Nature Vision Preschool is a unique nature-based preschool located at Farrel-McWhirter Farm Park in Redmond. Headquartered at a cottage inside the park, our program blends classic indoor preschool activities with the nature-based play and exploration that is the hallmark of an outdoor preschool program.
Our preschool’s guiding principles couple progressive education with outdoor education philosophies. Nature Vision Preschool teachers write open and flexible curriculum so that children’s inquisitiveness and the changes and cycles of nature guide our activities. Taking hold of spontaneous teachable moments is vital to fueling children’s curiosity and ensures that learning is authentic, contextual, and joyful.
Nature Vision Preschoolers can be found playing and having fun, exploring, discovering, and investigating the world around them. Time spent playing outdoors provides the best foundation for cultivating environmental compassion, leading to stewardship. Outdoor play also offers a dynamic setting in which students can workshop social and emotional skills; laying the groundwork for these important skills ensures success in the school years ahead.
While most of our outdoor play takes place in the fields, forest, and on the trails at Farrel-McWhirter Farm Park, Nature Vision Preschool is fortunate to be a part of the farm community at the park. Nature Vision Preschoolers learn about lifecycles up close by hatching chickens and meeting the farm animals with the farmers, and working in the garden through its different seasonal changes: growing seedlings, planting, tending, harvesting, and putting the garden to ‘bed’ in the winter with manure and straw.
Indoor activities like free-choice, arts and crafts, and circle time help students practice school routines and build familiarity with school culture to prepare them for their Kindergarten and elementary school years ahead. When our students self-select activities to explore during free-choice time, they begin to associate learning with curiosity and self-fulfillment. Teachers facilitate activities in ways that help students build literacy, explore mathematical patterns and concepts, and practice ways of thinking scientifically.
At Nature Vision Preschool, we want students to fall in love with nature, to feel that learning can be joyful, and to know we are all connected to nature and to each other.
Upcoming Open Houses
Nature Vision Preschool at Farrel-McWhirter Farm Park (formerly the Farm and Nature Preschool) will be hosting two Open Houses for prospective families for the 2019-2020 School Year at Farrel-McWhirter Park in the preschool cottage (McWhirter House) this January:
Saturday, January 12th from 10 am to 1 pm
Saturday, January 26th from 10 am to 1 pm
Please join us to meet the preschool teachers, tour the indoor space, and learn more about our program. You may drop in any time during our Open Houses and children are welcome to attend. We look forward to seeing you there!
Open Enrollment
Enrollment for the Nature Vision Preschool for 2019-2020 begins at 10 am in January 22nd! For full class details and to enroll, please visit: https://naturevision.org/preschool/
2019-2020 Classes
Creative Play (Age: 3 ½ - 4 ½ years)
When students play together, they learn together. Through active imaginative play and discovery, students learn about the plants and animals in the forest and garden. Whether wiggling like worms at circle time, making friends with the forest, or building a web like a spider, students notice and begin to make sense of small details within the patterns of nature. When we foster these curiosities, students grow their connections to the world around them and to each other.
Creative Play is designed as a gentle introduction to preschool, with an emphasis on small class size and child-centered, play-based curriculum. This ensures that each child is safe and secure as part of our preschool family. Teachers weave academic concepts throughout daily activities, encouraging authentic and contextual learning in a nurturing and engaging environment. At the end of this growth-filled year, students may move into Pre-K Discoveries with matured sense of connection and place in our preschool community.
Location: Farrel-McWhirter Farm Park
Fee: $375/month
Max. class size: 12
Tuesdays and Thursdays, September 3, 2019 - May 29, 2020, 8:30-11:00 am
Pre-K Discoveries (Age: 4-5 years)
Play is a child’s work and these preschoolers are working hard! Pre-K students are budding and blooming as scientists, artists, mathematicians and storytellers. Through playful exploration, students will discover who lives in the forest and meadow and meet insects and worms up close. They will learn how to be good stewards by recycling and reusing materials and caring for plants and animals at the park.
Teachers stretch existing skills and introduce new skills, like letter names and sounds, counting, and nourish inquisitiveness in preparation for your preschooler’s upcoming Kindergarten year. Student-driven and long-term projects offer chances to apply skills and broaden students’ sense of community and stewardship.
As teachers gradually and gently encourage children to take bigger steps toward self-reliance and building their own curiosity, each child can develop their potential and thrive as part of our preschool community.
Location: Farrel-McWhirter Farm Park
Fee: $525/month
Max. class size: 14
Choose from one of our two Pre-K Discoveries sessions:
Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, September 4, 2019 - May 29, 2020, 8:30-11:30 am
OR
Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays, September 3, 2019 - May 29, 2020, 12:30-3:30 pm
AM and PM sessions of Pre-K Discoveries are identical. Both sessions are not meant to be taken by one child.
Nature Vision Preschool’s parent organization Nature Vision (www.naturevision.org) is a non-profit focused on environmental education. We serve over 70,000 Pre-K through 12th grade students each year with our place-based, experiential nature programming. Nature Vision’s mission is to foster appreciation and stewardship of our environment by educating and connecting community to the world around us. Both our organization and our preschool exist to serve children and contribute to a culture of sustainability in our region and beyond.
Our school is located at:
Farrel-McWhirter Farm Park, 19545 Northeast Redmond Road, Redmond, WA
Phone: 425-556-2324
Email: info@naturevision.org
Website: https://naturevision.org/preschool/
