Forest Kindergarten & Elementary School
Outdoor Kindergarten & Elementary School, K-2 in Boulder County
Our Mission & Vision
Our mission is to provide holistic, heart-based, immersive nature-based education to kindergarten and early elementary students in Boulder County. We offer a high-quality educational experience that connects students to the Earth, each other, and themselves through nature immersion, place-based curriculum, and wild nature play. Emotional education(resilience, regulation) is our priority- we believe this prepares children for life in ways that traditional schools that prioritize intellectual education alone (“learning things”) can not. Our world has been built from the mind for so long, and we want to bring it back to the heart through the way we educate our youth. We envision a future generation of healthy, whole, inspired, eco-conscious humans who heal our planet through the cultivation and sharing of their innate gifts. Heart Seed Wildschooling offers a curriculum rich in direct experience with nature that nurtures a sense of community and belonging among children, families and the land. Drawing on a deep understanding and continuous exploration of child development, our small class size, high adult/child ratios, and the curriculum provide a foundation of respect for the developmental process and the unique unfolding of each child.
Educational Philosophy
We believe children are inherently whole and capable. Each child who joins us at forest school is a whole person, each with their own thoughts, dreams, and interests. We are here to guide each child to discover the joy of life and learning. Giving children autonomy over their education and supporting them in their process of discovery reflects a mutualistic relationship based on trust and respect between adult and child. Children who feel trusted and safe relax into learning. When children are given the time and space to learn what they are interested in, unencumbered by standards or rubrics, we have the pleasure of seeing their true nature and interests unfurl. In this setting children begin the process of knowing themselves and how they best relate to the world. With a holistic sense of self, emotional intelligence, tools to access knowledge and a curiosity for learning intact, children leave our program prepared and capable to respond to our ever-changing world. We believe that feeling at home in one's world, feeling a sense of belonging, and building one's capacity for regulating one's nervous system, allows children to be integrated in whatever setting they end up in later on.
We believe that it is the right of all children to a consistent and meaningful experience of nature. Play is the way that children make sense of the world, and play in nature is always rich with meaning and allows our children to build a map to assist them in navigating relationships, their sense of self and their understanding of the world and their place in it. We believe that play is the most important work of childhood, and at forest school, that time is protected and cherished. We set the foundation for children to let their imaginations run wild and free. Childhood should be magical, infused with wonder, exploration, and creation. We allow the forest to be our teacher. Each day is a new opportunity to let the magic unfold. We provide authentic and experiential learning experiences as well as more structured activities in order to give our students the tools they will need to follow their dreams, interests, and passions.
We believe a curriculum which emerges from the interests of the children holds more potential for learning than one which is imposed by us as teachers. Children are naturally eager to learn everything they can about the world, and our role in that learning is to be excellent observers of the children’s play, so we may offer small provocations and scaffold them as they build upon their thinking.
We believe that teaching to the whole child- mind, body, heart- includes building body awareness and physical development. We find nature to be the best possible teacher of appropriate risk-taking, and encourage our children to experiment with running, jumping, climbing, swinging, sledding, rolling, carrying and generally feeling how capable our bodies are. This experimentation also contributes greatly to the sense of inner calm and control which “forest” children seem to regularly display, including a distinct lack of ADHD.
We believe that school should be a joyful place where children grow and develop at their own pace. At our school, we support kids discovering their gifts and their inherent value outside of standardized test scores. We want each child to be recognized and honored for the unique gifts they carry and the medicine they share with the world. We believe that through changing our education style, we can potentially shift the social belief that children must be taught information in a traditional setting in order to be “successful”. We want to provide an example of how education that highlights qualities of freedom, love for the Earth, and exploration in a natural wild environment can set a strong foundation for the whole child to feel their own deep sense of belonging and purpose in the world, as well as carry on their care for and protection of Earth throughout their lives.
What We Offer
We focus on immersive experiential learning and child-led emergent curriculum in nature, subtly and skillfully guided by teachers to achieve state academic standards. We know that the deepest learning occurs from moments of joy, curiosity, wonder and loving connection (these experiences reside in a child’s long-term memory). This is why our program is relationship-focused- we keep a low ratio to create meaningful education moments that enhance each student’s natural curiosity and deeply inquisitive mind (we want to teach how to think, not what to think), and foster a lifelong love of learning. Through play- using our hands and bodies to engage among the elements of the natural world- our lessons seep into our bones and become part of us, allowing us to fully embody our knowledge and bring it out into the world everywhere we may go.
Our environment is a very important piece of our school. Our learning takes place fully outdoors, rain or shine, throughout the cycle of seasons. The time spent in our wild classroom engaging in this deep relationship with the natural world is crucial to our educational method. Natural settings provide children with direct experience with a world not made by humans, where we can feel ourselves as a part of a larger community of life. Through study of ecopsychology, we understand how crucial the sense of belonging in the world is for whole human development (and how this sense of belonging is so sadly missing for many people in our world today). Through fostering a sense of belonging in the natural world around us, we believe we are bringing a psychological benefit to our students that will serve both each child and the world for the rest of their lives. Our purpose is to be shepherds to a generation of whole healthy humans who will heal our planet.
We are collectively raising the next protectors of the earth. The relationship with nature formed during a child’s early years will build the identity of the “eco-self”- the self that cares for nature and all living things with the sense that it is part of us. At Heart Seed Wildschooling, we deeply value time spent building this bond with nature. Our students immerse themselves in the natural world through aple time of imaginative play- these experiences become core memories that shape who we are. This relationship with the earth that we cultivate during childhood is so deep in the fabric of our being, the bond lasts a lifetime and positively influences how we interact with the world as an adult. What we love, we are likely to protect!
Our Values
Wild Nature Play
Wild nature play happens through uninterrupted and unstructured time outside. This valuable time gives space for imagination, creativity, teamwork and beautifully intricate and coordinated efforts between children. The children practice embodying who they are through play- they gain a sense of self and notice their inherent gifts through this freedom of expression, as well as deepen the connection with the Earth and each other. The space and time creates opportunities for children to explore social dynamics, such as trying on different roles and working through difficulties in engaging with others, which leads to negotiation and building emotional flexibility.
Social-Emotional Development
Our teachers work by modeling and seeing in our students the inherent empathic relating, conflict resolution, and emotional awareness skills to help them in their budding social worlds! We hold a conscious container to support our students healthy individual power and to foster their evolutionary transition into the collective space of relationship.
Place-Based Education
Heartseed meets in local, natural spaces. The sky is our ceiling, the trees are our walls, and the floor is the living Earth. Our students learn to identify local flora and fauna, recognize patterns in nature, build physical prowess, agility, and confidence, and develop a solid foundation for lifelong learning. Our classes are busy foraging, recognizing plants that can heal or harm us, tracking and observing animals, observing changes on the land, painting, drawing, crafting, and playing in nature’s playground. Using wild harvested materials in our play and work helps us to know our interdependence with our sacred earth through all of our senses.