Wonder and Wisdom in a Children’s Forest Nature Program

Time in nature can give children an essential connection to nature and healthy risk-taking

Children in forest nature programs experience tremendous social, emotional and physical benefits from playing outdoors. Luke Brugger/Unsplash

On a windy autumn morning, children dressed in colorful woolly hats and mittens sing a greeting to the Earth near a towering 150-year-old willow tree.

Children notice how the wind and sun play with the tree. They wonder what is happening inside; they offer sticks for the tree to eat and investigate the inside cracked open after a wind storm.