St. Paul's Nature Preschool

Home
United States
Camden, DE
St. Paul's Nature Preschool

We are a nature immersive, child-led, play based, mixed-ages program for children 3-5.

Permanently closed.

We also offer a Tuesday forest school option for homeschooling families of children ages 5-10.

05/22/2026

Don't have a swimming pool on a hot day? The children in our Tuesday homeschool class can help you out! A little prior knowledge of pool construction and teamwork, they got right to work designing a pool in the mud pit, complete with a liner and water slide. The following day, the other group got to use it too after filling it more with water.

05/03/2026

We will be having an alumni gathering at the end of this week. If we missed sending you the email invitation, please send us a message to receive the details. Thank you! 💚🪱🪏🐞🐸

03/28/2026

After seven years of providing an environment that focuses on trusting children to know what they need, offering them time and space to play their way, facilitating experiences and providing care for them to develop and grow naturally, we will be closing St. Paul’s Nature Preschool at the end of this school year. We are so grateful to all of the families who have put their trust in the power of play and the importance of children being outside to make discoveries and be curious about the world around them. I am also so grateful for Ms. Jenn who has traveled on this journey with me.
As this chapter closes, I look forward to the next chapter as co-teacher with ROOTS Farm & Forest School at their new Clayton location opening this fall. I am also planning on continuing to hold Pop-Up Adventure Playgrounds at local parks and alumni nature play events at various locations as time permits.
Forever Yours in PLAY,
Ms. Monica

03/21/2026

With the ground warming up, children were flipping logs and most anything touching the ground to search for worms. This led to digging behind a garden bench to create a secret base which morphed into water being added to make "concrete". We observed the children communicating ideas, working together toward a goal, using large and small muscles, strengthening their core using tools, filling and dumping wheel barrows with water, observing the properties of water, soil, mud and living creatures. All child-led learning that sticks like MUD! 🪱🪏💚

02/07/2026

This past week the children in all our classes spent time on the ice covered snow. Thanks to one of our families who loaned us some saucer sleds which provided hours of fun sliding across the ice! With the addition of a harvested idea of using a rope to pull multiple children, we improvised with a rolled up bed sheet for children to hold as the adult pulled for a fun filled ride. Check out some videos posted in the comments!

01/17/2026

Our time after break has given us opportunities to explore ice with the rain and colder temperatures while the warmer temperatures brought out a wooly bear caterpillar. A common idea for play has been building forts, hideouts or shelters. The homeschool group built and decorated theirs under the climbing dome while the Monday group used a playhouse and wooden boards and blocks. Yesterday the younger children explored among the trees playing hide and seek and gathered sticks and branches to build a shelter.

12/06/2025

Yesterday the children played and experienced snow using all their senses! It also awakened our own childhood memories of snowy days: making snow angels; clapping out snow from our mittens to keep them dry; playing chase to stay warm; tasting fresh snow; and how powdery snow doesn't pack that well, but with some persistence and teamwork you eventually get enough to make a small snowman. ❄️☃️

11/26/2025

Our Tuesday homeschool enrichment forest school group (ages 5-11) was the first to use a new large loose part yesterday, courtesy of our own Ms. Jenn, who found it! It was put on the ground at first with everyone having a turn to go inside it or a few climbed on top. Later on they discussed how else they could use it. The plan was to bring it to the mud pit and dig tunnels to go in and out. All the creativity, cooperation and problem solving were all the work of the children. We can't wait to see what ideas the younger children come up with next Monday!

11/25/2025

It's so exciting to watch how children use a new loose part when it is added to the play yard. At first this piece was put on the ground and children piled inside of it. As we talked with a few children later about what other ideas they had for it, someone suggested to move it to the mud pit. Then they set to work on their own idea of making tunnels to crawl through to get under it. They decided to dig from inside of it as well. We love it when a plan comes together! (See comment section for video of successful tunnel crawl through.) 🚧 🦺

11/22/2025

What a child chooses to engage in in our environment is meaningful to them! This is what childhood is meant to be; using their whole body, figuring out how to be with others, testing out their ideas and making natural discoveries. We are thankful to the families past and present in joining us to provide their children an opportunity to play as nature intended! 💚

Address

210 Old North Road
Camden, DE
19934

Telephone

(302) 697-7904

Website

http://stpaulsdelaware.church/programs-ministries

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when St. Paul's Nature Preschool posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Contact The School

Send a message to St. Paul's Nature Preschool:

Want your school to be the top-listed School/college in Camden?