Play Nature Podcast

What happens when children meet a muddy hill, a dangling rope, and a whole lot of possibility? They climb. They slip. They tumble. They try again.

In this episode of Play Nature Podcast, Rusty returns to Six Mile Creek and shares the story of Challenge Hill, where preschoolers in mud suits showed him just how capable, joyful, and determined children can be.

That wide-eyed moment is part of what inspired Rusty’s newest adventure: Nature Play Academy. After years of visiting inspiring play spaces, designing natural playgrounds, leading risky play conversations, and collecting stories from around the world, Rusty is ready to get all that goodness off his hard drive and into a living, growing community.

The Academy welcomes everyone from curious seeds to seasoned forests: teachers, directors, parents, grandparents, designers, playworkers, and nature play champions of every kind. Most of all, Nature Play Academy is a place to stop feeling alone. A place to ask questions. Share ideas. Grow confidence. Say yes more often. And go farther together.

Top Three Takeaways

Nature Play Academy is designed for everyone, from brand-new nature play beginners to experienced leaders growing the movement.

Community and practical support can help educators move through fears about risk, licensing, parents, and program expectations.

Small changes, shared ideas, and a little courage can create richer, wilder, more joyful play for children.

Get on the waitlist for Nature Play Academy: rustykeeler.com/the-nature-play-academy

Learn More: rustykeeler.com | @rusty_keeler_designs

Rusty’s FREE Outdoor Loose Parts Guide

Nature is everywhere. In the trees. In the rain. In the crack in the sidewalk where one determined little plant is doing its thing. In the tree that looks like a butt.

In this episode of Play Nature Podcast, Rusty talks with Dr. Rachel Larimore about helping children build real relationships with the natural world, even when a school does not have a forest, a fancy outdoor classroom, or a flock of woodland creatures waiting at the gate.

Rachel shares simple ways educators can bring more nature into the school day. Start inside with books, pictures, and materials that reflect the actual plants, animals, weather, and seasons outside the classroom window. Then step outdoors. Stay a little longer. Add loose parts. Eat snack outside. Notice the wind. Follow the puddles.

Nature-based learning does not have to arrive all at once wearing expensive rain pants. Rachel and Rusty talk about slowing down, letting play stretch, making room for uncertainty, and trusting children to form their own relationships with the birds, bugs, trees, rainstorms, and wonderfully named “butt trees” in their lives.

Top three takeaways from Rachel Larimore, PhD:

Nature-based learning can begin with small, doable changes.

Longer outdoor play needs variety, loose parts, and adult patience.

Relationships with nature grow through time, attention, wonder, and gratitude.

Links:

samarael.com

Rachel's 90 second quiz: samarael.com/quiz



Learn More: rustykeeler.com | @rusty_keeler_designs

Rusty’s FREE Outdoor Loose Parts Guide

A school that smells like mud, woodsmoke, porridge, and possibility? Well…that sounds perfect!

In this episode of Play Nature Podcast, Rusty chats with Louise Licznerski about outdoor learning in Scotland, where children run, wander, forage, climb, get muddy, and settle into the slow, steady rhythms of the earth. This conversation is all about what happens when children are trusted with space, time, nature, and real play.

Louise shares how outdoor nurseries and school-age nature programs can help children feel calm, curious, capable, and connected. They talk about child-led play, mixed-age learning, emotional regulation, seasonal rhythms, muddy immune systems, and why the forest can sometimes teach better than fluorescent lights ever could. There are sticks as wands. Puddles as science labs. Chickens as bedtime teachers. And children finding their way back to themselves outside.

Louise reminds us that children everywhere need to play, but each place has its own gifts. Start with the land around you. Work with nature, not against it. Dream big. Start small. And maybe, just maybe, go big or go home.

Top three takeaways from Louise:

Children regulate, learn, and thrive when they have freedom, space, and nature’s rhythms.

Outdoor learning can support children of all ages, not just the wee ones.

Start with what is around you: your weather, your landscape, your food, your community.

Links:

littlebugs.co.uk

weeforagers.com

httscottishoutdoorlearning.co.uk

@littlebugsoutdoors on IG

@littlebugsoutdoors on Facebook



Learn More: rustykeeler.com | @rusty_keeler_designs

Rusty’s FREE Outdoor Loose Parts Guide

Sign up for the Nature Play Academy updates:

rusty-keeler.mykajabi.com/nature-play-academy-waitlist

Rusty is back by the creek. The water is moving. The bugs are buzzing. A bald eagle flies by because apparently even the birds know when a podcast needs a dramatic moment.

In this solo episode of Play Nature Podcast, Rusty reflects on his spring speaking tour where he brought the fire for nature play, risky play, loose parts, and the slow, sparkly magic of childhood.

This episode is part road trip recap, part manifesto, part invitation. Rusty digs into the power of starting small, listening deeply, and building community with other play people who believe mud kitchens, willow huts, risky play, and outdoor adventures can change the world.

He also gives a peek at the upcoming Nature Play Academy, a new community for folks who want to dream big, start small, and never stop. Woo woo woo woo.

Top Three Takeaways:

Slow down to Earth speed. Children do not need machine-speed childhoods. They need time to play, explore, bump, build, wonder, and be fully alive.

Risky play conversations matter. When educators and caregivers talk honestly about fear, licensing, parents, and saying yes, real growth begins.

Small steps are powerful. Add one loose part. Say yes one more time. Build one fairy hut. Change grows from tiny seeds, especially when we grow together.

Links:

Sign up for Nature Play Academy updates: rusty-keeler.mykajabi.com/nature-play-academy-waitlist

Learn More: rustykeeler.com | @rusty_keeler_designs

Rusty’s FREE Outdoor Loose Parts Guide

What happens when a chemist wanders out of the lab and into the woods with children? Adventure, of course.

In this episode of Play Nature Podcast Rusty talks with Jim McCullough, founder of Adventure Walkers about forest kindergarten, playwork, risky play, and the wild magic that happens when adults stop steering so much and start saying yes.

Jim shares his story of how working in a preschool turned into taking walks with kids. Soon Jim was on a journey to start a forest kindergarten pilot in the woods behind a preschool, and later building Adventure Walkers, a roaming, creek-splashing, log-balancing, frog-finding laboratory for childhood.

Jim and Rusty talk about risk, trust, reflection, and why “safe enough” may be better than trying to make childhood perfectly safe. Listeners will come away with a big invitation: start small, try a pilot, follow the children, and let the woods do some of the teaching.

Top Three Takeaways from Jim McCullough:

Risk is not the enemy. Children need space to try, pause, climb, wonder, and decide what feels possible.

The adult role is quieter than we think. Watch. Wait. Reflect. Step in when needed, but don’t poke holes in the play flow.

Start with a pilot. You don’t need a perfect plan or a fancy outdoor classroom. Take a small group outside. Find a creek. See what happens.

Links:

adventurewalkersrva.com

Instagram @adventurewalkersrva

Facebook @AdventureWalkersrva



Learn More: rustykeeler.com | @rusty_keeler_designs

Rusty’s FREE Outdoor Loose Parts Guide