Welcome to Kids Nature Shows LLC
I am so grateful for kids and nature.
One of my greatest professional lessons came from a group of four year old children and a teeny tiny inchworm. It was at my first “real” job – I was a 20 year old naturalist/park ranger leading a group of preschoolers on a nature walk in a park famous for bald eagles, great blue herons, and other big, famous, wildlife. I was prepared and ready to wow my group with all my knowledge as soon as we spotted a majestic animal.
About two minutes into our “hike,” the children came to halt. Their faces reflected awe and wonder – they were incredibly excited about something! An eagle? A great blue heron? A deer? No, no, no. So tiny it was barely visible, a lime green inchworm was hanging by an invisible silk thread in the middle of the air in the middle of the path.
I had walked right past this natural wonder, but not my entourage of tiny naturalists. They noticed. They stopped. They admired. They couldn’t hide their excitement. How cute this tiny creature was! How it was able to hover in mid-air! They had questions: What was it? How did it get there? Could we stay and watch it for a little bit?
Stop. Admire. Enjoy. Amazing nature is all around you. Everything is new and incredible when you are four years old. I stopped and shared in their excitement and oh boy did we have fun. I became a naturalist that day. I didn’t need to impress anyone with all my hard earned zoological knowledge. All I needed to connect with my group was to express my own joy in seeing all the natural wonders around us. A caterpillar? Awesome! An acorn? Amazing! The fact that these two items undergo almost magical transformations into beautiful butterflies or giant oak trees when they “grow up” was icing on the teaching-nature-to-kids cake.
In 1996, I created the incredibly successful educational reptile show company: Reptiles Alive LLC. More than 20 years later, I am ready to move on from using live animals in my programs. Still, I want to continue my mission of inspiring education and compassion for all creatures. So, in 2019 I created a new children’s education company: Kids Nature Shows LLC.
A few years back I started incorporating a couple of animal puppets into my live animal shows. The response from the kids blew me away. They loved the puppet animals even more than the live animals. At the end of my show I would ask kids, “Which was your favorite animal?” More often than not the response was, “Oh I loved Tommy the Tadpole (puppet) best! Can you do him again?”
I think one of the reasons kids love the puppet animals so much is they are so much more, well, lively. The puppets are big and colorful and very active. Many of them are very funny and can talk. They are all cute and adorable. Kids love the way I animate and interact with them.
It is so much fun producing and performing all the new nature shows for kids. With puppets, I can feature all kinds of animals that would otherwise be impossible to to bring to a school assembly or daycare center. Dinosaurs, sharks, and other incredible animals are all stars in my new kids shows.
Kids Nature Shows capture the attention and imagination of young audiences while inspiring excitement about the natural world. I am very excited to bring my fun and educational shows to you soon.
