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Forest Freedom School

NOW ENROLLING

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NOW ENROLLING –

Forest Freedom School is a year round self-directed nature based educational program for youth 6 months - 6 years old. We center Black Liberation as a practice through which we help all our children get free. At Forest Freedom School we view the child as a whole person, we honor their cultural and community practices, their interests, passions, strengths and areas for growth! We support our kiddos to expand their social emotional development, joy, play, and passions for social justice. Our days are spent appreciating and learning in our outdoor environment. We integrate our learning about social justice and empowerment through songs, chants, and stories. We take time to gather with our school community for moments of mindfulness reflection and gratitude.

 
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Location

The whole community is our school yard! We do not believe true learning can be contained by the same four walls all day. Our consistent home bases are the Redwoods of Joaquin Miller Park in Oakland (Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday) and Urban Cowgirl Ranch in Castro Valley (Thursday, Friday).

Cohorts

We have two cohorts in who play and learn in one mixed aged community.

Ages 6 months - 2.5 years

Ages 2.5 - 6 years

For Parent-Child forest school offerings check out Earth Starts & Fairy Finger cohorts

what do we do everyday?

DAILY RHYTHM

8:45 AM- ARRIVAL

Greetings! Everyone settles in and there is free, unstructured play and stories at Urban Cowgirl Ranch and Joaquin Miller Park

9:15 AM- MORNING MEETING

We center our bodies and check in with our friends about how they’re feeling and what ideas they have for the day. The teacher provides the day’s offering and we discuss current projects. Children are also invited to have snack at this time.

9:45 AM- MORNING ADVENTURE

We explore the forest/ranch and connect with nature. This is also the time that children choose from offerings such as story workshop, inquiry topics, and creating freedom fighter plays. Sometimes we will have music and movement offerings.

12:00PM- AFTERNOON MEETING

We center our bodies, eat our lunch, and engage in dialogue about everyone’s adventures and projects.

12:30PM- Nap/REST

We set up tents and sleeping bags for quiet time nap/rest, listening to stories, and winding down.

1:00PM- AFTERNOON WORK PERIOD

Group projects, Math & literacy skills, Story workshop, freedom fighter studies and other offerings geared toward our TK/K aged students.

3:00PM- CLOSING CIRCLE

We circle up and share reflections and gratitudes from our day.

3:30PM- PICKUP

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Capitalism

We believe in abundance! We have a Trust Based Donation model for “tuiton” payemnts. We ask that families look at what they are able to contribute to sustain our small school program & pay our teachers a living wage & benefits.

TOILETING

Please note that students do not need to be toilet trained to join the program! As an inclusive program, we know that each child develops on their own timeline. We are prepared with all the tools to support them in their path to toileting independence!

KINDERGARTEN

Our kinder-aged children are nestled withing our mixed aged commuinty. This allows our youth to grow as leaders in the community and keep growing their social emotional skills. Our afternoon work period supports our youth with building their academic and social justice literacy skills necessary to be free people and agents of change.