Nature-Based Preschool Opens in West Redding

Nature-based preschool Westbrook Nature Preschool will open in West Redding in September. The school aims to use the environment and nature exploration to teach children ages 3-6. Preschool activities include gardening, baking, painting, sledding, and general exploration. The school also offers parent-child, nursery, and kindergarten programs.

The school is located on 6 acres of land, allowing for nature and forest exploration, gardening, and sledding.

Westbrook Nature Preschool, a new nature-based preschool, will open in West Redding in mid-September for children ages 3-6. Teachers Suzanne Fogle and Kim Carr aim to use the environment as the curriculum for the school, which allows kids to learn naturally.

Unlike most preschools, children enrolled at Westbrook Nature Preschool will spend more time experiencing nature than learning in an indoor classroom. Activities at the preschool include gardening, baking, painting, sledding, and general exploring—the school sits on 6 acres of land, including a large hill for sledding and 4-foot-wide walking trails to explore the forest. With a here-and-now approach to story telling, children hear about what they are currently experiencing in nature.

“We provide a space where children can be outside and develop their senses fully, which is important to their future learning,” Fogle says. “You can’t imitate the complexity of nature in a classroom.” Fogle also says she and Carr hope that the new school will be able to grow with the children and families, as well as in the community.

Westbrook Nature Preschool also offers parent-child, nursery, and kindergarten programs.