underwood of the University of Minnesota Duluth and Kit Harrington, Deputy Director of Early Learning Policy at Natural Start, this forum for outdoor, nature-based educators, administrators, and providers will create space to process, share needs, and build toward climate-responsive practices and policies together.

🔗Registration required: bit.ly/NS-ClimateForum

07/27/2026

In this Community Playthings article published in 2023, Julie Bookwalter and Veronika Vicqueneau account a group of school-age boys with persistent, escalating behavioral challenges and what happened when they were given unstructured time in an overgrown field of branches and tree stumps.

While the story is a few years old, the takeaway message remains relevant – unstructured and uninterrupted time in nature has an incomparable power to support children in their growth and development.

Read the article at bit.ly/StumpPile to discover how the natural environment can be a catalyst for regulation, cooperation, and learning.

07/20/2026

In partnership with The Cedarsong Way and Mountain Sprouts Children's Community, Leavenworth, WA, Nicole Corbo of Roots & Sky Nature-Based Learning is co-facilitating an in-person teacher training for Outdoor Nature-Based Learning & Forest Kindergarten Certification, August 10–14, 2026.

The Cedarsong Way® Nature Pedagogy is distinguished by a commitment to significant outdoor time and complete nature immersion, allowing for unstructured flow learning and authentic play. This approach to outdoor learning relies on an interest-led emergent curriculum, place-based focus, an inquiry-based teaching style, and active documentation of learning.

This training is primarily for educators & admins supporting learners from Preschool through 3rd grade; however, this pedagogy can be implemented with learners of any age. It’s also ideal for instructors in higher education who support pre-service teachers. Expect in-depth topic discussions & workshops, experiential explorations, direct observation of pedagogy implementation, plus hands-on practicum opportunities & reflection sessions. WA state educators earn 30 STARS hours, which count toward the required 30 hours or 3 credits of specialized nature-based education training for licensed ONB programs in WA state.

Questions? Email: [email protected]
Learn More & Register: https://rootsandskylearning.org/cedarsong-teacher-training

07/17/2026

The next virtual quarterly Black Educators Network meeting is coming up next week on Thursday, July 23 at 6:30 PM ET!

Whether you're a Black educator and are new to the field of nature-based early learning, or a seasoned leader, join us for an hour of connection, resource-sharing, and announcements and updates pertaining to the momentum and expansion of this incredible network.

Visit bit.ly/BEN-Q3Meeting to add the meeting to your calendar and access the Zoom meeting link

To learn more about the Black Educators Network, visit bit.ly/NS-BEN

07/16/2026

Nature-based early learning environments offer abundant potential to support neurodivergent children—through sensory richness, child-led pacing, and flexible, diverse learning spaces—yet these connections remain largely invisible in neuroinclusive pedagogy literature.

📖 Neuroinclusive Pedagogy and the Transformation of Educational Systems (Cambridge University Press, 2027) is an upcoming publication working to bridge that gap—through real classroom stories from real educators.

Co-editors Jane Piselli and Samantha Friedman want YOUR story: that one child, that one shift, that one thing you tried that changed how you teach. Not academic papers—living moments of neuroinclusive education from inside the classroom.

📅 Submissions open through August 31 (sooner is better!)
✍️ Learn more & submit: bit.ly/NeuroinclusiveClassroomStories
❓ Questions: [email protected] or [email protected]

07/15/2026

The NatStart26 in San Antonio Survey results are in, and we are so overjoyed by the overwhelmingly positive feedback received. 💚

Your gratitude is entirely appreciated, but it's really us—the Natural Start Alliance team—who is most thankful for the honorable work you all do toward advancing quality and accessible nature-based early childhood learning opportunities for ALL. This network exists because of your care and dedication–so thank you!!! 👏

And congratulations to our two survey raffle winners, Paul and Tara! 🥳 They each received a sponsor-donated $100 gift certificate to Acorn Naturalists' online shop 💸

We can't wait to gather in community again! Stay tuned... ✨️

Address

Washington D.C., DC

Telephone

+12024190412

Website

http://www.naturalstart.org/

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