Heron's Nest: Farm And Forest Preschool

We are Heron and Josie, and we make up Heron's Nest: Farm and Forest Family Childcare. We are two farmers and teachers who have aspired to create a land based home program for as long as we can remember. We are a nature-based, Waldorf-inspired home program in Deerfield, MA that offers full time summer care, and will begin to offer a full school year preschool program from September 2023 to June 2024.

Heron is in their fifth year at The Hartsbrook School, and previously worked in a number of adventure based outdoor ed programs with all ages. They are a fiber artist and devoted goat parent. Josie is a music teacher, pianist, vegetable farmer, and student of landscape architecture. Together we hope to create a bright space full of song, plants, creatures, and liberated play for children to share.

Our days are a flexible combination of structure and free play; we believe that child-led curriculum fosters willful learning and genuine curiosity. We are home to a herd of goats, a flock of ducks, and expansive gardens for work and play.

The safe and inviting context of a home garden helps to teach the arts of loving interdependence, devotion to meaningful work, and admiration of our natural world. Animal care, gentle gardening, music making, movement journeys, and hand crafting will be integral pillars to this program.

The two of us are intensely focused on making a learning space that is actively anti-white supremacist and promotes under-represented voices. We are both on a never ending mission towards critical self analysis and an analysis of Euro-centric schooling. We hope that our program will help children to feel liberated, empathetic, and unified.

We are licensed through the MA Department of Early Education and Care (EEC).