How Learning Happens in a Nature-based Christian Environment

The nature play areas are so much more engaging, and children will spend up to 60% of their time outdoors at various learning centers designed to appeal to their natural curiosity. Each area is created to help develop specific skills in your child. This can include gross and fine motor development, problem-solving skills, imagination, social and emotional development involving collaborative play, to name a few. All play is tied directly into God’s wonderful creation.

What Children Do

Explore a rich learning environment based on what is most interesting to the child. Talk about their discoveries with their peers and teachers. Try out their ideas to problem-solve and figure out solutions for their questions.

Choosing their own task or activity, from the activity centers created for them, allows children to feel more relaxed and at ease with their accomplishments, thus building greater self-confidence. In addition, child-led learning also helps children build strong social skills. When they feel confident with their skills, they are more likely to engage in play with others. But perhaps the most important benefit of child-led learning is its ability to promote a love of learning among children. Since the children are selecting activities that interest them, instead of being told what to do by the teacher, there is less resistance to learning.

What Teachers Do

Teachers scaffold learning by providing supportive questions and prompts that align with learning objectives and are sensitive to students’ strengths and weaknesses. The back-and-forth discussions are standards-based, follow children’s cues, and provide students with necessary supports to accomplish a task. Prior learning is necessary to build upon the development of critical thinking skills in order to develop an ability to learn and think independently based on a child’s interests and motivation. New learning occurs slightly above what a child can do themselves (zone of proximal development). When a skill is learned, the support can be reduced, then removed, once mastered. Probing questions, hints or suggestions from teachers provide language for a child to consider. When teachers add to or expand a child’s own language, the child can better make sense of the world around them.

Most of all, the teacher shares Jesus with the students as opportunities naturally present themselves throughout the day in addition to the Bible stories regularly shared at story time. Sharing the good news of Jesus is part of the daily routine.