The story of this unique 15 acre play park in USA takes its beginning years back, when philanthropist Charlie Jobson – a former Colene Hoose student – traveled in the Scandinavian countries and became fascinated by the Nordic approach to children, nature and free play.

Charlie handpicked Helle Nebelong in 2019 to design his visionary project. An adventurous collaboration between two people, both passionate about giving children the opportunity to play and develop freely in natural surroundings, began.

Almost two years after the opening in October 2023, Helle Nebelong went back in July 2025 and was happy to see the development of the park over the past two years. Trees and shrubs have grown taller and wider and have been supplemented with lots of new plantings. The vision of The Little Prairie on the School – as Helle named it back in 2000 – is taking shape with the yellow flower field (July 2025) of Prairie coneflowers, several Rudbeckias, Cup plants, Blue vervain and many more flowers and native grasses. The prairie is an important part of Charlie’s wishes for the park to give the students a sense of feeling for the history of the prairie which once was a huge part of Illinois, but where less than 1% is left today.

Wildlife has moved in with a lot of insects and birds and even a hawk – which literally has been the school’s mascot and logo since long.

“This project is already wildly successful. I have seen children chasing butterflies and heard unbridled enthusiasm as they explored, built forts and sang into little tunnels and cavities in the ground.”

Bill Davison, 20 Oct 2023

Theme gardens and outdoor classrooms

The park is divided into different gardens and places: The River Garden, The Snail-Shaped Mound, The Rain Garden/Perennial Garden, The Forest Garden/Woodlands, The Art and Music Garden, The Alphabet Labyrinth, The Swing Garden, The Amphitheater, several outdoor classrooms, The Brownstone Wall pathway, portals, sport courts and more.

Student’s participation

Helle asked the students to participate in the design of the River Garden mosaic by making a personal fish drawing of themselves: If I was a fish – I would look like this. Around 300 fish drawings made by the students was the result of this process.

The River Garden mosaic is a work of California artist Robin Brailsford (1953-2025), who transformed Helle’s flower-meandered design of a ‘river’ without water into a masterpiece with the children’s unique fish which underline that every child is unique, nobody is ‘standardized’ as should neither a playpark be.

“A state-of-the-art nature playground”

Jonathan Haidt, The Anxious Generation (Penguin Press 2024)

Ilse and Charles Jobson Natural Play Park is named after the parents of the Jobson Family Foundation’s founder, Charlie Jobson. The 15-acre play park has already become a local community spot where families meet and where children can play freely and get the feeling of deep pleasure in a beautiful and diverse, natural surroundings that is so much different from the more traditional equipped playgrounds that might be funny but don’t have the same long-lasting impact of pleasure that you bring back home. Children prefer open-ended play and the park design is open-ended and therefore meets the children’s deeply felt need to develop their own games and make their own personal mark on the park which gives them a sense of co-ownership to the park.

“A world-class piece of landscape architecture”

D. Jack Alkire, The Pantagraph, October 7, 2023

Read much more on the project’s own web:

https://www.jobsonfamilyfoundation.org/

BBC World Service – In The Studio – followed Helle Nebelong and the Ilse and Charles Jobson Natural Play Park project and process for almost three years from the first sketches to the final inauguration October 2023. Listen to the podcast:

Helle Nebelong: Designing a natural playground

Love is My Teacher – A Natural Playground Takes Root in Our Neighborhood – Essay by Bill Davison, award-winning wildlife photographer, biologist, farmer, and agroforeste, 20 Oct 2023

https://billdavison.substack.com/p/love-is-my-teacher

Location: Ilse and Charles Jobson Natural Play Park, Colene Hoose Elementary School, 600 Grandview Dr, Normal, IL 61761, United States

Park area: 15 Acre

Foundation: Jobson Family Foundation

Building Owner: McLean County Unit District No. 5

Design: Helle Nebelong, Landscape Architect MAA, MDL, MPM

Mosaic River: Robin Brailsford

Contractor: Bienenstock Natural Playgrounds

Horticulturist: Heather A. Wilcox

Inaugurated: October 2023

Photos: Helle Nebelong, Jobson Family Foundation, Melissa Ellin, WGLT and Karen Stephens

Drone photos from march 2024: Bienenstock Natural Playgrounds

Illustrations:

Screen shot of the front page of The Pantagraph, pantagraph.com Oct. 6, 2023. Photo: Clay Jackson

Drawings are hand-colored by Timoteo Ebikon Henningsen