Wild Oak Preschool will now be offering seasonal sessions for the 2025-26 school year. Our nature-based early education curriculum is inspired by the seasons, so each season will offer new and exciting learning themes to engage your child in hands-on sensory experiences through early literacy, science, art and nature explorations. Inquire now about Fall enrollment!
Fall Session: September 8 - November 21
Winter Session: January 5 - March 19
Spring Session: March 30 - June 11
Wild Oak Preschool is a new childcare offering to the Applegate Valley community, sprouting up from a need for a fuller spectrum of childcare, to include time spent both indoors and out, longer days so parents can work, year-round scheduling so families can have consistent and reliable care, and alternative forms of payment including the DSHS childcare subsidy, ERDC. Wild Oak Preschool is a childcare program that is fully licensed with the state to enable parents the option of affordability with subsidized childcare payments. Wild Oak Preschool is more than just childcare, however. We offer a preschool experience that is rooted in nature and the child's curiosity, not driven by state standards and age-determined expectations, but rather, the child's inherent love of learning and connecting with their environment, indoors and out. Come grow with us!
We implement a secular, nature-inspired curriculum that focuses on social, emotional, and cognitive development. Our curriculum weaves together elements from several complementary parenting and teaching philosophies, including Charlotte Mason, Waldorf, Montessori, and wild schooling. Daily rhythms feature teacher-led educational and arts activities as well as child-led unstructured exploratory and nature play, including indoor and outdoor play, and quiet, restorative time.
Hello! I'm Heather and I will be facilitating at Wild Oak Preschool. My youngest child, Aspen, who is 4, will also be a part of Wild Oak Preschool. I have been raising children of my own for 19 years now. Working with children and instilling within them a love of nature has been a lifelong passion of mine. My mother ran a home childcare program throughout my childhood and I have fond memories of those years. My educational background is in environmental & earth sciences, and elementary education. I have worked with children in many capacities that weave together early learning and our natural environment. I am truly inspired by Charlotte Mason's philosophies on early childhood with her whole-child approach and nature-inspired learning, and I am excited to bring this into my program to help inspire within your children a passion for learning through experiences and connections with the natural world.