How to Create a Nature-Based Home Daycare

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Nature-based home daycare is centered around outdoor play, curiosity-driven discovery, and environmental awareness. It’s a great choice when running a home daycare.

Creating a nature-based home daycare is a beautiful and enriching way to teach children through hands-on experiences that foster a connection with the natural world. For home daycare providers, shifting to this model doesn’t require expensive resources or a complete overhaul, just a willingness to slow down, spend time outside, and embrace the learning opportunities nature offers every day.

You don’t have to do it all at once. We changed a few things over time, and you can too. A nature-based home daycare can boost children’s physical health, social skills, problem-solving abilities, and emotional well-being while giving providers a more joyful, peaceful teaching environment.

Why Choose a Nature-Based Daycare Model

Nature-based education supports holistic development in young children by allowing them to learn through play and exploration. Outdoor time has been shown to reduce stress, improve focus, and build resilience. Kids who regularly interact with natural elements like trees, soil, rocks, and water develop strong sensory processing skills and are often more confident in navigating challenges.

In a world filled with screens, nature-based learning offers balance. It supports early childhood development in organic ways while teaching sustainability and stewardship. For home daycare providers, it also provides a less cluttered, more flexible learning space and a daily routine that aligns with the rhythms of the seasons.

How to Prepare Your Outdoor Space for Learning

You don’t need acres of land to create a nature-based learning environment. Start by assessing your current outdoor space and how you can make it more interactive. Section off areas for different types of play such as quiet nature observation, active gross motor play, messy sensory exploration, and gardening.

Use natural materials like logs, stumps, and rocks to create seating or climbing features. Set up a mud kitchen using old pots, pans, and spoons for children to explore textures and practice pretend play. Add planters or garden beds for growing food or flowers. Offer sand and water play areas for creative, open-ended activities.

Include baskets, bins, or shelves with nature tools like magnifying glasses, bug catchers, chalk, clipboards, and nature journals. Create shade with tarps, umbrellas, or trees, and provide blankets or rugs for sitting comfortably on the ground. Allow the space to be ever-changing and imperfect. Real nature isn’t sterile or static.

Bringing Nature Indoors When Needed

Even in a nature-based daycare, there will be times when weather or circumstances call for being indoors. Bring nature inside by decorating with natural elements like houseplants, stones, pinecones, and wooden toys.

Use neutral tones and soft lighting to maintain a calm, earthy atmosphere. Display seasonal items on a nature table where children can explore textures, colors, and changes throughout the year. Keep nature books and field guides available for browsing.

Encourage children to build with natural blocks or sort materials like shells, acorns, and leaves. Use indoor time to process outdoor discoveries through art, storytelling, or journaling. Rainy days can also be a time to create bird feeders, start seedlings for the garden, or learn about local wildlife through videos and books. The key is to keep the natural world at the center of your environment, even when you’re inside.

Planning a Daily Rhythm Around Nature

Consistency is essential in early childhood education, and a daily rhythm rooted in outdoor time provides structure without rigidity. Start the day with a circle time outside, greeting the sun, noticing the weather, and sharing a seasonal song or fingerplay.

Let children have free outdoor play. Maybe you could offer a shared snack at a picnic table or blanket. Plan a short guided activity like a nature walk, scavenger hunt, or gardening project.

Spend time outdoors for quiet exploration or reading. Base your rhythm on the seasons, longer outdoor mornings in spring and fall, cooler play times in the early hours during hot summer months, and cozy indoor activities tied to nature in the winter. Allow transitions to be smooth and flexible, giving children time to move at their own pace.

Using Nature to Teach Early Learning Concepts

Nature is a rich and engaging setting for teaching literacy, math, science, and social-emotional development. In literacy, you can tell stories using natural props, write names in the dirt with sticks, or encourage children to journal their observations. In math, count petals, measure sticks, sort rocks by size, or create patterns with leaves.

Science is everywhere. Observe life cycles in the garden, explore habitats, and investigate insects or birds. Use nature to model compassion and connection, such as caring for plants, respecting living creatures, and learning about how the earth provides for us.

Emotional development is supported through quiet observation, risky play, and the sense of peace that being in nature brings. Problem-solving comes alive when children work together to build forts, cross a log bridge, or rescue a worm after a rain.

Incorporating Gardening into Your Daycare Program

Gardening is one of the most rewarding ways to connect kids with nature. Even in a small yard, you can grow herbs in pots, plant vegetables in raised beds, or create a butterfly garden. Involve children in every step, from turning soil and planting seeds to watering, weeding, harvesting, and tasting.

It doesn’t take long for kids to pick up on every part of gardening and fall in love with it. Outside of picking weeds (they aren’t consistent with that), kids do all the planting, tons of watching, and most of the harvesting in our garden. I will harvest on the weekend if it needs to be done.

We’ve had our preschool garden for about 14 years and every child learns from it, including me! There are a few modifications if your kids are very young, but you can still do it with even one year olds. School agers love it and it gives them more to do and explore. The garden is the best teacher there is!

Gardening teaches patience, responsibility, cause and effect, and gratitude. Let kids get dirty, notice the bugs, and feel the textures of the leaves. Label plants so children begin to recognize their names and shapes.

Use harvests for cooking together or sending home with families. Celebrate garden milestones with little ceremonies, first sprouts, first flower, first ripe tomato. Over time, children learn where food comes from and how to work with the earth to make things grow.

Making Seasonal Changes Part of Your Curriculum

One of the best parts of nature-based education is the opportunity to truly observe and celebrate the seasons. Each season brings unique colors, smells, sounds, and experiences. In spring, plant seeds and observe the first buds. In summer, explore water play, sunshine, and insect life. In fall, collect leaves, make apple prints, and learn about migration. In winter, bundle up for chilly walks, make bird feeders, and explore frost or ice.

Build your themes around what children are experiencing in the moment, this helps them feel connected to the world and grounded in their environment. Let the children’s questions and discoveries guide your activities, keeping your plans flexible and responsive.

Nature-Based Art and Sensory Activities

Natural materials make wonderful art supplies. Offer sticks for painting, leaves for rubbing, and flowers for stamping. Mix mud or clay with water and let children shape, squish, and build. Create nature mandalas with seeds, stones, petals, and pinecones. Make these nature wands.

Use frozen flower ice cubes for summer painting or press blossoms into paper. Let kids collect items outdoors and use them for collage, sculpture, or sorting games. Sensory activities like digging in dirt, exploring wet sand, or walking barefoot on grass build brain connections and support emotional regulation. Embrace the mess, it’s all part of the experience.

Developing a Nature-Focused Library and Story Time

Books are powerful tools for reinforcing nature-based learning. I love to start every lesson plan around a book, and nature studies are no different. Curate a collection of nature-themed picture books, field guides, and seasonal stories.

Read books outside under a tree or next to a garden bed. Choose stories that reflect what the children are observing, such as rain, worms, growing vegetables, animal families, changing leaves.

Some of our favorites are:

• The Very Hungry Caterpillar
• Growing Vegetable Soup
• The Grouchy Ladybug
• Planting a Rainbow
• Flower Garden

Include books with diverse characters and stories from around the world that highlight the global importance of caring for nature. Use story time to connect books to real-life activities.

After reading about birds, go on a birdwatching walk. After reading about seeds, plant some or germinate some with this activity. This strengthens comprehension and excitement for learning.

Involving Families in Your Nature-Based Program

Parent communication is key in a home daycare. Explain the philosophy behind your approach and how outdoor play supports learning and development. Share daily updates with photos of outdoor activities, garden progress, or nature finds.

Encourage families to send weather-appropriate clothing and let them know that getting dirty is part of the learning process. Invite parents to join in on nature walks, garden days, or seasonal celebrations. Send home nature journals or scavenger hunts they can do together.

Share book lists, simple nature crafts, or seasonal recipes to help families stay connected to your program’s values at home. This will expand children’s learning because they are supported at home as well.

Safety and Risk Management Outdoors

One common concern with nature-based programs is safety. While outdoor play always involves some level of risk, many of these risks are manageable and can help children build confidence and awareness. Set clear boundaries in your yard or play area.

Teach children to identify and respect plants, bugs, and terrain. Supervise carefully but allow space for children to try new things. Provide tools that are age-appropriate and model safe use.

Encourage climbing, lifting, and balancing within reason. Have a first aid kit handy and keep allergy information up to date. Rain and cold are not usually reasons to stay indoors. Just make sure children have proper gear.

There are limits, especially with heat in Oklahoma, but we still try to make it outside every day. We just go out early and have shade available and lots of water. Trusting children to explore helps them develop real-life skills.

Nature-Based Routines and Transitions

Infuse your daily transitions and routines with natural rhythms. Use songs about birds, wind, or trees to signal clean-up time. Mark time with a weather check, a garden visit, or a moment of stillness outdoors.

Let children help ring a chime or shake a rainstick to start circle time. Use transitions to slow down, breathe, and become more mindful. This teaches kids to move through the day with calm awareness rather than rushing from task to task. Anchor your day with nature-based rituals, such as gathering around a tree for morning greeting, singing a song to the sun at nap time, or saying goodbye to the garden each afternoon.

Each of these things can be fun and make play more meaningful. Here are 16 Educational Activities with Nature to give you more inspiration.

Budget-Friendly Tips for Nature-Based Daycares

Starting or transitioning to a nature-based program doesn’t require a fancy curriculum or expensive gear. Many of the best tools are free. Collect nature materials on walks, accept donations of garden tools or planters, and ask local nurseries for seed packets or plant clippings.

Use recyclables to build a mud kitchen or loose parts center. Visit thrift stores for boots, baskets, or natural fiber blankets. Swap toys for rocks, water, sand, and sticks. Borrow books from the library and use free online resources to plan seasonal activities.

One thing I always find amazing. I have a really small home. So kids cannot run around inside. I always say running is for outside. If you want to chase each other, wait until we get outside, scream and yell outside. But once we get out there, the sensory elements such as our pea gravel playground or the chirping of the birds immediately calms them and they don’t want to be rowdy, they want to explore. Being outdoors does wonders for everyone’s focus and mental health.

Focus on simplicity, creativity, and curiosity. Nature is the best teacher, and it doesn’t cost a thing. Try some of these nature activities and bug facts to help you get started. Or one of these lesson plans:

• Daycare Lesson Plans on “The Very Hungry Caterpillar”
• Daycare Lesson Plans on “The Very Busy Spider”

A nature-based home daycare is more than just a teaching model, it’s a lifestyle rooted in respect for the earth and trust in the innate curiosity of children. When you slow down and follow the rhythm of nature, everything becomes a learning opportunity.

Children discover their own strength, confidence, and joy as they play in the dirt, chase butterflies, or build fairy houses. As a provider, you’ll find a sense of peace and wonder as you watch children blossom in a nurturing, outdoor environment.

With a few thoughtful changes, you can transform your home daycare into a space that honors the seasons, sparks learning, and plants the seeds of a lifelong love for nature. It doesn’t have to be everything. It doesn’t have to be perfect. Just add nature in where you can, and you’ll be doing wonders for the children you teach!