Cultivating Natural Playgrounds that

Nurture Children’s Curiosity and Wonder

Today’s children and families often have limited opportunities to connect with the natural environment. Children spend more time indoors watching television or using computers than they do being physically active outside. In the past decade, research has demonstrated the important benefits of children connecting to nature. Collectively, the research shows that children’s emotional, social, and physical health is positively impacted when they have daily contact with nature.

The ECCDC is committed to supporting you in designing, maintaining, and planning naturalized play spaces to spark young children’s curiosity and learning. We look forwarding to planning exciting related professional learning opportunities, offering design recommendations, sourcing naturalized play based learning materials, and bringing educators together on an ongoing basis to discuss strategies through the Niagara Nature Alliance.