Bosque Backpackers
As educators who believe in the importance of nature as key to healthy child development, Elevation Children's Center offers the Bosque Backpackers program, a 1-3 day per week, immersive outdoor experience (an optional addition to classroom enrollment). Transportation is offered by bus to our unique ecosystem along the Rio Grande throughout the school year and to Sandia Mountain sites during the summer. While our teacher naturalists guide exploration among the rich varieties of native species and wildlife, children are free to run, climb, and play in the natural world, without the restrictions of rigid schedules or classroom walls.
The cognitive, mental health, and physical health benefits of spending time in nature are significant. Natural settings tend to enhance the ability to focus, and promote more creative and cooperative play. In a world in which children are inundated by computer screens and have restricted access to the outdoors, the nature immersion program fills a unique need for children to experience sustained time in the outdoors.
* For children ages 5 and over please see our "Adventure Kindergarten" located under the Program drop down menu!
Why outside?
Children gain unique perspectives of their place, an immersion of the whole child within the natural world in unstructured outdoor play. What is seen, how something feels, recognizing sounds, and identifying scents opens children to rich, multi-sensory experiences. They, in turn, gain personal experiences to relate to the changing of the seasons and become aware of how their surroundings change in concert with the environment.
While the Reggio Emilia philosophy is mindful and largely directed by the expressed interests of the children, we have a staff of naturalists who assist the children in their explorations. We provide play and science-based challenges that help drive their developing intellects. Our focus is in on learning through personal observation, instead of academics. Literacy in math, language, geography, and biology emerge from the interests of the children and guidance by the teacher.
Children enrolled in Elevation's Bosque Backpackers engage in imaginative play and are inspired to develop social and emotional skills through interaction with others. The natural setting fosters cooperation and teamwork. Their physical development is accelerated through experimentation while acquiring skills in self-regulation.
Our children strengthen their cognitive skills, social interactions, physical agility, and self-confidence through activities directed by their interests. Other benefits of outdoor play include:
Encourages problem-solving and reflection
Nurtures self-expression and creativity
Recognizes the diversity in the organic and inorganic
Develops self-esteem and respect for others and the environment
Provides a safe environment for discovery and experimentation
Your child will provide the imagination, we will provide opportunities - perhaps fashion a fishing pole and attract crayfish, climb a tree and discover what lives in the tree, make art from leaves, and more.
