Sheila Williams Ridge & Alyson Quinn - Mpls Nature Preschool

Minneapolis Nature Preschool founders, Sheila Williams Ridge and Alyson Quinn

“I like EVERYTHING!” the four year old at Minneapolis Nature Preschool exclaims when asked his favorite parts of the all-outdoor classroom experience in North Minneapolis.  

That exuberant response delights co-founders Alyson Quinn and Sheila Williams Ridge, but it doesn’t surprise them.  “I am better when I am outside,” Alyson, who serves as the school’s Director, says, “children are, too.”  Preschoolers know instinctively that the best learning takes place outdoors.  Sheila adds, “There are so many benefits, including emotional and spiritual connections.  There is no area of development that cannot be met from playing outside.”

But outside?  This is April, after all, in Minnesota.  This month, Mother Nature played us in a whiplash of weather:  an unseasonable eighty-degrees for three days, and this week:  barely above freezing, rain, drizzle, raw wind, clouds and “sneet,” a morning that included a revolving snow/sleet mix.

Students, ages 3-5, attend half days at the preschool, either morning or afternoon, and are outside from drop off to pick up (the indoor portion of the school houses a first-aid station and stores educational materials and extra outdoor gear).  “We work hard to communicate with families,” Alyson offers, pragmatically, “we send out a weekly email on what to wear.”  An important mantra informs the communique:  There is no bad weather, only bad clothing. 

So, on this day – cool, still-grey skies with shifting peaks of blue - the children are a bespoke, wavy rainbow outfitted in blue, green, and red one-piece rainsuits (think: brigade of miniature high-seas fisher-people); rubber boots in hot pink, black and teal; orange and yellow hats; purple fleece. 

As the sun strengthens, discarded clothing piles up on the ground, or in a wagon a teacher pulls into the woods hosting backpacks, plastic shovels, pencils, snacks, journals, and dolls. In a kind of “choreographed commotion,” the kids dash to spots they explored previously, to see what has changed.  One group notices the stream bed that had moving water last week is now dry ground.  The swamp, however, is still soggy and alluringly squishy.  Everyone is on the ground:  Playing in the mud!  Laying in the mud!  From their prone positions, a student notices clouds shaped like ships, and everyone’s focus shifts from what is underfoot to the brightening sky overhead. 

North Minneapolis did not have an outdoor nature-based preschool until Alyson and Sheila created this one in 2016. The few programs that did exist in the Twin Cities were in predominantly affluent, suburban locations.  The non-profit Minneapolis Nature Preschool prioritizes “Northside Minneapolis residents, Black and Indigenous children and families of color, as well as LGBTQ2+ identified families” and “prioritizes scholarship opportunities for Indigenous children and families.”  The preschool classes (in synch with the Minneapolis Public School schedule) and winter and summertime camps fill quickly. 

Outdoor or “forest schools” have been popular in western Europe for over a hundred years.  The Danes popularized Naturbornehavens in the 1950’s; the Swedes coined the term, friluftsliv, or “free air life” early in the 20th century that evolved into preschools called “rain or shine schools” (I Ur Och Sku) where children learned to ski, sled, hike, and canoe.  The Germans (Waldkindergarten), Australians (Bush Kindergarten), and Japanese (Mori-no-youchien) also offer outdoor learning that employs nature as teacher.   

And Indigenous children in Minnesota historically have had full access to the wild world for learning by playing.  Dakota physician and writer, Charles Eastman, or Ohiyesa (1858-1939), penned Indian Boyhood about his childhood in the woods, playing, learning to hunt, storytelling around a campfire, and tracking raccoons and squirrels.  In it, he writes, “What boy would not be an Indian for a while when he thinks of the freest life in the world?”

Research supports the cognitive and behavioral benefits of outdoor school: “Spontaneous, open-ended play in natural settings offer unrivaled opportunities for early learners to classify, observe, explore and interpret the phenomena around them” (Kellert, 2005).  Collaboration, problem-solving, and creativity are heightened in outdoor settings.  And children who struggle with anxiety in a “quiet, closed box” of an indoor setting or who are diagnosed with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), achieve “higher concentration, greater self-control, and increased memory and academic success” if allowed green, spacious and well-integrated outdoor experiences each day” (Chawla, 2015).

Sheila said part of her impetus to create a nature school was that her daughters, living in North Minneapolis and attending elementary school in NE Minneapolis, crossed the Mississippi River each day on a bus on the freeway, but didn’t get the chance to KNOW the river.  “My kids’ classmates saw the Mississippi every day but had never touched the river.  They didn’t know the river, or what lived there.  They didn’t know their neighbor.”  As a kid growing up in Las Vegas, Sheila was encouraged to collect rocks and seek desert creatures to learn their habits. Her parents valued school learning and also: “my dad wanted me to jump from the roof to know what my body could do!” 

Sheila and Alyson connected over their shared love of science and teaching.  They planned their Nature Preschool idea and refined it while - of course - hiking together in Wirth Park.  They enlisted input from a diverse group of Northside parents, Spanish speakers, child care experts, gardeners, foundation program managers, funders, clean water activists, and members of a Forest School “Meet Up” group.  Alyson admits that her dad, sister, and brother-in-law helped with strategic planning and that, for the organization’s early bare-bones formation, “free was very helpful.”

The Minneapolis Nature Preschool leases space in a lower, walk-out level of Bryn Mawr Elementary School.  The school is adjacent to Wirth Park, a 759-acre Minneapolis public park hosting a variety of human activities (cross country skiing, cycling, wildflower gardening) and natural features (woods, bog, meadows, bodies of water).  The patch of woods the Nature Preschool uses has been cleared of buckthorn; woodchipped pathways are wide, traverse hilly terrain, and lead to a small pond.   

Neighbors help maintain the trails and foresters from the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board deliver “tree furniture” (stumps; long, straight branches; flat “tree cookies” for hopping on) to outfit the outdoor classroom spaces.  The children have constructed 3 stick lean-to classrooms in the woods (nicknamed The Burrow, The Den, and The Nest), have a “story path,” and play areas dubbed “The Hot Tub” and “The Candy Shop.”  If a visitor looks closely, she will see the tiny handiwork of “Mr. Peduncle,” the resident forest sprite who has a mailbox and is fond of sending notes to the students about who and what he spies in the woods. 

For now, the Minneapolis Nature Preschool is one small program out of one school. Sheila and Alyson envision their concept expanding throughout North Minneapolis and the broader city. The kids in this program don’t require much beyond water-proof clothing, multiple layers for warmth, and parents with trusting imaginations.  “There are lots of natural areas in North Minneapolis” and throughout the city, Alyson notes.  And while the women are grateful to have Wirth Park at their doorstep, “a quarter acre of greenspace can be as impactful as a hundred acres” to excite kids about nature, to encourage risk-taking, and build stewardship.

An important indicator of success at the Nature Preschool is the parents who pay for the program.  One parent offered: “My son is so much happier outside.  He comes home windblown and tired, and he sleeps so well at night!”  Sheila appreciates that, noting that outdoor education, at all ages, “teaches us lessons in what we are able to handle.”   Character is built and cooperation strengthened when challenges of terrain or shifts in weather test us.   

Tree climbing, rolling into ravines, a squishy swamp walk, a fox sighting, or 20 minutes of uninterrupted cloud-watching capture children’s attention and invite further investigation.  “Learning by doing” offers advantages not easily replicated at a desk.  Does the concept take time to settle with those who have only known school with 4 walls and central heat?  “At first,” Sheila offers, “parents were worried [about the kids being only outdoors], then they were trusting, and now they are proud.”    

Resources:

Photos by Tracy Nordstrom and Minneapolis Nature Preschool Facebook page

Minneapolis Nature Preschool:  https://www.minneapolisnaturepreschool.org/

Co-Founder and Board Chair, Sheila Williams Ridge: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sheila-williams-ridge-287b0817/

Co-Founder and Director, Alyson Quinn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alyson-quinn-6b78b0150/

Kellert, S.R. (2005). Chapter 3: Nature and Childhood Development. In Building for Life: Designing and Understanding the Human-Nature Connection (pp. 63-89). Island Press: Washington, D.C.  Kellert- Building for Life Chapter 3

Chawla, Louise (2015)  https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0885412215595441

Charles Eastman, Indian Boyhood:https://birchbarkbooks.com/all-online-titles/indian-boyhood