A Baltimore mom created a fully outdoor preschool for kids who love nature as much as hers do

Atiya Wells has struggled for years to find other Black people like her who enjoy hiking, foraging and bird watching.

She wants to change that, by starting with children.

The Baltimore mom is opening the city’s newest all-outdoor preschool program in September.

The nurse and nature lover will operate the preschool from a once vacant lot near her house in Northeast Baltimore that she transformed into a nature oasis. At BLISS Meadows, young children will spend the entire day outside on the 10-acre public green space with a pond, orchard, farm animals and 30 bee colonies.

Wells got the idea for the preschool after watching how quickly her two kids fell in love with the outdoors. She couldn’t afford to send them to nature camps but would take them exploring on her own.

“They would ask me a bunch of questions that I didn’t have answers to,” said Wells. “But then we would kind of find out the answers together. And that just made it fun and exciting.”

Kids who spend more time outdoors have better cognitive development and spend less time hyperactive and unfocused, according to studies. But research also shows that kids of color and those from low-income families are far less likely to live near parks or participate in nature-based preschool. Nationally, the vast majority of both kids and teachers in nature preschools are white. Less than 5% are Black.

Such programs are more available to middle and higher-income families because they’re expensive to start and run, driving up tuition costs. Wells hopes her preschool, with a focus on kids of color and a pay-what-you-can tuition scale will be more accessible. And the state recently began regulating the schools, so families can now use government scholarships to help pay for them.

Wells started hosting nature summer camps in 2021 to expose her kids to nature. Those programs, held at BLISS Meadows where kids wash and process Eve the sheep’s wool and don tiny beekeeping suits to manage swarms, provide a glimpse into the classroom that awaits next fall’s preschoolers.

On a recent visit, campers examined rocks with magnifying glasses and easily identified mulberries and daddy longlegs spiders while surrounded by trees from which hammocks hang.

“What Atiya is doing is really modeling for other programs what outdoor preschool can look like,” said Monica Wiedel-Lubinski, a pioneer of outdoor learning in Maryland. “She is opening up access and opening up people’s eyes to possibilities in urban settings and for children who come from families of color.”

Nature-based early education programs are growing in popularity across the country. The number of such programs more than tripled between 2017 and 2022, according to estimates from the Natural Start Alliance. Director Christy Merrick said about 240 of those 800 operated exclusively outdoors.

“There’s always been a desire for kids to be outside and people intuitively know that it’s wholesome and healthy for their children,” said Wiedel-Lubinski, who has opened three nature-based programs in Maryland. “They want their kids to be active and engaged. And more and more people also want their children away from screens.”

Wiedel-Lubinski received one of the few pilot licenses for an outdoor only classroom after the Association for Nature-Based Education, which she directs, launched a statewide effort to license such programs. But Wiedel-Lubinski said current regulations make running nature-based pre-K difficult and expensive.

Typical preschools cap classrooms at 20 kids with two teachers; in licensed nature pre-K, it’s 12, and the teachers need more training and expertise due to the increased risk of kids getting hurt or lost outside. The programs make less money from enrollment and pay more for experienced instructors who must take additional wilderness First Aid and nature-based education courses.

Fully outdoor preschools also face more stringent regulations, like having to close if temperatures drop to 30 degrees.

At BLISS Meadows, bilingual teacher Judi Lazo, who will teach the pre-K program this September, leads camp counselors and kiddos of all different races and ethnicities in exploring the outdoors. The campers often ask Lazo, whose parents are from El Salvador, to translate words into her native tongue.

Lazo likes that BLISS focuses on Baltimore kids, whose parents may not be able to drive them to more distant programs. Wells raised over $1 million from grants, local foundations, outdoor programs and community donors to make BLISS a green space where neighbors collect fresh produce or stroll around the “peace pond,” where they hear the deep bellow of bullfrogs.

A pre-K was always part of the long-term plan, Wells said. She wants kids to get a daily dose of nature and observe shifts in seasons and behavior, like when birds migrate and flowers bloom.

Wells plans to provide kids with all-weather gear and build an insulated round tent known as a yurt for when the weather isn’t good. Families will pay what they can, ranging from $800 to $1600 a month for full-time care.

As a single mom working for a nonprofit, Lejae Woolcock appreciates the tiered pay structure at BLISS, where her 5- and 11-year-old children are attending a six-week camp for $1,900. She loves that her kids, Mari and Mylo, are surrounded by others eager to learn, excited about being outside and who care about their communities. If Mylo was young enough for pre-K, she’d send him.

Woolcock was used to being the only Black person on hikes. But at BLISS, which offers community programming in addition to its summer camps, she and her kids feel like they belong. She hopes kids will feel the same at the new preschool.

“I will always champion what they’ve got going on,” she said.

About the Education Hub

This reporting is part of The Banner’s Education Hub, community-funded journalism that provides parents with resources they need to make decisions about how their children learn. Read more.