Afternoon Program at Sunbeam!

Afternoon Program meets weekday afternoons Monday through Friday, 12:30 - 5:00pm*

*Partial Afternoons: You can use code HALFCLASS if you're planning to pick up your child within 2 hours after their start time.

*Siblings: Get 10% off when registering together.

We prioritize child-directed play and imagination! While we invite children to help in the garden and care for the animals we have on site, our daily flow is based on their choices and interests. We offer children a safe space to be themselves, relax, play with friends, and move their bodies. Children can climb the oak tree, play in the mud kitchen, cook from the garden, tend animals, and create with tinkering and visual art materials.

Typically, our afternoon kids choose to run and climb and engage in imaginative play and storytelling, which we fully support!

We also offer Reggio Emilia-inspired visual arts mediums and techniques guidance, such as graphic representation, clay, wire, and woodworking.

Ages 3-6 Cohort: "Barn Swallows"

We welcome all young children, including homeschoolers, to join Sunbeam Afternoon for outdoor play, animal care, garden tending and cooking, and emergent projects based on their interest.

We are building in a beautiful rest program under the oak tree, specifically customized for these ages, to ensure they have the quiet and stillness that their growing brains and bodies need in this phase of development. Older Children are invited to rest quietly via a "sit spot" meditative activity in which they quiet their bodies and minds to attune to their surroundings.

We offer a variety of materials as well as naturalist experiences to provide "just-right challenges" as well as time and space for them to decompress and "just be" after their morning learning experiences.

Sample Schedule:

• Arrivals, get settled in, wash hands 
• Circle to briefly check in and create a sense of group
• Open Play and project choices (animals included)
• Clean up, wash hands, snack, story read aloud
• Get settled into rest and quiet activities
• Outdoor movement play 
• Garden tending and animal tending
• Closing, 5:00 departures

Ages 7-11 Cohort: "Ravens"

For ages 7-11, this group of homeschoolers and after-school students are invited to be industrious, observant, playful, and helpful in our nature and inquiry based afternoon program. 

Using real tools and projects of their choosing, we will focus on tending the animals and building and making things, such as toys or structures for the animals, fun features for the school, or personal creations that they may want to take home. Children will learn skills and safety responsibilities for using real tools, and they will learn iterative design process such as prototyping, revising, refining.

Additionally, the children may have the opportunity to be mentors to the younger cohort.

We will also invite them to take a moment of quiet reflection of their day, sitting under the oak tree and listening quietly while journaling or watercoloring.