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Wild Willow Nature Preschool
(3-6yr olds)
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Program Description:
Wild Willow Nature Preschool, is a nature & play based early childhood program, where the natural environment offers countless learning opportunities. Our program supports the whole child through high-quality learning, inspired by children’s human educative instincts to learn, be curious, be playful and share their learning socially.
Our program meets the developmental needs of preschoolers while at the same time inspiring them to love learning and appreciate the world around them.
Our unique nature and play-based approach supports them with age-appropriate educational experiences through hands-on, playful learning in nature. This experiential learning process nurtures strong cognitive growth, social & emotional skill building, physical health & abilities as well as, inspires awe & wonder.
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Dates/Times:
This is a school year long program. Beginning Mid-August through end of May. We follow our local school schedule (Whitley County, IN) including holidays.
Days: Monday/Wednesday/Friday
Times:
AM: 9am-12pm (2 spots available)
Location: Giving Gardens of Indiana
479 S. Towerview Dr. Columbia City, IN
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Tuition:
Registration: $90 per family (non-refundable)
This holds a spot for your child for the school year. This must be paid when you register to hold your child’s spot. This will be applied to your tuition when classes begin. If you choose to pull your child from the program, you will NOT be refunded your registration fee.
$90.00 Weekly (36 weeks)
Sibling discount: $75 off per child for full year tuition
Scholarship: 25% off school year tuition. This is based off of income. You can fill out the scholarship form in the link at the top of this page. Our treasurer will review the form and make a determination if the scholarship is awarded. Scholarships are available on a first come first serve basis . There are no guarantees you will receive the scholarship. You must have you scholarship request sent in no later then 4 weeks before school year begins.
ESA Scholarship Account:
ESA Voucher/Funding for students with special needs and support programing. If your child is being homeschooled and needs an ESA SP (IEP) you must go to your local school district to get this recommendation for your child to get qualified for this financial support. Your child must be 5+ years old to qualify. Follow the QR Code in the image to get funding. This funding can be used for tuition for our programs.
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Payment Information:
Giving Gardens of Indiana offers the following payments plans: one lump payment OR weekly. If tuition is not paid in full, a full weekly payment is due at the end of the week. A registration fee will be applied to hold your child’s spot for each program and applied towards your tuition total. For early withdrawals from a program after the school year/semester begins, prorated refunds will be applied according to the time of withdrawal if tuition was paid in full, minus the registration fee.
All bills and billing plans are created in Brightwheel and paid through Brightwheel. A $25 late fee will be applied after 10 days of a missed payment.
If you choose to temporarily withdraw your child from our programming, we will not hold their spot in the program.
ESA Voucher/Funding for students with special needs and support programing. If your child is being homeschooled and needs an ESA SP (IEP) you must go to your local school district to get this recommendation for your child to get qualified for this financial support. Your child must be 5+ years old to qualify. Follow the QR Code in the image to get funding. This funding can be used for tuition for our programs.
ESA Scholarship Account
"My son participated in Giving Gardens nature programming for 2 years and I was beyond pleased with how well he transitioned into a traditional school setting afterwards! I love how the programs are nature and play based and how their child led approach allows for kids to become engaged and really build a love for learning. He grew in leaps and bounds with communication, creativity, problem solving, teamwork and his desire to be outside and active. He entered 1st grade not knowing how to read and halfway through the year he was above benchmark in reading and well above benchmark in math. I could see that the Giving Gardens program really prepared him to be successful wherever he would go. I would recommend these programs to any parent!"
-Parent of student in Giving Gardens program
“As a homeschool family, it felt a little strange at first to be doing a drop off program for preschool 3 days a week. Soon though it felt like taking them to a cherished relatives home. The teachers not only notice what makes your child unique, they celebrate and encourage their individuality. Both of our children have had noticeable gains in both fine and gross motor control and strength. They have learned how to work and express their ideas in a peer group (something I can’t replicate at home). Most of all, they have a ton of fun no matter what the weather brings! I can’t recommend Wild Willows and the Giving Gardens programs enough. “
-Wild Willow Nature Preschool parent
How will the Parent/Caregiver be involved?
Parent/Caregiver volunteers in class 2x a month if able
4hrs a school year of volunteering in the organization-ex: fundraisers, events, organizing supplies, joining committees, garden help, clean up of play area, etc.
Parent/Caregiver education meetings 2x a year
Seasonal community gatherings
Beginning of the school year parent/caregiver/staff training
Parent/Caregiver Involvement
At Wild Willow Nature Preschool, we not only want your children to thrive, but we want the family to thrive as well!
We think of our programs as a community. A healthy community is foundational for healthy individuals. In our programs we want the parents and caregivers to be apart of their child's education and build relationships within our small community to make relationships with other parents and caregivers. This supportive community helps each other through these years of our children growing into independent adults. A place to ask questions and learn from each other and hopefully make life long relationships!
Do you have an item sitting around your home you would want to share?
Loose parts are an important learning tool for our students education and building creativity! So if you have anything at home you are no longer using, donating it to our students will make joyful learning for them and reduce waste at the same time!
If you would just like to make a donation to our classroom supplies, this is a great list of needs we use often!
Thank you for helping support the growth of the future generations with your generosity!
Why is self-directed learning so important?
“Rote memorization can be an effective way to pass the next test, but without narrative and context, it will be very difficult, inefficient, and tedious to move it into long-term memory. An education separated from life itself is no education at all. The creation of meaning is what human learning really is all about. That’s what makes learning joyful.”
-Teacher Tom
The girly girl deserves forest school too!
by Megan M.- parent of a Wild Willow Nature Preschool Student
We didn’t find our gender when I was pregnant, so the nursery and all the newborn clothes were neutral. We knew we wanted more children so even after she was born we tried to keep most of the toys and things like, coats neutral so things could still be passed down if she had a baby brother. However, it took her very little time to let us know she wanted all the purple pink sparkle the world had to offer!
I think when adults think of what a Forest or nature school has to offer children, the image goes to a rough and tumble little boy or even a girl with a backwards baseball hat, who spits on anything pink. These children of course do benefit from the outdoors, but we need to reframe our mindset to also include the girly girl.
The outdoors has infinite space for children to dip their toes in a puddle or lay in the creek. Both being beneficial, in time, puddle dipping often leads to splashing, which leads to more and more immersive experiences that yes; even the girliest of girls can get into (though it may take them time to warm up to the idea). They can see the outdoors differently, concentrating on the violets or the butterflies, slowing down the pace of the class just enough so that those boisterous, more obvious wild children can benefit from their observations. Is there any less value in constructing tiny fairy houses verses large forts? Both are working muscle groups, require planning, experimenting with physics and architecture principles. Does sketching flowers or finding as many purple and pink things that bring her so much joy not have merit?
The natural world provides ample opportunity for all children to find joy, even our girly girls.
