Our enrollment system is a lottery.  We begin taking name entries for our lottery system in mid-February of each year.  We draw from the lottery on March 1 and inform all lottery entrants of their enrollment status (if they have been drawn for a class opening or if they have been placed on our waitlist). Our waitlist is valid for one year and is wiped clean and started over each March, we do not keep a multiple-year waitlist.

Preschool is founded on the idea that kids learn best through play and hands-on experiences. Students spend at least 80% of their time outdoors, guided in exploration and learning by our skilled team of teacher naturalists. Academic skills such as pattern recognition, letters, numbers, and colors emerge from the child’s experience–counting birds on the pond, looking for matching colors of flowers and bugs, tracking animal prints in the snow, journaling about nature observations, etc. Positive social interaction and respect for others is heightened and reinforced by outdoor exploration and play, and the children’s learning is grounded in sensory experience of what is closest–the animals, plants, rocks, and weather that surround them every day. Fledglings Nature Preschool is a proud member of the Natural Start Alliance.

Our approach draws from multiple sources, including Nature Pedagogy, Interest-led Flow Learning, Reggio Emergent Curriculum, Inquiry Learning, and others. Our teacher-student ratio of 1:8 ensures in-depth mentoring and relationship-building, and frequent contact among the families of our students creates a community that goes beyond the classroom.

In the 2023-24 school year, we offer eight classes in four class times. Each class time will have two separate classes of 8 students. On Tuesdays and Thursdays we offer one preschool class and one kindergarten enrichment class. 

Interested in learning more?

Sign up for a tour by e-mailing Sarah Chatwood at [email protected], our Preschool Coordinator