Our Forest Preschool is:
Play-based and Place-based
using a Child-directed, Emergent Curriculum
Place-based? Emergent curriculum?
Rooted in the work of early childhood theorists like Dewey, Piaget, and Vygotsky, emergent curriculum is a process where teachers plan activities and projects in response to a specific group of children they are working with, taking into account their skills, needs, and interests. It can be practiced at any grade level. Place-based education connects learners to their local human and natural communities, using hands-on, relevant, real-world learning.
A Day’s Flow with our Forest Preschool
9:00am Arrive & Engage: Friends, Place & Provocations
9:30am Gather: Morning Meeting
9:45am Snack
10:00am Adventures Beyond & Project Work
11:45am Gather: Lunch & Gratitude Circle
12:15pm More Engaging: Friends, Place & Provocations
1:00pm Pick up
Daily activities & projects vary throughout the year based on the seasons, teacher-guided SEL topics and children’s interests. Forest School always includes plenty of opportunities for unstructured, free play, while offering various ways to engage with friends, materials and surroundings.
What else do we do?
Invitations to work with art materials
Building forts with found materials
Books & stories
Music & singing
Exploring and investigating the natural world
Cooking with farm-grown produce
Quiet-time with a nature journal
And…all kinds of science, mathematics and literacy that gets integrated into these activities
Enrollment
To be eligible, students should be at least 3 years old by September 1st and have not yet turned 7.
Enrollment Details
9am-1pm
5 , 4, 3 and 2 Day Enrollment Options
Program Fees 2025-26
Program fees are below and get divided into 10 equal monthly payments due beginning August 15th, with the final payment due May 15th.
5 mornings: $7,900
4 mornings: $6,350
3 mornings: $4,850
2 mornings: $3,300
To enroll in Forest School, the following is due to hold a spot:
Enrollment deposit: equal to one monthly payment, that is applied to your May 15 program fees
Enrollment fee: $75 (a one-time fee that helps compensate staff for administrative time: communications, processing applications, creating new student files and configuring billing/payments)
Supply fee: $100 per child, per year (helps us cover costs for consumable supplies throughout the school year)
Drop-ins: $40 per school day for ages 4+, if space available
More Details
For the 2025-26 school year, we will meet most days at RambleRill Farm, with 1-2 field trip days per month to local parks.
Snacks and lunch are provided by families.
We generally follow the Durham and Orange County Public Schools academic calendar and will close for certain holidays, breaks, teacher work days and staff professional development.
We are limited by the state to a 4 hour program since the state of NC does not currently license nature-based preschools.
In future years, as we grow, we plan to offer financial assistance. As a very small program, that isn’t possible yet, unfortunately. However, if a program like this is just what you’d want for your child, but the cost truly isn’t possible, please inquire about options for work/trade.