We will have 30 minute of guided activity followed by 30 minutes to an hour of child-lead engagement. Parents, please plan to accompany your child during this program. This event is at Seabranch Preserve State Park. Please use this link to sign up for this free event: https://forms.gle/RoonQwBZQwiGtwaB8

We are delighted to share with families in our community a program that invites children to grow closer to the natural world through play, discovery, and wonder. For many children today, the classroom is often where their first lessons about nature begin, but this is removed from offering the visceral experience that a felt familiarity requires. A wholehearted connection with the land, achieved by climbing under tree branches, dipping finger tips into the shoreline, and listening to the wind move through the leaves, allows children to bond with nature through their own hands, hearts, and senses. For the youngest, it may be gentle sensory walks with a caregiver; for older children, roaming explorations, child-led play, and wildlife encounters with friends; and for teens, mentorship and conservation projects that promote responsibility and belonging. To raise future caretakers of the wild around us, we must first nurture their sense of wonder, joy, and connection with the living world. In the simplest moments outdoors, children and their families can begin a kinship with the living world that carries into the future.