Joshua York

The Natural Adventures Box (NAB) program provides the training, tools and access for child care centers to conduct their own hands-on exploration of natural areas, while promoting outdoor active lifestyles.

Historically, many child care centers have taken advantage of MetroParks as free fieldtrip locations. This demand drastically increases during the summer when schools are on summer break. Often, there were too many requests to fill, especially for Sugarcreek. Child care centers don’t have learning objectives: Their primary goal is to provide a safe, fun environment for the children they serve.

The NAB program gives child care professionals the tools that a staff member or volunteer would normally provide when facilitating the experience. Boxes containing aquatic nets, aerial nets, containers, and field guides are located at Englewood, Wesleyan, Germantown, and Sugarcreek MetroParks. The program also provides free training for child care professionals so that they acquire the skills needed to work with children outdoors (safety, equipment use, park use, phobia counseling, conservation values, etc.). Professionals attending formal trainings get award winning Growing Up Wild materials and certification.

The NAB program gives child care providers more flexibility in scheduling their adventures because they don’t have to work within the confines of MetroParks’ staff and volunteers schedules. Additionally, the NAB program frees up staff time, so that resources can be diverted to training for the program, and allocated towards other tactics.