Playing in the dirt at preschool at the Kalamazoo Nature Center

by Zinta Aistars
Published in Southwest Michigan's Second Wave Media
October 31, 2013

Nature's Way Preschool (Photos by Zinta Aistars)

There is a preschool where children are encouraged to get down in the mud and dirty, jump into puddles, and splash around in the rain barrel that collects rain water from the school’s roof. Zinta Aistars has the story on Nature's Way Preschool.

The eyes of the little gray screech owl are as large as dinner plates. So are the eyes of the three- and four-year olds who encircle the owl. If a few pairs of eyes wander, they will wander past Miss Jenny Metz, who has brought two owls from the Kalamazoo Nature Center, and out the wall of windows, open to the nine acres of woods all around Nature’s Way Preschool. Wild turkeys may stroll by, bobbing their gray-blue heads, or a deer bend her long, slender neck to nibble on a patch of grass beneath the oak tree. These eyes miss nothing.  

At this preschool, owned by Kalamazoo Nature Center and located at 4442 Oakland Drive, children are encouraged to let their eyes wander and their curiosity, too. They are also encouraged to get down in the mud and get dirty, jump into puddles, and splash around in the rain barrel that collects rain water from the school’s roof. 

"At orientation, we tell the parents to expect their children to come home dirty," says Brenda Mohill, who has been teaching at the preschool for 17 years of grubby kids, including her own. "If they aren’t coming home dirty, we’re not doing our job!"

Nature’s Way Preschool is more than three decades old, but this particular building, built of blond brick and lots of glass, opened its doors in August, with the first day of school in September. The 6,000-square-foot new building, designed by Jason Novotny of Tower Pinkster, a daddy of a former preschooler here, is built to make the outdoors a part of the indoors. 

"Because Jason’s child came to our old preschool, he understood what we needed," says Heather Parker, who has been teaching at Nature’s Way Preschool for two years. She is also early childhood education director at Kalamazoo Nature Center. 

Previously, Parker says, the school was ...



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Wild turkeys in the playground

Old fireplace from previous school