"Before we began at Forest K, we were working through some considerable social and emotional challenges in our child. Forest K has been an incredible outlet for our child to grow, learn, develop, take risks, build friendships, and so much more. Over the course of her year, we have seen our daughter grow in her self-confidence, overall happiness, and excitement. It has been a joy to watch."
- 2021-2022 Forest K parent
[My child] formed lovely relationships w children and teachers, felt belonging and part of a community, learned to follow rules and adult direction, good eating habits, shared meals at a table, and a sense of contentment and wholeness.
-2021-2022 parent
We are accepting waitlist registrations for new families for 2024-2025 school year. Apply online here.
Families will be contacted if a spot becomes available. At that time, we will invite you for a tour and to complete an admissions application.
Our Forest Kindergarten preschool program is licensed by the Mass. Department of Early Education and Care.
Merrohawke is a Full Member of the Waldorf Early Childhood Association of North America.
What’s Forest Kindergarten?
“Forest Kindergarten” is a form of early childhood education based on the German model of waldkindergartens or “forest preschool.” Learning takes place entirely outdoors in all seasons. Children learn in a natural environment through curiosity, play and discovery. In Europe, parents believe that preparing for school means developing social-emotional and motor skills first―academics follow later. There are many forest kindergartens in England, Scotland, Sweden and Denmark. In Germany alone, more than 1,000 forest kindergartens are formally recognized and subsidized by the German government. The first forest kindergarten in the U.S., Cedarsong Nature School, opened in 2008, and many more have begun nationwide over the past decade.
Merrohawke’s Forest Kindergarten, one of the very first in Massachusetts, began in October 2013. This school year is our 10th Anniversary year of Forest Kindergarten.
Forest Kindergartens differ from nature preschools in that our focus is on social-emotional and physical development in a 100% outdoor, natural setting.
We understand that modern childhood has turned to electronic screens, especially during the pandemic. Prior to COVID, most American children spent up to eight hours a day inside interacting with digital media and less than 30 minutes a day engaged in unstructured, outdoor nature play. Sadly, these numbers are even higher now.
“This is important in a world that is becoming ever more digitized and removed from reality,” writes author David Sobel. “This flips the concept of real on its head. What’s real [to a child] is technology and the built environment; the natural world becomes distant and ‘unreal.’” All Merrohawke programs have always sought to reestablish a balance of indoor versus outdoor time in childhood.
We work to make sure that all children may grow strong by nature.
Teaching Philosophy & Curriculum
Philosophy and curriculum are inspired by and rooted in the principles of Waldorf early childhood education. Through carefully created experiences--and the spontaneous opportunities that nature offers up each day--we strive to give time and space for curiosity to inspire further inquiry. In this way, knowledge and connection to the natural world can grow over time and at a child’s own pace.
In our Forest Kindergarten, we value singing and dancing as an integral part of our time together. While children of all ages, especially the young child, are hungry for the warmth and joy that can be found when singing, this practice is exceptionally beneficial to prepare them for their future academic success.
Academic success happens best when there is a strong foundation of sensory development and motor skills, including their ability to move comfortably within their own body, to listen and to practice language. The rhythm and repetition of our songs, both in daily circles and times of transition, are essential nourishment to your child’s growth. As Dr. Laura Froyen reminds us “Rhythm gives our day flow. Routine gives our day structure. Ritual gives our day meaning.” In this way, music through singing is a treasured part of our days.
Additional key principles include:
Low teacher to student ratio: No more than six students per teacher. Class size is typically 12 students and three teachers.
Total Nature Immersion: 100% outdoors in all reasonable and safe weather conditions resulting in a close connection to the natural world in all seasons. (During the winter months, or if the weather is exceptionally inclement, we will spend a little bit of time inside the Carriage House, modestly heated by a wood stove.
Developmentally Appropriate Curriculum:
- Age-appropriate curriculum honors the developmental stage of the child. Enrollment for Forest Kindergarten tightly adheres to specific age ranges in order to honor and support developmental stages and nurture and protect these special childhood years.
- Songs, stories, and artistic projects are an integral part of our days in order to cultivate a sense of wonder, well-being, confidence, empathy, curiosity and joy.
- Daily walks and play in the forest support a growing child’s sense of their own physical boundaries, coordination, fine and gross motor skills, balance, ability to understand the meaning of spoken words, empathy for others, and comfort and nourishment in the natural beauty that surrounds us with nature’s abundance of sights, colors, sounds, tastes and smells.
- Meaningful work is part of our daily rhythms. Teachers spend much of the days tending the gardens and preparing our meals, while children are invited to play alongside and engage where desired. This may include gathering firewood, working in the garden, raking, sweeping, and other tasks to support our sense of community, to deepen our connection to place, and to inspire creative industrious play.
- Nourishing, organic home-cooked vegetarian snacks and lunch builds community and sense of belonging with meal time shared together at one table.
- The days, weeks, seasons, and school year are all consciously structured for consistent and nurturing rhythms, drawn from the natural cycles around us
- Each day includes time for free play, the true work of childhood
- Caregiving is aligned with the principles of Emmi Pikler, who advocated for deep respect and reverence for the growing child’s own innate capacities.
Place-Based Education: Total immersion in local landscape, heritage, and culture to build personal relationships with the land and its inhabitants.
Each day is filled with what nature inspires as we integrate cyclical stories sourced from the seasonal rhythms. We greet our day through play and reconnecting with the land and each other, in a routine that allows each child to settle in for the morning. We gather in a circle with songs as we prepare for the day’s adventure. By mid-morning, we’ll share a snack. After eating snack, we will take a walk through the forest. Then we’ll play until it’s time for lunch. Following a shared meal, we will wrap up our day with an oral story or puppetry.
A majority of our time together is spent in unstructured, imaginative play, which the children lead. Open-ended and interactive play in the context of the natural world is the true work of childhood, and is the most direct pathway to cultivating and strengthening divergent thinking, social and emotional skills, cognitive functions, empathy for the natural world, physical competence and confidence, communication skills, and building a long lasting personal connection to nature.
We embrace a resilient mindset and give children the opportunity to solve problems on their own. Adults are nearby to assist but often do not intrude unless safety is at risk. Without adults directing their play, the children have the (increasingly rare) freedom to sink into deep, imaginative play and, when needed, the opportunity to learn how to resolve conflict for and amongst themselves. Developing new skills and resolving challenges in the face of frustration can cultivate empathy, flexibility, self-awareness and self-regulation, together known as emotional intelligence. We believe that developing initiative, persistence, creativity, and a capacity for problem solving are essential to future academic success.
Essential Details
Registration for new families is based on availability. We will contact waitlist families to confirm enrollment or waitlist status as soon as we reasonably can.
Forest Kindergarten
Program is full for the 2024 - 2025 school year. We are accepting waitlist applications here.
Location: Towne Farm (iFarm), 55 Towne Road, Boxford. This program is entirely outdoors but will go indoors in an open classroom for short durations in inclement weather.
Ages: Children 2.9 - 5 welcome.
Session Length: 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. (Includes snack and lunch.)
Attendance: Children are requested to attend a minimum of two days per week. Forest Kindergarten runs Tuesdays through Fridays.
Time & Days: 2024-2025 School Year: September 10, 2024, to May 23, 2025.
This includes a one week Thanksgiving Break in November, 5-week winter break December 21 to January 27, and one week breaks in February and April.
Program day runs 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. You may register for two, three or four days, with Tuesdays and Thursdays required together if either of those days is desired. While families may enroll their child for one day/week (Wednesday or Friday), this is discouraged. Enrollment for two or more days a week is STRONGLY encouraged as this best serves the child and our classroom community with consistent rhythm and routine. Families interested in attending more than one day/week will be given waitlist preference.
Cost:
$2,688 total tuition for one day per week, September through May.
$5,336 total tuition for two days per week.
$8,004 total tuition for three days per week.
$10,672 total tuition for fours days per week.
Financial Assistance and monthly payment plans are available. Most families opt to enroll in our billing plan that spans nine equal installments, July through March.
Statement of Non-Discrimination: Merrohawke does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, gender, religious affiliation, age, sexual orientation, national origin, disability or family configuration.
Toilet training is not an eligibility requirement for enrollment.
Merrohawke will make every reasonable effort to ensure that a child with disabilities is able to participate in our programs in the same way as the other children enrolled. When made aware of the disability of a child enrolled, staff will meet with parents to discuss what reasonable changes can or should be made for the child to be successful at Merrohawke.
Recommended Reading, Viewing, and Visiting
"Running Free in Germany's Outdoor Preschools," New York Times, May 18, 2017.
"Preschool without walls," New York Times, Dec. 29, 2015
"You Can't Bounce Off the Walls if There Are No Walls: Outdoor Schools Make Kids Happier--And Smarter," David Sobel, Yes Magazine, March 28, 2014
Last Child in the Woods, Richard Louv
The Nature Principle, Richard Louv
The Geography of Childhood, Gary Paul Nabhan & Stephen Trimble
“Look, Don’t Touch,” David Sobel, Orion magazine, July 2012 http://www.orionmagazine.org/index.php/articles/article/6929
Children and Nature Network, http://www.childrenandnature.org/
Sir Ken Robinson, http://sirkenrobinson.com/ and http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=zDZFcDGpL4U
School's Out: Lessons from a Forest Kindergarten: http://www.schoolsoutfilm.com/