Audrey Elszasz combines 17 years of experience educating young children plus a deep appreciation and respect for nature to deliver and create outdoor programs for children.
J. Bruner said, "Teaching is the canny art of intellectual temptation." Mother Nature provides the provocations, the teacher guides the experience and the children make discoveries using all their senses.
Whether your setting has easy access to lots of nature, or only a parking lot, Audrey will inspire you to discover relevant and meaningful educational content with nature as an essential ingredient.
Founder of Outdoor Pre-Primary at Laurel School; Northeast Ohio's first outdoor education program for 3-5 year olds.
Co-authored one of the first studies to have quantitative data on an immersion preschool program and the first study with a comparison of a traditional preschool program. This study highlights the effectiveness of a high-quality outdoor pre-primary education program and brings important quantitative data to the literature comparing traditional and outdoor pre-primary education. Published Summer 2019 in the International Journal of Early Childhood Environmental Education, 6(3), p. 18.
Co-founder of Friends in the Forest: Learning social skills in the outdoor environment.
This camp is ideal for the spirited child who needs practice interacting with others. The outdoor environment's calming effect enables children to approach the challenges of cooperative play, sharing, problem-solving, following directions, listening, and impulse control in a natural way. Children practice communication skills while working with friends to build, invent and imagine. The children are outdoors every day, all day. The staff includes experts in the fields of Early Childhood Education, Outdoor Education, and Speech-Language Pathology.
Founder of Outdoor Pre-Primary Summer Camp at Laurel School - outdoor immersion for 3 - 5-year-olds.
Member Cuyahoga Valley Ohio Certified Volunteer Naturalist Steering Committee (2019)
Member Networking Committee Council of Nature and Forest Preschools (2019)
Certifications
Ohio Certified Volunteer Naturalist
2015 Graduate of Cedarsong Way Forest Kindergarten Residential Teacher Training Program, Vashon Island, WA
Forest School Level 1 Certification
Project Adventure Facilitator
Honors and Awards
2018 Conservation Educator of the Year
Cleveland Museum of Natural History
Mary French Conway Endowment for Teaching Excellence