Our Purpose

Children who have attended Forest Schools have a deeper understanding of the world around them. Evidence shows they are often more engaged, confident, and prepared when they embark into larger school environments. This preparation for future learning and skill development provides a network of discoveries and experiences that are not accessible with indoor learning. Nature Immersion learning engages critical thinking and reasoning and promotes healthy and helpful habits for a lifetime. This experience creates and strengthens our bond to the natural world and our responsibility to live with a global mindset, while being thoughtfully engaged in all of our endeavors.

You wake in the morning to a glorious sunny day. There is still a bit of a chill to the air as Spring begins to crest on the calendar and just outside your front door. Birds are actively finding materials to make their nest, puddles are everywhere you look, and the sun is shining longer over the lake. The children are ready to don their wellies and puddle jump their way through the day...for their day is filled with an open sky, singing birds, foraging bunnies, and squirrels scampering about in the trees.

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Beginnings

I began teaching groups of young children 36 years ago. I had searched for a peer learning environment that was welcoming and inclusive and that created a gentle and encouraging environment to thrive in. I was disheartened by the jarring manner of interaction between the children in the programs I visited, as well as the limited environmental learning the children were constrained to within in the classroom. I knew there was a better way — a kinder way — of being, learning, speaking, and socializing. This was the founding that became the Forest School of Minnesota.

We began as a half day indoor and half day outdoor program. Full immersion came nearly a decade later. In teaching young children year-round and seeing them out in all weather, I saw that they typically were not used to being outside no matter the season. They were less confident with the abilities of their bodies and more hesitant in their play due to that lack of confidence. However, as they spent more time outside and as the seasons unfolded, their confidence grew exponentially. They were far more free to tumble and play and to jump and climb. As their confidences soared, so did their imaginations and it was as if the whole world had opened up to them. I recognized that when they hadn’t previously had as much opportunity to spend their days outside, it was resulting in challenges to their current development and future learning. And that was resulting in shifts in their development, which were prominent and were actually inhibiting many of the typical developmental milestones of many preschool aged children I encountered. After researching opportunities that would bring development and healthy growth to the whole being of children, I immersed our school starting in early 2000 in the forests, prairies, and lakeshores of our area — and from here, we became the first and foundational nature immersion preschool program in North America. FSMN remains unique in the approach to the whole child development and the partnership we have with each child, parent, and family.

The Forest School of Minnesota provided a significant change in education, unheard of in the United States. We continue to teach and value the whole child, and their families, as we guide and teach our students in the amazing nature landscapes that make our learning and play environment a beautiful and unforgettable gift each day.

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Join Us

We’re accepting new students for our upcoming sessions and look forward to hearing from you. FSMN is located in SW Minneapolis, and students commute from all over the metro area. This experience is beneficial and unique to FSMN, and our families grow exponentially during our time together.

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