Help A Child's Inspiration Wildlife Discovery Garden

A Child's Inspiration Wildlife Discovery Garden

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Cause Description:
Teach, Learn, Listen. Educate, Inspire, Conserve. Observe, Question, Engage. Discover. Wonder. Bee. Where together, we explore nature, engage inspiration, and empower discovery. Our Mission is to provide a safe, nurturing, and inspiring environment that supports the growth of the whole child. A Child's Inspiration: Wildlife Discovery Garden is a resource for environmental education programming. We encourage love and respect for our environment and the natural world. We work towards a commitment to the conservation of our environment through the discovery and engagement of nature heroes. A Child's Inspiration: Wildlife Discovery Garden is a natural resource that is being preserved and maintained to act as an educational and environmental demonstration garden/site. We hope that through our work, we will pass along the love of learning, love, and conservation of our shared environment and the natural world in our community and beyond. * We Believe that learning happens holistically through relationships with people and wildlife in nature. * We Empower children through creativity and discovery to think for themselves while considering the environment and others. * We Envision strong, curious, open-ended, meaningful, and engaging, STEAM powered problem-solving and exploration. * We Strive for a natural environment that immerses us in an overall joyful experience. * We Value and Emphasize a multicultural, age- appropriate approach that respects and honors All children as individuals, All families as unique, and of course, All of Nature. * We Understand that a child's work is discovery, inquiry, and play, and we look for a balance of independence and community building. Headquarters of The Nature Heroes! "Every child should have mud pies. They should have grasshoppers, water bugs, tadpoles, frogs, and mud turtles. They should have elderberries, wild strawberries, acorns, and chestnuts. They should have trees to climb and brooks to wade. They should have water lilies. They should have woodchucks, bats, bees, and butterflies. They should have hayfields, pine-cones, rocks to roll, and sand. They should have snakes. They should have huckleberries. They should have hornets, and any child who is missing these are missing the best learning." "One has that magical capacity to see the land as an animal does; to experience the sky from the perspective of a flower or a bee; to know a hundred different smells of mud and listen consciously to the soughing of the trees." We believe that regular connections with the natural world encourage children to develop: * Respect for local cultures and climates and themselves as a part of nature. * Feelings of unity, peace, and well-being as global citizens. We believe it is essential for children to: * Be respected as competent, powerful learners and risk- takers who have a voice in what they create and learn through nature. * Be supported in developing life skills through holistic nature-based learning. We believe it is vital for families to: * Understand the value of children's daily connections with nature. * Support children's appropriate risk-taking and exploration in nature * Enjoy regular experiences in the natural world with their children. We believe it is crucial for educators to: * Allow enough time each day for children to explore freely in nature-based spaces. * Support children's appropriate risk-taking and adventurous play in nature. * Provide children with opportunities for silence and contemplation in natural settings. * Encourage children's development of a sense of wonder and a sense of environmental stewardship. At A Child's Inspiration: Wildlife Discovery Garden, we strive to create learning experiences that are enriching, innovative, meaningful, and engaging. Our network of green spaces/gardens/wildlife sanctuaries, including our very our Discovery Garden right here, and green spaces/gardens/nature centers located in urban and suburban communities around the Greater Philadelphia area enable us to develop, evaluate, and sustain nature- based education and early childhood education programs in all settings. We are fully committed to creating a positive and supportive learning environment that is inclusive, open to all learners, and sensitive to cultural diversity.

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