I’m sure you’re aware that time in nature has numerous health benefits, but did you know that it also improves learning outcomes in children?

If you’re looking to try a nature-based curriculum or just add more nature-based activities to your homeschool, you can get 1 month of the Wild Schooler for free here:

Nature Based Kindergarten Curriculum from The Wild Schooler

In this blog post, we’ve compiled a list of 27 heartfelt quotes about nature from prominent authors, environmentalists, and child advocates. These quotes about nature and childhood capture the wonder, curiosity, and pure joy that children experience when immersed in the natural world.

Join us as we explore the deep bond between children and nature through the eyes of these influential figures. Our hope is that these nature quotes will not only inspire you but also resonate with the importance of incorporating nature into children’s lives, making your forest school journey an even more enriching and meaningful experience.

John Muir Quotes About Nature

Our first series of nature quotes come from John Muir (1838-1914), a Scottish-American naturalist, environmentalist, and writer, often referred to as the “Father of the National Parks.”

Muir’s deep love for nature and the wilderness led him to explore the American West extensively, from the Sierra Nevada to Alaska. Muir’s advocacy played a pivotal role in the establishment of several national parks, including Yosemite in 1890. He co-founded the Sierra Club in 1892, a prominent conservation organization that continues to champion environmental causes.

“In every walk with nature, one receives far more than he seeks.” – John Muir

“The clearest way into the Universe is through a forest wilderness.” – John Muir

“The mountains are calling, and I must go.” – John Muir

“When one tugs at a single thing in nature, he finds it attached to the rest of the world.” – John Muir

“Keep close to Nature’s heart… and break clear away, once in a while, and climb a mountain or spend a week in the woods. Wash your spirit clean.” – John Muir

“The sun shines not on us but in us. The rivers flow not past, but through us.” – John Muir

“Climb the mountains and get their good tidings. Nature’s peace will flow into you as sunshine flows into trees.” – John Muir

“Nature is always lovely, invincible, glad, whatever is done and suffered by her creatures. All scars she heals, whether in rocks or water or sky or hearts.” – John Muir

Fred Rogers Quotes About Gentle Parenting and the Importance of Play

Fred Rogers (1928-2003), widely known as Mr. Rogers, was an iconic American television personality, puppeteer, educator, and minister. Rogers dedicated his career to creating wholesome, educational programming for children. His groundbreaking show, “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood,” became a beloved part of American culture. Rogers, a gentle and empathetic figure, used his platform to teach children about important life lessons, kindness, and the value of being oneself.

Beyond television, he authored several books, including “Mister Rogers Talks with Parents,” offering insights into child development and parenting, and “The World According to Mister Rogers,” a collection of his wisdom and philosophy. Fred Rogers left an indelible mark on generations, emphasizing the importance of love, compassion, and understanding in fostering a positive and nurturing environment for children.

“Play is often talked about as if it were a relief from serious learning. But for children, play is serious learning.” – Fred Rogers

“I like you just the way you are.” – Mr. Rogers

“Children’s play is not just kids’ stuff. Children’s play is rather the stuff of most future inventions.” – Mr. Rogers

“Children have very deep feelings, just the way parents do, just the way everybody does, and our striving to understand those feelings and to better respond to them is what I feel is the most important work that any of us can do.” – Mr. Rogers

“Children want to know that you are dependable, that you are predictable, that you are there for them, that you will come back after you go away, and that you will listen when they talk.” – Mr. Rogers

“Play gives children a chance to practice what they are learning.” – Mr. Rogers

“There’s a world of difference between insisting on someone’s doing something and establishing an atmosphere in which that person can grow into wanting to do it. – Mr. Rogers

“Nature is the best teacher, and she has plenty of lessons to offer children.” – Mary Hofman

“Children are born naturalists. They explore the world with all of their senses, experiment in the environment, and communicate their discoveries to those around them.” – The Audubon Nature Preschool

“Children need the freedom and time to play. Play is not a luxury. Play is a necessity.” – Kay Redfield Jamison

“The great outdoors is a kind of preschool where nature itself is the teacher.” – Cait Johnson

“Let children walk with Nature, let them see the beautiful blendings and communions of death and life, their joyous inseparable unity, as taught in woods and meadows, plains and mountains and streams of our blessed star, and they will learn that death is stingless indeed, and as beautiful as life.” – John Muir

“Play is the highest form of research.” – Albert Einstein

“Nature gives to every time and season some beauties of its own.” – Charles Dickens

“Children cannot bounce off the walls if we take away the walls.” – Erin Kenny

“In every real thing, a child takes in, it is the exterior, not the interior, that captures the imagination.” – Richard Louv

“The more risks you allow children to take, the better they learn to take care of themselves.” – Roald Dahl

“The best classroom and the richest cupboard are roofed only by the sky.” – Margaret McMillan

“Children who have a personal and direct contact with the natural world are more likely to show an active concern for the environment.”

“Nature-deficit disorder describes the human costs of alienation from nature, among them: diminished use of the senses, attention difficulties, and higher rates of physical and emotional illnesses.”

“We have such a brief opportunity to pass on to our children our love for this Earth, and to tell our stories. These are the moments when the world is made whole.”

“The woods were my Ritalin. Nature calmed me, focused me, and yet excited my senses.”

“Time in nature is not leisure time; it’s an essential investment in our children’s health (and also, by the way, in our own).”

“A bird doesn’t sing because it has an answer; it sings because it has a song.”

“Nature teaches even the hardest and most skeptical among us the profound lesson of diversity. That the world’s splendor and beauty are not limited to outer appearance.”

“We don’t experience places anymore, but read about them. There’s a sense that something wonderful is happening over there.”

“The land is where our roots are. The children must be taught to feel and live in harmony with the Earth.” – Maria Montessori

“There must be provision for the child to have contact with nature; to understand and appreciate the order, the harmony, and the beauty in nature.”

– Maria Montessori

“The secret of good teaching is to regard the child’s intelligence as a fertile field in which seeds may be sown, to grow under the heat of flaming imagination. Our aim, therefore, is not merely to make the child understand, and still less to force him to memorize, but so to touch his imagination as to enthuse him to his innermost core.”

– Maria Montessori

“The child who has felt a strong love for his surroundings and for all living creatures, who has discovered joy and enthusiasm in work, gives us reason to hope that humanity can develop in a new direction.”

– Maria Montessori