Nature Play IS Learning: Integrating Academics and Life Skills Through Regenerative Outdoor Education

Moving Beyond False Dichotomies in Early Childhood Development

Adults and parents navigating educational choices for their children often find themselves trapped in either/or thinking: "Should I choose a more academic program so my child is 'school ready'?" or "Maybe nature school can supplement my child's 'real' education a day or two per week."

These questions reflect the false dichotomies that have long plagued early childhood education—the assumption that we must choose between play-based discovery and intentional learning, between nature connection and academic preparation. As I've learned through my own journey from 2016's "Pilgrimage for Hope" to today's Mycelium Cooperative vision, regenerative education requires both/and thinking that honors complexity rather than forcing artificial choices.

Beyond the Tip of the Iceberg: What Really Matters for School Readiness

In my previous post, "School Readiness, Forest Schools and Rainbow Scarabs - Oh My!!!," I explored how current research through the Colorado Collective for Nature Based Early Education (CCNBEE) reveals a profound truth: by 3rd grade, 6th grade, 9th grade and beyond, children who attended nature-based preschools demonstrate superior "readiness" in the skills that actually matter for lifelong success.

These "below the tip of the iceberg" capacities include: broad vocabulary, interest in language, curiosity, persistence, attentiveness, incidental learning, drive to learn, predictability, memory, and self-control. The surface-level skills (letters, sounds, numbers) emerge naturally through emphasis on these deeper developmental foundations.

This aligns perfectly with the Triple Wellbeing® framework that guides our regenerative learning ecologies—integrating thinking, feeling, and connecting capacities with self-care,

people-care, and earth-care practices. When children develop these nine interconnected competencies through nature play, they're not just getting "school ready"—they're developing the resilience, awareness, and compassion needed for thriving in an uncertain world.

Dismantling False Dichotomies: Play AND Academics

Amanda Morgan, creator of "Not Just Cute," explains this beautifully in her "Why We Play Letters" work: "There's a long, worn-out battle about early childhood curriculum. Should it be play-based or academic-based? Should the early years be for playful discovery or intentional foundation building? The argument goes round and round with each camp accusing the other of missing the mark. In all this time spent vilifying the other side, it may have been overlooked that the two groups are actually arguing over a false dichotomy."

This resonates deeply with my understanding of regenerative education as lived practice. Just as we can't separate personal healing from community healing, or ecological restoration from social justice, we can't artificially divide play from learning. In our approach:

Nature and Regenerative Ecology are the subjects,

Play is the method,

Learning is the outcome.

The Ludic Process: Sophisticated Facilitation Through Play

My training in dynamic, complex facilitation recognizes that meaningful learning through play requires sophisticated pedagogical understanding. "The Ludic Process and Nature Play Cycle" reveals how effective facilitation moves fluidly between adult-led and student-led experiences, adult-initiated and student-initiated exploration.

This requires what I call "border crossing"—the ability to move between different ways of knowing while remaining responsive to children's emerging interests and developmental needs. It means recognizing when to step in with scaffolding and when to step back, allowing children's natural learning processes to unfold.

As someone who has navigated privilege responsibly in educational spaces, I understand that this kind of facilitation demands ongoing self-reflection about power dynamics, cultural assumptions, and whose voices are centered in learning environments.

Beyond "Cute": The Power of Nature Play

Many adults observing outdoor play might remark how "cute" it looks, missing the profound developmental work happening. Amanda Morgan's podcast "It's Not Just Cute" features guests like Megan Fitzgerald from Tinkergarten, emphasizing how nature play powerfully benefits all children's development, leading to happier, healthier individuals and communities.

This connects to broader movements for educational justice and ecological restoration. When we create nature-based learning environments accessible to all children—not just those whose families can afford private programs—we're building the foundation for communities that can address climate change, social inequality, and other challenges requiring both individual resilience and collective action.

The Eleven Characteristics: Play as Universal Learning Method

While it's well-known that young children learn through play, what's less recognized is how ALL characteristics of primary learners involve play within specific subjects and topics. EL Education's Characteristics of Primary Learners document references "play" 22 times—only 8 times in the "Young children learn through play" section, with the other 14 references showing how play serves as method within other essential developmental areas:

The Eleven Characteristics of Primary Learners:

1. Young children find security in rhythm, ritual, and repetition

2. Young children learn through play

3. Young children want to belong to safe, beautiful, good communities

4. Young children explore the world with wonder

5. Young children "understand" the world first through their bodies

6. Young children seek independence and mastery

7. Young children thrive in the natural world

8. Young children use stories to construct meaning

9. Young children seek patterns in the world around them

10. Young children construct their identities and build cultural bridges

11. Young children express themselves in complex ways

My training through EL Education (formerly Expeditionary Learning) provides routines, rituals, activities, and facilitation approaches that center these characteristics while using play to bring them all to life. This isn't accidental—it's intentional pedagogical design supporting neural development for lifelong success.

Regenerative Learning Ecologies in Practice

Through Mycelium Cooperative's integrated approach, we're demonstrating how nature-based education can simultaneously address academic development, social-emotional learning, ecological literacy, and justice education. Our Pay What You Can culture ensures these benefits reach all children, not just those from privileged backgrounds.

This represents what grows when something life-affirming emerges from the rubble of extractive educational systems. Rather than perpetuating the competition and standardization that have separated children by race and class, we're creating learning communities where diversity strengthens everyone's development.

From Individual Development to Collective Liberation

Understanding that children's learning happens within broader social and ecological contexts, our programs integrate awareness of local ecosystems, Indigenous sovereignty movements like the Buffalo Treaty, and community resilience building. Children exploring Rainbow Scarab ecology or singing songs in Māori aren't just developing individual skills—they're practicing the kind of cross-cultural, ecological thinking needed for addressing collective challenges.

This connects to my ongoing learning about using privilege responsibly in educational spaces. Creating truly integrated learning environments requires examining how dominant cultural assumptions shape what we consider "academic" or "rigorous," while centering approaches that honor diverse ways of knowing and being.

The Research Foundation

Extensive research supports nature-based approaches to early learning, from Stuart Brown's work on play's role in brain development to Richard Louv's documentation of nature connection benefits. David Sobel's research on preventing "ecophobia" shows how early positive nature experiences create lifelong environmental stewardship.

The NAEYC Position Statement on Developmentally Appropriate Practice consistently emphasizes play-based learning, while research from Vygotsky to contemporary neuroscience confirms that meaningful learning happens through active engagement rather than passive instruction.

Growing Alternatives: What's Possible

Through Outdoor Nature Based Preschools, K-8 Forest Schools, and Emergent Strategy Wildcraft Workshops for Adults, we explore perception, observation, interpretation, and reciprocity from human and more-than-human perspectives. This work embodies Joanna Macy's "Great Turning"—the shift from industrial growth society toward life-sustaining civilization.

Central to all age groups remains this understanding: Early Childhood is "not just cute, but powerful and incredibly important." When we honor children's natural learning processes while providing rich, complex content through nature connection, we're not choosing between play and academics—we're choosing integration over fragmentation, relationship over isolation, regeneration over extraction.

My blog posts serve diverse audiences—families, guardians, parents, practitioners, graduate students, and community adults—covering the "Tangled Bank" (Darwin's enduring metaphor) of interests, initiatives, and networks that weave together when we center justice, relationships, and regeneration in educational practice.

Through Outdoor Nature Based Preschools (ONB Preschools), Forest School for older grades K-8 and Emergent Strategy Wild-craft Workshops for Adults, we explore the perception, observation, interpretation and reciprocity of senses from human and non humans’ perspective. Central to the topics for all age groups is the concept that Early Childhood is “Not just cute, but powerful and incredibly important”.

References and Resources

Characteristics of Primary Learners: • EL Education - Characteristics of Primary Learners

Rhythm and Ritual: • Poole, C., Miller, S.A., and Church E.B. (2014). Ages & stages: How children develop a sense of time • Burton, R. (2011). The experience of time in the very young

Play Research: • Brown, S. (2009). Play: How it shapes the brain, opens the imagination, and invigorates the soul. Avery: New York • Ackerman, D. (1999). Deep play. New York: Vintage Books • NAEYC Developmentally Appropriate Practice Position Statement

Community and Belonging: • Bower, N. M. (2013) Adventure, play, peace: Insights and activities for social-emotional learning and community building with young children. Bethany, OK: Wood N Barnes Publishing • Howard, S. (2006). "What is Waldorf Early Childhood Education?" Gateways Fall/Winter. Waldorf Early Childhood Education Association

Wonder and Inquiry: • Early childhood building blocks: Turning curiosity into scientific inquiry • Chouinard MM. (2007). Children's questions: a mechanism for cognitive development. Monogr. Soc. Res. Child Dev, 72(1):vii-ix, 1-112

Embodied Learning: • Flanagan, J. (2009). Sensory processing disorder. Pediatric News • Montessori, M. (1948). The discovery of the child. Madras: Kalkshetra Publications Press

Natural World Connection: • Sobel, D. (1996). Beyond ecophobia: Reclaiming the heart in nature education. Great Barrington, MA: Orion Society • Louv, R. (2005). Last child in the woods: Saving our children from nature-deficit disorder. Chapel Hill, NC: Algonquin Books

Additional Key Resources: • Amanda Morgan - "Not Just Cute" • Tinkergarten • The Ludic Process and Nature Play Cycle