We grow strong bodies, steady minds, and resilient, adaptable children.
A fully outdoor preschool, TK and kindergarten in Golden Gate Park and at Ocean Beach.
The first five years build a child's lifelong foundation. Ours is built on Nature + Play.
OUT IN NATURE ALL DAY, EVERY DAY
San Francisco Forest School follows the original Scandinavian model: children spend their days outdoors, through every season, with child-led play at the center.
Play develops the body, mind and sense of self at once, and nothing in early childhood has more evidence behind it.
Our job is to protect enough time and space for unstructured play, inside a rhythm familiar enough that children can settle in and go further.
Every day includes lesson time in literacy, math, science and art, and children spend more of their day in uninterrupted, child-led play here than almost anywhere else.
THE FLOW
How we sustain a day of uninterrupted play.
The Flow is the staff-led system we've refined over years to sustain uninterrupted play through close observation, skilled facilitation and clear boundaries.
Our educators train for it continuously.
It’s the San Francisco Forest School difference.
Obseravation
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Facilitation
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Co-regulation
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Reflective practice
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Communication
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Teamwork
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Obseravation • Facilitation • Co-regulation • Reflective practice • Communication • Teamwork •
BUILT IN PARTNERSHIP WITH
Oogubi produces high-capacity, premium family experiences across the Bay Area, built on one belief: children flourish when they have space to explore at their own pace, and the crew's job is to protect and maintain it.
The Flow is that same practice, applied to an all outdoor school where every day is an new event.
WHAT WE’RE DEVELOPING
A child develops all at once.
Mind, heart and body are developing at the same time.
MIND
Learns through play
Attention, memory, problem-solving, and staying with something difficult.
HEART
Learns through relationship
Communication, empathy, negotiation, disagreement and repair.
BODY
Learns through movement
Balance, strength, movement, risk
judgement and physical confidence.
ADAPTABLE
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CONFIDENT
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RESILIENT
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SELF-REGULATED
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CREATIVE
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ADAPTABLE • CONFIDENT • RESILIENT • SELF-REGULATED • CREATIVE •
Ready for kindergarten means ready to learn.
KINDERGARTEN READINESS
Readiness is a child's growing capacity to walk into a new place, form relationships, steady themselves, communicate, explore, solve problems, and take on what comes next with confidence.
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“I can have a big feeling and find my way back.”
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“I can decide something and keep going on my own.”
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“I can join in, disagree, and put it right.”
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“I can be disappointed and carry on anyway.”
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“I can stay with something hard because I want to know.”
Daily lesson time in literacy, math, science and art sits inside all of this, and children meet it at their own pace.
Mixed ages help. A four-year-old learns something from a five-year-old that no adult could have handed them, and nobody is measured against the child beside them.
