articles

Play Inspires Learning at Farell McWhirter Farm & Nature Preschool

Two upcoming Open House Dates to Visit

January 12, 2017

The Farm and Nature Preschool at Farrel-McWhirter Park on Novelty Hill has two upcoming Open Houses for prospective families at our preschool cottage in the park (the McWhirter House).

Saturday, January 21st from 11 AM to 2 PM
Saturday, January 28th from 11 AM to 2 PM

Please join us to meet our teachers, see our school and learn more about our play-based philosophy and nature-based curriculum. You may drop in any time during our Open Houses and children are welcome. We look forward to seeing you there!

 

The Farm and Nature Preschool is a unique nature-based preschool serving Eastside and Valley families with 3 ½ to 5 year-olds. We are conveniently located in a charming 2-room cottage at Farrel-McWhirter Park on Novelty Hill between Duvall and Redmond. With our half indoor/half outdoor model, we offer our preschoolers the best of both preschool worlds; a cozy two room cottage where we play, create, and learn together and a 68 acre wooded park and working farm where we observe nature up close as we explore and connect with the natural world around us. The cornerstones of our program are learning through play, individualized preschool education, creating community and inspiring stewardship. The preschool years are a time of incredible growth and change for children. And they are a time when children have a unique opportunity to establish a positive and powerful sense of themselves as a student and a member of their community. That’s what we strive for at our preschool.

 

At the Farm and Nature Preschool, we believe that children learn best through play. The students at our school are given lots of opportunities for open-ended, self-directed play. They explore science and nature concepts as well as letters and numbers, fine motor skills, problem solving and emotional intelligence as they practice making good choices for themselves, managing their expectations, and building resiliency and flexibility in a safe and supportive environment. These are the foundation skills that serve children so well in kindergarten and beyond.

Every child is unique and that statement is never truer than with preschool-aged children. Our students come to us with an incredible variety of experiences, aptitudes and interests. As their teachers, our goal is to engage every one of them where they are and in ways that are meaningful and impactful to them. We have a shared set of goals and expectations as a school. Beyond that, we treat every child as an individual person who deserves an individual approach to meeting their particular preschool needs. At the Farm and Nature Preschool we honor and value all of the differences that make our community rich and strong.

Community is a word you will hear every day at our school. We are our community. Just like animals are dependent on their ecosystems, we cannot live, learn and grow to our full potential without being a part of a community. And building community takes heart and work. That’s exactly the work we’re excited to do at our school! We strive to create community and a sense of shared values and goals among the students in our classes as well as among the families in our program. And we recognize that seeing themselves as part of and dependent upon a larger community is an important step toward children defining themselves as a true steward of their world.

Finally, our preschool is a part of Nature Vision, an environmental education non-profit that brings science and nature programming to public and private schools across our region. Nature Vision fosters appreciation and stewardship of our environment by educating and connecting community to the world around us and both our organization and our preschool exist to serve children and contribute to a culture of sustainability in our region and beyond.

For more information about our preschool and enrollment for the 2017-18 school year, please visit our webpage at https://naturevision.org/farm-and-nature-preschool.