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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.
To support A Child's Inspiration Wildlife Discovery Garden with a free iGive account,
click here!
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