Finland Community Nature ChildCare

12/02/2025

2023 Toro 721 Snowthrower, used less than 5 times. $550 600 lb. dump Wagon $70 Power Tool Set $100 Gates/Lumber (2 12'x10" boards, chain link fence gate kit in box, chain link gate assembled) $100...

12/02/2025

Great items. Take a look!

Many, many items in good condition. Not selling anything that is worn out. Grouped things together to make pictures easier. If buying multiple items could deliver to Duluth. Cloth Bookshelves (4)...

03/08/2024

10/11/2023

We have openings on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Fridays here at FCNC!! Share with friends or family in the surrounding area that may be in need of childcare. If you have any questions or would like to schedule a visit reach out via email or phone at any time! More information and our contact information can be found here on this flyer.

10/05/2023

Come join us this Saturday at the Booya.

08/12/2023

This year’s garden has been a wonderful success! We have strawberries, raspberries, currants, beans, peas, cucumbers, radishes, carrots, lettuce and other edible greens among them.

The children have been actively involved in nurturing our backyard crops. Especially harvesting! They eagerly explore the garden beds for vegetables and ripe berries that they can eat right on the spot.

Not only is our garden a place to go for a fresh afternoon snack; it also becomes an outdoor classroom where we observe the cycles of nature and work together for a harvest to share with everyone.

One photo shows a smoothie we made using local juneberries and greens from our garden and it was a hit amongst the children! As we begin incorporating meals for the children here at FCNC, it is exciting to know we can provide some of our own “home grown” ingredients.

05/30/2023

We couldn't be more thrilled to share the joys of spring and the transition of seasons as it starts to feel like summer here in Finland! We have been observing the raspberry bushes emerge new leaves, finding many insects and worms under rocks, enjoying the sun and having lots of fun with water play with some new structures that were recently built in our yard. Can't wait for the summer adventures here at the childcare!

05/24/2023

Here is a look into our past year at the Finland Nature Childcare Center!

We turned a year old in February and have continued to provide a comfortable and encouraging environment for our children. The summer and fall were beautiful and we had many adventures taking wood walks and climbing trees. Winter came and oh, the snow! With plenty of snow on the ground (Wolf Ridge Environmental Learning Center broke their record with 156 inches of snow this year), our kids had lots of fun playing in snow forts and climbing huge snow mountains.

Our younger group this year started with many that had never been in daycare before. It has been wonderful watching them develop and grow. Our school age kids on Fridays had the opportunity to relax after a week of school to simply enjoy being around each other and play lots of games together.

We are also extremely grateful for the support of the members of our community who have helped us with various projects to better our indoor space, create a snow playscape in our yard this winter and the revamping of our yard this spring for awesome outdoor playtime.

We believe that connecting with nature and community is not only good for the body but also for the mind and spirit. We are thrilled to see the positive impact it has on our children. Seeing the way the kids have made new friendships and strengthened existing ones while they’ve grown and developed has been a thrill. It has been a meaningful year indeed.

Check out these photos from the past year and stay tuned for more updates!

03/05/2023

Join our community and volunteer with us! Reading time, crafts-what can you share?

07/07/2022

The Finland Community Nature Childcare is designed to meet the diverse needs and interests of our
community. Our first priority is to provide quality care for all children of ages 6 months to 7 years. Our
focus is on safety, compassion, and attention to child development at each age, for each child. We are
called, by various families, Childcare, Daycare, and Nature School!
On any given day, we may be able to offer additional nature-based programming. Here is a sample of a
recent morning at “Nature School”.
Sample Day at Nature School
Today we had a 4, 6 and 7 year old and an 8 week old baby. We started our day off with an hour
of free play indoors. The three boys have been playing an ongoing imaginative game, with magnetiles
as a main tool of play. We had music in the morning, Paul Simon today, “Rhythm of the Saints” and
“Graceland”. We then convened for circle time.
At circle, we had an outstanding research question of “What are the names of our musical
instruments?” We consulted our Eyewitness book on music, which yielded two names: the “sansa”,
also known as the thumb piano, and the “castanet”, which I had been calling a clacker. We have more
instruments yet to research, and an additional question arose: What language are the two names in?”
We then moved to our letter of the week, which is Q. Q for question! We have plenty of those.
Q for quack! We will be thinking about ducks. Our letter book revealed the quail and the quahog, and
another research question: what kingdom (phylum??) do clams belong to?? All we know is that they
are not mammals or birds or fish or bugs!
By that time we were out of attention so we skipped our felt weather board. We may update it
later in the day.
Then it was time for our woods walk. Today we had two goals: find strong sticks, as long as our
6 year old& #39;s arm span, to tie to the corners of our fence for hanging chimes, and look to see what has
changed in our woods since last week.
Right away we noticed something falling from above as a child shook a tall thin shrub. What
was it? Flower petals! The chokecherries are flowering... will they make berries? We will collect the
berries to make juice for popsicles, if the trees produce well in our woods this year.
Then, so much green! Many new plants... wild strawberries and dewberries have flower buds...
jewel w**d is in abundance, but only where the mosquitoes are... it is proposed by a child that
mosquitoes pollinate jewel w**d... causation or correlation? Research topic: how does jewel w**d
reproduce?
We finish our woods walk quickly due to the bugs, but not before finding the ash sapling that
was accidentally cracked last week in the bouncy tree play place. It yields two lengths of stick for our
chime project, plus a neat looking top that we keep to make a decoration. On the way home we get
sidetracked at our climbing tree (as usual). Now we are back at the house in free play again, and it is
only 11am! So many projects, so little time...

07/05/2022

While our staff and current enrolled families all love nature and the outdoors, we are also just a good
old-fashioned childcare! Our staff enjoy caring for our mixed-age group in a cozy home setting. Here is
a sample day at our “Child Care”.
Today we had four children, ages 4, 3, 20 months and 8 weeks. Our music this morning was a mix,
featuring Enya, Cat Stevens, The Bothy Band and Sharon Burch. After breakfast we went into our play
yard for one hour. We have a new boardwalk which is a success! We played “Follow” on the
boardwalk, and later I watched our four-year-old challenge herself by hauling a bucket along the
boardwalk with her. She made it the whole way!
The children played with our stuffed animals on sticks: a black bear, a pileated woodpecker, and
a good old traditional horse. There is also a play kitchen, with my favorite dish today being flower
soup. My four-year-old showed me her “pieces of wood that made her fly so high”. Then there are my
20 month-old& #39;s new words... “rock, open, and [birdie says] tweet tweet!” We have also developed a fun
game: she says, “No!” and I say, “...maybe?...”
Then it was time to go inside. We played with clay, which is always popular, and had story time,
which was short today. Mostly the children played imaginative games, with the day ending with tickles
and giggles.
Along the way there are discussions about sharing, and gentle touch, and not throwing blocks. It
is so rewarding to get to know each child and what works best for them, from basic needs to
communication to relationship building. Never a dull moment with these kiddos!