Owatonna mom’s daycare focuses on nature

Owatonna childcare provider Christy Hanson believes children can learn a lot by simply spending time in the great outdoors.

After 20 years in the business–“I started when my son was born,” Hanson said–she closed Creative Adventures Child Care & Preschool last August to care for her parents, who both had serious health problems.

Her mother was a provider while Hanson was growing up in Texas, and “I just kind of felt like it was in my blood… Most of the jobs I’ve held had to do with children.”

When she started Creative Adventures, Hanson felt it was important to incorporate learning activities into her work, which was not always the case two decades ago.

“A lot of providers didn’t want to feel pushed to be that, but part of the care of a child is teaching them,” she said. “Why would I have them for eight hours a day and not take advantage of that?”

Over the years, Swanson said, teaching kids “has gotten better and more fun.” She continues to hone her skills by reading on early childhood development and has followed the path of teaching kids in nature.

Children can develop vision problems when everything they see is close and on a screen. Going outside gives them opportunities to see things at a distance, among many other benefits.

“I’ve read so many studies about how valuable nature is for (children’s) development,” she said.

When it’s warm out, the children only come indoors for naps and even enjoy naptime outside now and then.

That’s an important part of the day at Creative Adventures. Hanson said naps are critical to children’s brain development and stresses their importance with her parents.

Facilitating the outdoors part of the day, Hanson and her husband, Scott, who is chief deputy with the Steele County Sheriff’s Office, have a home with a big yard to explore and a garden. When kids help grow the foods, she said, they’re more likely to eat and enjoy them.

“Nine times out of 10, if they picked it, they like it,” she said. “It helps them learn how things grow and how to take care of the earth, how to care for the planet.”

In the spring, the children get to watch eggs hatch, thanks to a former day care parent. Hanson doesn’t keep the chickens because “we have fox and coyotes.”

She has other “community partners” who give the kids special experiences: a farmer who brings in a cow, the “tooth fairy,” a nurse, and a library worker who brings books. The kids also get to see emergency vehicles up close–including a sheriff’s office vehicle, of course.

After watching a video, the children got to tap a maple tree on the Hanson property and learned how to boil sap down to syrup. She’d love to have bees but said her husband is allergic.

Indoors, Hanson sets out activities during the day to teach everything from shapes to science.

“I’ve always been hands on,” she said.

While licensed for up to 14 children, ages six weeks to six years, Hanson caps enrollment at 12, because she doesn’t have a helper.

One of the challenges in the childcare business, she said, is communication.

“You have 10 different families and 10 different ideas on how to raise children,” she said. “There will be differences in how families do things. I have to really pay attention and push for communication.”

She also tries hard to keep up with her own education and still gets advice from a mentor who helped her early in her career.

“I feel like I’m not done evolving and learning and growing,” Hanson added. “New research comes out, and I try to keep up with that.”

To learn more, visit creativeadventureschildcare.com or follow the business on Facebook.