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What Are Forest Schools?
Not a Method, but a Way of Being
You’ve probably heard the term forest school before. There are plenty of websites that explain what it is, how it works, and what it’s supposed to look like. But for me, it’s not a method. It’s not something you follow step by step or apply like a curriculum. Forest school looks different in every community, every family, every stretch of woods or city park. It’s shaped by the land and the people who gather there.
From Model to Movement
The term forest school was originally used to describe a specific program model. But in the last couple decades it’s grown into something much wider—an umbrella for any deep engagement with the outdoor world, rooted in presence, exploration, and trust. Today, nature-based learning includes early childhood immersion programs, teen wilderness rites of passage, backyard homeschooling circles, and storytelling walks in city parks.
What Holds It Together
There’s no single formula, but most forest schools share something deeper: a commitment to relationship. With the land. With each other. With time, slowness, and wonder. Children are outdoors. Learning is emergent. Tools are real. Emotions are real. The rain is real. And so is the joy. This isn’t about checking boxes or measuring outcomes—it’s about belonging.
Many Expressions, One Root
Some forest schools focus on primitive skills—fire-making, tracking, carving, shelter-building. Others emphasize ecological literacy or outdoor science. Some center on slow time in nature with babies and toddlers, following the pace of a nap, a snack, or a falling leaf. They may draw from Coyote Mentoring, Reggio Emilia, Waldkindergarten, or adventure play. Some meet daily, others weekly or seasonally. Some gather in public parks, some in wildlands, and some in backyard gardens with a tarp and a kettle.
Resilience, Risk, and Weathering the Weather
Across these varied approaches, certain qualities tend to appear: resilience, risk-taking, and a willingness to meet the weather as it comes. As the saying goes, there’s no such thing as bad weather—only bad clothing. These programs don’t shelter children from challenge—they support them to meet it, with creativity, courage, and care.
Cycles of Growth, Human and Wild
I’ve had the privilege of spending many years with the same groups of children—and often their younger siblings too—watching them grow alongside the seasons. Together, we returned year after year to the same ephemeral pond to map the wood frogs’ life cycle, to check on the box turtle in the hollow of a fallen tree, to wait for the vultures who nested in the cave at the top of the hill. These weren’t one-time lessons—they were long relationships. Cycles inside of cycles. This kind of deep connection with place can quietly change a life.
Resources
I won’t define one “right” way to do forest school but offer reflections, resources, book essays, games, study guides, and stories from the field. Whether you’re leading a formal program, parenting outdoors, or following your curiosity, I hope you’ll find something here. There are many paths through the woods. Let’s walk them with wonder.
Sections in this Site
Study Guides
A nature-based approach using curiosity, storytelling, and invisible guidance to foster deep connection with the land, self, and others, supporting cultural repair and renewal.
Writing Related to Deep Nature Connection
A bold challenge to conventional schooling, Free to Learn argues that children thrive best when trusted to play, explore, and educate themselves through freedom and community.
A field-tested mentor’s manual for deepening children's relationship with nature, offering stories, routines, and practices to awaken curiosity, quietude, and ecological belonging.
Discover how a Danish mother’s forest walks sparked a global educational movement, reimagining childhood learning through nature, storytelling, risk, and child-led exploration across cultures and climates.
Discover why "I'm bored!" is actually good news. This science-backed guide reveals how unstimulated time boosts preschoolers' creativity, brain development, and emotional resilience.
A simple forest school lesson on bird alarms became a doorway into presence, perception, and pressure—spanning science, parenting, deep nature connection, and contemplative awareness.
When attention softens, the forest responds. Birds, breath, and baseline become a mirror—not of self, but of tone, pressure, and the wake of thought.
A tribute to Bev Bos and the living legacy of Roseville Preschool—celebrating trust, play, presence, and the radical act of letting children tumble freely into becoming.
A sweeping call to reimagine education as a transformative practice rooted in relationality, ecological belonging, and participatory democracy—toward a future of wholeness and kinship.
Tools for Thought & Practice
The Core Routines of Coyote Mentoring are games and practices to support deep nature connection.
A daily return to the same spot in nature, cultivating quiet mind, deep awareness, and connection through stillness, observation, and intimate familiarity with place.
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Using games and challenges to awaken dormant senses, this routine trains wide-angle vision, deep listening, and touch, enhancing awareness, empathy, and responsiveness outdoors.
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Creating maps from memory fosters spatial awareness, storytelling, and orientation, helping learners understand patterns of movement and relationship across a known landscape.
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This routine develops curiosity and attentiveness through asking questions, following animal signs, and noticing subtle clues—nurturing the art of observation and the spirit of inquiry.
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Birds speak the language of the landscape. Learning to listen reveals hidden stories, predator movements, and a deeper connection to the pulse of place.
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Following tracks and signs teaches awareness, patience, and storytelling—helping us read the land’s invisible stories and understand animals’ patterns, choices, and presence.
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Wandering is aimless exploration with intention. It invites discovery, encourages awareness, and opens the door for mystery, surprise, and spontaneous connection with nature.
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Journaling captures memory, observation, and feeling—shaping a personal record of connection, learning, and discovery. It blends drawing, writing, and reflection in nature.
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Practicing ancient skills—like shelter, fire, and wild foods—builds confidence, gratitude, and resilience. It connects learners to ancestral memory and the essentials of living with the Earth.
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Imagination becomes a tool for connection. Visualizing animal movements, journeys, and landscapes nurtures empathy, memory, and a deep sense of story and belonging.
Thanksgiving is the daily act of expressing gratitude—for the land, the day, and each other—building humility, joy, and a culture of connection and reciprocity.
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Storytelling weaves memory, experience, and imagination into meaning. It deepens connection, builds community, and helps learners integrate their discoveries into living narratives.
By observing seasonal rhythms, moon phases, tides, and migrations, learners begin to align with the deeper patterns of nature and their place within them.
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A daily storytelling ritual where experiences are shared, reflected upon, and made meaningful—nurturing memory, awareness, connection, and the art of cultural learning.
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A hands-on practice of using field guides to identify plants, animals, and tracks—building curiosity, pattern recognition, and respectful relationship with the living world.
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Embodied play through imitating animal movement—awakening awareness, empathy, agility, and sensory learning by becoming fox, deer, heron, or raccoon in the landscape.
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Children’s Learning Stories
Materials and Space Set up for Field Programs
These pages are not linked yet, but we are adding more details here. Come back in August Please!
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