This episode of the Play Nature Podcast feels like stepping into a backyard where something magical is always unfolding. Mud. Water. Sand. Stories.

Host Rusty Keeler welcomes Kristy DeGraff to explore what happens when we trust children, follow curiosity, and let nature lead the way. It’s about more than play. It’s about belonging. It’s about building spaces where kids can dig deep, take risks, and feel at home in the world.

Kristy brings a powerful blend of experience. Social worker. Educator. Mother. Advocate. She shares how her journey, from supporting families in crisis to designing a nature-rich childcare program, shaped the way she sees children and community.

This conversation stretches beyond the backyard. Into systems. Into advocacy. Into the work of speaking up for children and families. Kristy reminds us that change doesn’t have to be big to matter. A phone call. A small shift. A single idea put into motion. It all counts. Just like in play, we start where we are. And we keep going.

Top Takeaways from Kristy DeGraaf:

• Dream big. Start small. Never stop. Whether you’re building a play space or creating change
• Children thrive in environments that invite risk, creativity, and real-world exploration
• Advocacy doesn’t have to be all-or-nothing. Small actions, done consistently, make a difference

Links:

kristydegraaf.com

Instagram: @kristy.degraaf

Facebook: Kristy DeGraaf

TikTok: @kristykae.childcarepro

Learn More: rustykeeler.com | @rusty_keeler_designs

Rusty’s FREE Outdoor Loose Parts Guide

Licensing. Not the most exciting topic. Not mud pies or tree climbing. But if you work in schools, parks, or early childhood programs, licensing is part of the landscape.

In this episode of Play Nature Podcast, host Rusty is answering the question many educators ask: How do we keep nature play, loose parts, and risky play alive when licensing rules feel like a wall? The good news? The wall might actually be a doorway.

Rusty explores the relationship between educators and licensors. At first it can feel tense. Someone arrives with a clipboard. They inspect logs, spoons, mud kitchens, and climbing trees. But licensors are there for a reason. Their job is to protect children.

When we slow down and communicate the why behind nature play, we often discover we’re on the same team. The key is speaking their language. Know the rules. Show your thinking. Share the research. When educators confidently explain the benefits of loose parts and outdoor play, licensors begin to see the bigger picture.

Top 3 Takeaways from Rusty

• Know the rules. Read them carefully. When you understand them, you can design nature play spaces that follow them and still invite adventure.
• Explain the “why.” Share the research and developmental benefits behind logs, mud kitchens, loose parts, and risky play.
• Build trust. When licensors see thoughtful planning and strong supervision, they are more likely to support creative outdoor play environments.

Buy Rusty’s Book: Adventures in Risky Play by Rusty Keeler

Learn More: rustykeeler.com | @rusty_keeler_designs

Rusty’s FREE Outdoor Loose Parts Guide

Play is everywhere. It slips through sidewalks and across continents. In this episode of Play Nature Podcast, host Rusty Keeler welcomes playworker, play advocate, and “friend of play” Marc Armitage. Marc is joining from Australia with stories that stretch from Yorkshire to the far corners of playgrounds and city streets.

Together they wander through big questions. What is play? Who gets to decide? And what happens when we simply give children space and time to be?

Marc invites us into the mindset of playwork which is less about outcomes, more about conditions. He shares how playwork is both a profession and an attitude, rooted in history yet alive in every moment a child drifts into flow.

From adventure playgrounds to city design, from the “three frees” to the quiet power of standing back and observing, the conversation reminds us that children don’t need us to script play. They need us to notice it.

This episode reminds us to trust the process, widen the lens, and remember that the spirit of play is already alive in every child, just waiting for room to roam.

Play is universal. Play is ancient. Play is the thing children just do.

Links:

marc-armitage.com

@marc.armitage.at.play on Facebook

Learn More: rustykeeler.com | @rusty_keeler_designs

Rusty’s FREE Outdoor Loose Parts Guide

What happens when kids are given time, space, and stuff? Real stuff. Junk. Tools. Magnets. Hot glue guns.

In this episode of the Play Nature Podcast, host Rusty Keeler is talking to Erik Herman to explore what play, tinkering, and science can look like when curiosity leads the way.

Erik is a former classroom teacher who followed his passion out of formal education and into the wild, wonderful world of informal learning. He’s the force behind the Free Science Workshop and the Physics Bus. Both places where kids choose what to explore, how long to explore it, and who to explore it with.

Rusty draws connections between Erik’s work and adventure playgrounds, community tinkering spaces, and our deeply human need to make things—together.

This conversation wanders (in the best way) through barns full of junk. And through the difference between explaining and experiencing.

Freedom matters, messes are meaningful, and innovation needs room to breathe. Erik and Rusty agree on letting physics speak for itself, and remembering that we are three-dimensional beings in a very hands-on world

Links:

www.freescienceworkshop.org

www.communityscienceworkshops.org

Learn More: rustykeeler.com | @rusty_keeler_designs

Rusty’s FREE Outdoor Loose Parts Guide

Winter. Ice cracking at the creek. Water freezing in buckets and balloons. Rusty is back outside, thinking out loud, when an aha arrives. One of those deep ones. The kind that doesn’t land all at once. The kind you keep unpacking for a lifetime.

This episode of the Play Nature Podcast is all about that moment, a shift in how play is seen, felt, and trusted.

Rusty reflects on being a lifelong believer in play. Free play. Messy play. Nature play. Loose parts. Mud kitchens. Risky moments. The real stuff. Yes, research helps. Yes, play checks the boxes for STEM, literacy, social-emotional growth. But those labels only skim the surface.

Rusty reminds us that our role isn’t to interrupt or translate every moment, but to create the conditions, protect the space, and advocate fiercely for play in the adult world. You are not alone. We are believers in play. And we are in this together.

Learn More: rustykeeler.com | @rusty_keeler_designs

Rusty’s FREE Outdoor Loose Parts Guide

Welcome to Season 2 of the Play Nature Podcast! A full circle around the sun. A new season of listening begins.

Winter has arrived (at least in Ithaca, NY). Cold. Snow. Gray skies. And…PLAY.

In this episode of the Play Nature Podcast, Rusty Keeler bundles up and steps into winter to give us the next installment of his Seasons of Play series, reminding us that this final season matters just as much as the others.

From ice sculptures and colored snow to fairy huts, fires, and winter wandering, Rusty invites us to slow down and notice what winter offers. The angle of the sun. The crunch of snow. The quiet. The light we carry inside when the world feels gray.

With simple stories and practical ideas, this episode reframes winter not as something to endure, but something to experience.

Season 2 is just getting started and Rusty would love to hear from you! Email playnaturepodcast@gmail.com to share pictures of winter play and colorful snow, your favorite moment from Season 1, or a question you would like answered in an upcoming episode.

Learn More: rustykeeler.com | @rusty_keeler_designs

Rusty’s FREE Outdoor Loose Parts Guide

Some conversations feel like sunshine. This one? Pure magic. Imagine laughter blowing through the trees, college students climbing branches, children splashing in streams, and stories woven into the wind.

That’s the vibe of this episode of the Play Nature Podcast. Host Rusty Keeler is joined by the wonderful Gemma Nicholl Medina to explore the wild wonder of place-based learning and how nature, culture, and play connect like old friends. Big ideas. Small moments. Muddy hands. Happy hearts.

Gemma shares how her college students discover something ancient and familiar when they play outside, observe children deeply, and reconnect with trees, soil, stories, and place.

Gemma reminds us that nature play doesn't require a perfect forest, perfect tools, or perfect plans. All you need is curiosity, connection, and courage to say, “Let’s begin right here.”

Top 3 Takeaways with Gemma:

• Start where you are. Nature play doesn’t require a forest — a tree, a park, a garden pot, or a single seed is enough to spark curiosity and connection.
• Place matters. When children learn the stories, plants, language, and history of where they live, they build a relationship with the land — and care grows from that relationship.
• Play is powerful. Whether college students climbing trees or preschoolers exploring mud, joyful, hands-on experiences unlock learning, belonging, and a sense of wonder.

Learn More: rustykeeler.com | @rusty_keeler_designs

Rusty’s FREE Outdoor Loose Parts Guide

Welcome to a world where play speaks louder than words. Where adults climb trees dressed as toucans, worms magically become two worms, and curiosity crackles like fairy lights in a cozy home-like space flooded with plants and laughter.

In this episode of the Play Nature Podcast, host Rusty Keeler and guest Robin Christie take us by the hand, skipping barefoot through ideas about playfulness, risk, resilience, and the joyful role of goofy, loving adults in children’s lives.

Their conversation touches on early childhood teaching in New Zealand, playful adult culture, humor as a first connection, the power of failure, and the soulful art of building truly soft, warm, homey learning spaces.

Top 3 Takeaways from Robin Christie:

• Play is a universal language and adults must become playful participants, not observers, to truly connect with children.
• Curiosity and wonder work together with curiosity filling knowledge gaps and wonder creating emotional engagement that drives deeper learning.
• Failure is essential and modeling our own mistakes in front of children teaches resilience, courage, and authentic learning behavior.

Children need to see that adults are still learning too. That they are still curious, still surprised, still full of questions. That is how trust forms. That is how humans grow. That is how joy lives in learning… and in life

Links:

childspace.nz

@childspaceNZ on Facebook

@childspacenz on Instagram

Learn More: rustykeeler.com | @rusty_keeler_designs

Rusty’s FREE Outdoor Loose Parts Guide