WHO WE ARE

Kew Kids is a forest school in a home daycare setting for young children.  We are a mixed-age nurturing community of learners that values kindness, cooperation, curiosity, imagination, and respect for all living things.  Here in New York City where forest area is sparse, we are lucky to live next to Forest Park, the third largest park in Queens covering an area of 538 acres and containing 165 acres of trees.  Numerous trails wind through native hardwood (oak-hickory) forest and kettle ponds.  Forest Park is the classroom, and Kew Kids uses the landscape, the hills, the edges, the trees to encourage exploration, experimentation and development.

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We are part of the nature preschool movement and are proud member of Eastern Region Association of Forest and Nature Schools and Natural Start Alliance, an exceptional network of organizations dedicated to helping young children experience and care for nature.  

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Our teachers are creative, thoughtful, and trained for outdoor adventures.  A small teacher-to-children 4: 1 ratio enables teachers to dive more deeply into the exploration of the forest, and into each child's personal learning journey.

WHAT WE DO

We offer a unique full day and half day year-round drop-off nature-based program and day camps that aim to cultivate in young children a love of the outdoors, hone a sense of wonder, provide healthy challenges that instill confidence, capability, and self-reliance.  Through daily interactions with the environment, our program offers regular thoughtful opportunities for children to get to know and interact with outdoors and the world around them, to learn to look, listen, smell, climb, fall and get back up again, learn to be curious and to explore.    

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Kew Kids allows children to lead in an exploration of the natural landscape and each other.  Children are encouraged to explore, take risks and learn in a safe and open ended setting that seems just like play. 

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Our children spend the bulk of their time outside daily.