POD Wake County
A Kind Garden
A Kind Garden is a home-based childcare center serving children zero to 12 and offers an excellent example of how a broad diversity of play and learning opportunities can be created on a residential site. The bountiful outdoor learning environment features a wildlife habitat garden water play, raised beds, numerous fruit trees, fruiting shrubs and vines, and pollinator gardens. Fresh produce from the OLE is incorporated into the children’s snacks and meals as part of the center focus on cuisines around the world.
A nature play space, adjacent to the OLE, features a rabbit hutch and chicken coop with egg-producing hens. Here, children learn important lessons about life cycles and how to care for and nurture living creatures. A raised boardwalk/primary pathway affords increased physical activities, including wheeled toys.
Small, intimate settings with materials storage, provide shady opportunities for quiet gathering-and-learning. The compact, diverse, exploratory landscape appears endless to young children, offering new discoveries each day.
¹ Created by owner, Alberta Forney, as her capstone project for the NLI Early Childhood Outdoor Learning Environment Certificate Program.
Address: 838 Belmont Dr, Raleigh, NC 27610
Phone: (919) 671-8125
NC Star Rating: 5
Capacity: 12
Schematic Master Plan (2016)
Before Renovation (2016)
After Renovation (2018)
POD Wake County Annual Gathering & Tour presentation by owner Alberta Forney
Primary pathway/raised timber boardwalk
Wildlife Habitat Garden
Wildlife Habitat Pollinator Garden
Flowering perennials support neighborhood bees
Raised-trough water play setting with pebbles
Prolific tomatoes on internal fence
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