Our Philosophy
Ever hear the term "free range children"? We think it needs to make a comeback!
We view unstructured free play as the primary vehicle for learning at Wild Oak Nature School. We add to the benefit of free play by also offering various practical skills such as:
• Seasonal vegetable gardening
• Using and cooking with garden vegetables and fruit.
• Forage and utilize wild medicinal herbs from the property
• Medicinal and culinary herb gardening
• Using loose materials to build anything they want
• Painting with watercolors
• Fire safety and fire starting
• Using real tools
• Woodworking
• Bushcraft skills
....And any other skills that the children show a desire to learn more about ("emergent curriculum")!
Wild Oak educators use the “Coyote Mentoring” way of engaging your child's natural curiosity in order to take advantage of learning opportunities. Each week we incorporate skills through a holistic approach using materials and topics from the natural world.
Respecting each other and the natural world is built into everything we do. We model and promote empathy to foster healthy peer relationships. Additionally, children will learn to help care for our on-site chickens, cows, and garden. The children will gather, prepare, and help cook their snack together. We believe in building connections using our on-site animals, food, and materials.
Why is nature-based superior for building strong and stable children?
Nature-based education fosters healthy mental, emotional, and physical development through child-led learning, risky play, collaborative play, and exploration in an outdoor setting. Having time to regularly visit and learn in the same wooded land, season after season, is an excellent chance for children to connect with nature, themselves, and to build healthy relationships with their peers.
What happens on an average day at Nature School?
The day’s activities at Wild Oak are free-flowing and dynamic, as they depend on the ever-changing environment of the property (seasonal gardening, wild animal tracks, new wildflowers and wild herbs, insect activity, effects of weather on the land, etc.) and on the relationships formed between the children and educators in the group. Educators also add to the day’s learning by introducing ideas and mentoring in building, creating, and wildcrafting. Wild Oak educators follow the lead of the children, focusing on their interests of the day and allowing for independent play as well as collaboration. We open and close each day at our “Base” where we come together to share stories and build community.
On any given day, we spend every moment of our time outdoors... rain or shine!