Our mission is to help people facilitate respectful relationships with themselves, others, and nature.
“[Our kids] feel part of a special community through Nature Explorers - a community of great kids and outstanding teachers who lead by example and thoughtful communication with, and not at, the children. We cannot say enough good things about our experience with this program, and we look so forward to continuing!” - Kelly, Nature Explorers Parent
We welcome all people, regardless of race, culture, ethnicity, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, physical and mental ability, nationality, political affiliation, or religion.
We value respect for the earth, respect for each other, acceptance and respect of differences, stewardship of all nature, and kindness.
We acknowledge the land on which we meet holds the deep and painful history of oppression, including the destruction of indigenous and African lives, cultures, and homes. Colonizers conducted both forced removal and forced arrival of peoples to this place we now call home.
We believe it the birthright of all humans to connect with the land and with the earth, and that earth cannot be owned by anyone. We commit to doing our part to make it possible for all to have access to nature, to their ancestral wisdom, and to foster relationships with each other and with the earth.
About Nature Explorers, LLC
In 2019 Nature Explorers, LLC was formed by colleagues Judy Scoville and Leslie Gossett out of a shared passion for nature education, earth stewardship, and working with children. From 2019-2023 Nature Explorers grew to offer a homeschool tutorial, outdoor preschool class, adult classes, summer camps, and an afterschool program. Starting in 2024, Leslie moved on to grow her School of Earth and Awe https://www.schoolofearthandawe.com/. Judy moved into full ownership of Nature Explorers, and continues provide the programming to help children and adults alike connect to themselves, others, and nature.
Nature Explorers offers half-day, outdoor nature tutorials for homeschool children age 6-12, an after school program, summer camps, and other outdoor education opportunities. Programs are offered at local parks, and support park operation. Please note, we are officially permitted for every park in which we operate, and pay the required application, permit, and operating fees.
About Our Community
We love our diverse community, and are proud that it consists of people who don’t all think, look, or live the same way, or believe and practice the same things. We are students, families, and adults with a wide range of political beliefs, religious beliefs, social priorities and values, economic experiences, neurological and physical abilities, parenting styles, and backgrounds that span the spectrum of possibilities. We all interact with others who might approach life differently.
The foundation of our community interactions is held by our Three Agreements: Respect Self, Respect Others, and Respect Nature. We have a very rich opportunity to view each other as human beings who all long to care for their loved ones, make the world a better place, and live a fulfilling life. We may come to different conclusions about how to do that as individuals, and that’s okay. We still respect and support each other as fellow humans on this journey of life.
We believe learning and practicing the skills of how to engage with others from all walks of life, with care, is a precious and valuable skill. This skill goes a long way to create the kind of world we can all thrive within. Sometimes we may rub against our personal edge of comfort as we seek to find common ground. By using the Three Agreements as a guiding foundation we can reach across divides, and believe that this is worth the occasional discomfort.
If you are seeking a community of all like-minded people, Nature Explorers may not be the right fit for you. There are many other communities locally that meet very specific groups of people, and those may be more along the lines of what you seek.
If you are able to practice respect, care, and patience then you are welcome to join our growing community and the classes and events we hold.
Founders Leslie Gossett and Judy Scoville
Photo by Charissa Tosh
Staff
Judy scoville
Judy Scoville is a co-founder and owner of Nature Explorers. She is a Nashville native, and as a child explored the creeks, rivers, hills and hollers of middle and west Tennessee. Always drawn to the outdoors, she completed a semester at the Outdoor Academy in high school, spent a year in France studying in college, and after graduating returned to the lush green of Tennessee. She began teaching Kindergarten at Linden Waldorf School, and the teaching profession captured her heart and soul. In addition to creating the first outdoor kindergarten program in 2014 at Linden Waldorf School, Judy completed two Waldorf teacher certification programs:
•Early Childhood Education through Rudolf Steiner College
•Nurturing the Roots, a birth through nine therapeutic course for Waldorf teachers through the Denver Center for Anthroposophy
In 2021 Judy completed the Tennessee Naturalist certification Program, and continues to volunteer with them, and at Owl’s Hill.
For fun and family Judy sings with Nashville in Harmony, loves gardening, foraging, wildcrafting, and playing board games. She is also enjoying renovating her first house, a 100 year old craftsman in East Nashville. Her cat Sylvester provides hilarious fodder for stories the students enjoy, although he only works from home.
Program Teachers and Assistants
Jane Clarke
Jane Clarke is the Little Explorers Lead Teacher, and teaches with the homeschool tutorial. She honors Nature and the sacredness of all living beings. Growing up abroad in France, she spent her free time roaming through forests, traipsing across fields of safflower, and delighting in the natural world around her.
She returned to Tennessee for university and spent the bulk of her studies in early childhood education before realizing that traditional, classroom-based education was not for her. Inspired by Montessori and Waldorf, she spent a summer as director of a nature-based kids camp in the woods of east TN before moving to Nashville where she professionally nannied for seven years.
Jane lives with her husband and two children whom she homeschools in an outdoor, nature-based environment. Learning and discovering how to foster connection to nature has been both challenging and rewarding, and she is always searching for ways to deepen her knowledge of the world around her and hold space for others to do the same regardless of their age.
Jane holds a bachelor’s degree in Interdisciplinary Studies with a minor in French.
Rachel Lucca
Rachel Lucca serves as the Little Explorers Assistant Teacher. As a child growing up in Joplin, Missouri, Rachel developed an early fondness for exploring the outdoors, building forts in the woods and collecting nature’s treasures. As an educator, she maintains that same childlike spirit and takes great pride in imparting a sense of wonder and awe in her students.
After relocating to Nashville with her family, Rachel hired in at the Linden Waldorf Early Childhood department, where she spent 5 years assisting in various classrooms teaching children from ages 2 through 6.
She has since spent the last 4 years homeschooling her own daughter, while continuing to foster her passion for child development.
Crystal Williams
Crystal Williams is the After School Program Assistant Teacher, and a Little Explorers Assistant. She enjoys nature and the wonders it has to offer. Growing up outside of Nashville, as a child, she enjoyed playing outside, climbing trees, and making friends with the insects.
After graduating college, she became a Substitute Teacher and worked with a wide range of age groups for several years. Later, she launched and taught an After School Program for middle schoolers, and worked with that program for 6 years. Since then, she has also worked professionally in Healthcare.
In her free time, Crystal enjoys taking primitive skills classes, crafting, and spending time with her two cats.
Motivated by the desire to make a difference in people’s lives, Crystal is passionate about creating spaces where children can learn to cherish and respect nature in hopes they will carry that love to the next generation.
Crystal holds a Bachelors degree in Biology.
Alimah baxter
Alimah Baxter is the Little Explorers @ Shelby Park Assistant Teacher.
When I’m not watching children down below, I try to spend my time gazing upward. The busyness of life has a way of making it easy to forget the endless beauty that stretches above us at any given time. A mom of four, with roots in early childhood education and all forms of child and family care, I find it easy to be with children and elders. Being outdoors to do anything is the butter to my homemade bread. It just feels so much better to the central nervous system. And to the soul.
I’ll always prefer the feel of fresh mud or the slip of fingers in fine dirt to paper or canvas. Mama Hawk’s constant circles are the visual medicine my body needs to believe in the blessedness of where I am and where I am going. The vibrancy of newly collected violets gathered for all manner of good things, offer me peace in knowing that all that glitters is not gold. Because gold is the warm sun on my back as the felicitous sounds of children’s laughter envelop me mid morning.
Alimah Baxter is a former waldorf kindergarten assistant, child care provider, twin wrangler, pumpkin soup aficionado, bad haircut giver, and make-do queen! Also an MTSU graduate, currently attending Lipscomb University for Creative Media Arts because the first degree didn’t create quite enough debt.
Alan Powell
Alan Powell is a Nashville native and a “local food sourcing guru”, expert forager, primitive skills master. His Nashville Grown program gets food from farms to local restaurants. Alan also provides wild foods to local restaurants, and teaches some of our Adult classes.