“Just as children need good nutrition and adequate sleep they need contact with nature.”
-Andrea Faber Taylor and Frances Kuo
Forest Schools for Illinois is a grassroots initiative to empower state agencies to create licensing standards for outdoor nature-based early learning programs. If you would like to help, please share our video, donate, or join our mailing list. Thank you!
Nature play builds physical health, reduces stress, powers socioemotional development, nourishes cognitive development, enhances creativity, enables confidence and resilience, develops self-regulation skills, reduces undesirable behaviors, nourishes positive relationships, and allows children to learn to assess risks independently.
Outdoor access is distributed unfairly. According to census data, ¾ of low income kids and kids of color live in areas without easy access to greenspace.
This inequity can be healed at a systems level by implementing supportive policies to remove barriers. Most children spend most of their time in daycare centers. The benefits of spending time outdoors should not be out of reach for any child. For many children, time spent outside in a licensed facility might be their first and only consistent outdoor experience. Every child in licensed care should have access to nature every day.
Our early learning system is in a moment of tremendous need and unprecedented investment. We have a once-in-a-generation opportunity to re envision our early childhood centers. What if we choose to support outdoor learning and nature play?
The Illinois Department of Children and Family Services has a unique opportunity to ensure equitable daily access to nature for every child by expanding daycare licensing criteria to include standards for outdoor learning environments.