The movement to connect young children with nature continues to grow, as more parents and educators become passionate about bringing learning outdoors and letting children explore outside the bounds of traditional lessons. In Learning Is in Bloom, teachers and caregivers will find 40 hands-on activities effective for engaging young children in investigatingnature, both indoors and outdoors, on the school grounds, and on excursions around the neighborhood. Through fostering a love of nature, the activities promote all areas of early childhood education and development.\
Dr. Ruth Wilson works as an educational consultant and curriculum writer with special expertise in the area of early childhood environmental education and other initiatives in connecting young children with nature. Dr. Wilson recently worked with the Brookfield Zoo in developing their NatureStart professional development program and served as a curriculum writer for California s Education and Environment Initiative. Dr. Wilson also worked with Sesame Street in designing nature education programs and served as an evaluator with the nature preschool at the Schlitz Audubon Nature Center in Milwaukee. Dr. Wilson s career includes working as a classroom teacher in both regular and special education settings and as a teacher educator for over ten years at Bowling Green State University in Ohio.