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About Lydia M. Bowers

Lydia M. Bower has 15 years experience as an Early Childhood Educator, and as a public programs presenter for the Cincinnati Museum Center. She completed her Child Development Associate credential and is currently finishing her Bachelor’s degree from Kent State University. Lydia works as a freelance early childhood writer and sexual health educator, as well as audio book narrator for educational and children’s books. She currently serves on an advisory council to the governing board of the National Association for the Education of Young Children and is an American Sexual Health Association Ambassador and creator of their “Be An Askable Parent” curriculum.

Reasons to Get Outside…Even When it’s Cold

Noses are running, fingers are numb, and it takes lots of time and patience to get everyone bundled up to go outside and play on the playground equipment. When you finally do get outside, everyone’s ready to come back inside … READ MORE

The 6 Best Ways to Learn & Play with Leaves

There are so many ways to get outside and enjoy the changing leaves – the colors and textures can be so much fun! Of course, who doesn’t love raking leaves into a big pile and jumping in them? But when … READ MORE

Observe the Creepy Crawlies of Autumn

As the weather begins to cool off, there are several creepy crawlies, a.k.a. bugs and insects, that begin to swarm as they look for warmer places to be. How many of these have you seen in or around your playground? … READ MORE

Let It Go (Outside): 4 Frozen Playground Activities

   It’s too cold to be outside for long, but your preschool scientists can still explore properties of the cold with these frozen playground activities. Although most of the investigation can happen inside, each of these take a few minutes … READ MORE

How to Create Music Using the Gifts of Nature

“All the leaves are brown, and the sky is grey…” There’s no need to be California Dreamin’ because we can create our own music on the playground! You can explore percussion materials by finding natural playground objects with which to … READ MORE

What Your Child’s Teacher Wants You to Know About Outdoor Play: Part 2

In the previous blog post, educators explained some developmental benefits to outdoor play. Playing outdoors becomes critical in the face of increasingly more academic pressure in early years. We tend to see the alphabet, reading, writing, and how to cut … READ MORE

What Your Child’s Teacher Wants You to Know About Outdoor Play: Part 1

With back-to-school schedules, getting outside to play suddenly drops in our priority lists. By the time we’re done with school snacks and homework, we feel like we don’t have time for outdoor play anymore! Two early childhood professionals explain the … READ MORE

Learning to Love Bugs

What do you do when you see bugs outside? My three-year-old used to shriek and try to step on every ant and run away from worms. Although many of us, as adults, often feel the same, taking the opportunity to … READ MORE

Get Outside with a Book: “Not a Stick” by Antoinette Portis

How often are young children drawn to the sticks lying around the yard or playground? And how often do we tell them to put it down, watch out, be careful? The book Not a Stick by Antoinette Portis reminds us of the … READ MORE

Happy Gross

A neighbor’s tree fell in our yard.  Back-to-back storms quickly worked against the old, dead wood, and it came crashing down, toppling their fence, sprawling the tree across the entire width of our backyard. Nobody was hurt and there was … READ MORE