Our Story
Wildly Rooted was founded by home educating moms who had a vision of being able to provide families in their community, an outdoor, nature-based enrichment program. A place that would pair learning with adventure, creativity, and community. The purpose is to encourage play, exploration, and connection with nature and each other. Wildly Rooted offers outdoor learning and nature investigation opportunities that are not always easily created in our own homes.
Inspired by the research about the benefits of nature-based education, paired with the personal experience of their own children coming alive in the outdoors, Wildly Rooted Nature Enrichment was born.
Wildly Rooted offers a unique learning experience for home educating families by providing nature-based enrichment.
“Never be within doors when you can rightly be without.”
— Charlotte Mason
Enrichment Program
Wildly Rooted is a multi-age, drop-off program that uses a combination of instructor facilitation and child-led learning. A typical day consists of project-based, hands on exploratory experiences immersed in nature. Nature study units are meant to provide complimentary enrichment experiences to what children are learning through their home education.
We welcome the benefits of children taking risks and encourage messy, active, whole-body play! Immersive nature-based enrichment sessions will be offered through out the school year. Children will spend the majority of their time together exploring the outdoors in most weather conditions (rain, snow, cold, wind). When weather conditions are not suitable, classrooms will be utilized within the church building.
What is Nature-Based Learning?
“Nature-based learning, or learning through exposure to nature and nature-based activities, occurs in natural settings and where elements of nature have been brought into built environments, such as plants, animals, and water. It encompasses the acquisition of knowledge, skills, values, attitudes, and behaviors in realms including, but not limited to, academic achievement, personal development, and environmental stewardship. It includes learning about the natural world, but extends to engagement in any subject, skill or interest while in natural surroundings.”
-A Coordinated Research Agenda for Nature-Based Learning
Benefits of Nature-Based Experiences:
Improves health and reduces illness
Builds nature connectedness
Promotes awareness of self and others
Promotes movement
Practice risk-assessment
Builds confidence
Builds gross motor skills and increases flexibility
Builds coordination and balancing skills
Builds strength and resiliency
Builds social skills and problem solving
Improves mood, reduces depression, and mental fatigue
Improves vision and reduces body inflammation
Improves focus and concentration
Reduces stress
Promotes sense of place and community
Builds self-efficacy from engaging with the environment
Cross curricular
-Children & Nature Worldwide: An Exploration of Children’s Experiences of the Outdoors and Nature with Associated Risks and Benefits, 2012
Location
Wildly Rooted Homeschool Enrichment programs are located at Grace Church of DuPage in Warrenville. The church sits on 32 acres of land that include ponds, a nature trail, fields, and a sled hill. It is also conveniently located less than a mile from Herrick Lake, which will be utilized on occasion to offer additional exploration and deeper studies of our nature units.
