Category Archives: Sensory Diets

Botanical Literacy

Recently Daniel and Fay had the privilege of attending and presenting at the Early Childhood Education State Conference in Perth. Surrounded by like-minded presenters and attendees, they had the opportunity to sit in on some presentations about the importance of play and connection to nature. One of these presentations was facilitated by Kimberly Beasley, an…

When We Find Comfort in Nature – A Class Story

Blog by Tamara Johnston and Trudi Bennett The Children in Nature Network (started by Richard Louv, author of Last Child in the Woods) is celebrating 15 years of the children in nature movement. Richard Louv introduced the world to the term Nature-Deficit Disorder. “Nature-deficit disorder describes the human cost of alienation from nature, among them;…

Building Resilience in Children

When Trudi and I started Educated by Nature, one of our main goals was to create environments and experiences where children could find opportunities for building resilience. We found, through our experiences as teachers, we had seen the rapid decline in resilience, self-efficacy and awareness in children of all ages in our communities. Today, more than…

Adult Nature Connection

 Feeling at Home in Nature What does nature connection mean to you? For me it means feeling ‘at home’ outdoors. Feeling comfortable, feeling safe, that I belong. Comfortable to sit on the dirt, in the leaf litter, on the rock. Safe enough to lie back, close my eyes and relax. But also with a keen…

A New Clay Experience

We’ve had clay at our Mud Pies Nature Playgroup in Perth for a while now. It’s been a fantastic sensory experience. It’s slippery, sloshy and squelchy sometimes and other times it is solid and firm requiring strong finger muscles to manipulate it. Perth is such a sandy place that our young children rarely get to…