About
LA Nature Kids offers outdoor adventures that include exploring, tracking, foraging in the canyon, and unstructured free play. Children take part in science experiments, botany, aboriginal skills, art projects, journaling, story time, and chilling in the hammock in the shade of the trees. Activities also include making tools, spears, and bows, mining for minerals, making nature jewelry, and creating arts with colored rocks, watercolors, sand, shells, feathers, minerals, and rocks, as well as swimming in water holes, playing in the waves and at the water edge, and working with clay by harvesting it, pounding it into powder with a rock, making bowls and sculptures, and using clay as sunscreen.
• Ages: 3–12 years old
• Schedule: Preschool runs from 8:30am to 1:30pm, with optional extended care; day camps run from 9:00am to 4:00pm and summer day camps are booked in weekly increments during the July 6–31 summer program.
• Price: Preschool tuition ranges from $800 to $1596 per month depending on the number of days per week; summer day camps cost $650 per week and other day camps are $130 per day.
LA Nature Kids offers a Preschool Program, After School, and Day Camp, including nature educational programs after school and nature day camp sessions throughout the school year, including summer camp, spring break, and winter break. Day camps have a staff-to-child ratio of a maximum of 6 kids to one adult, and camp culture allows children to have access to their food and clothing all day. Unstructured free play is a cornerstone of all programs, and the program states a belief that kids belong immersed in nature and advocates for children’s birthright to have unstructured blocks of time for free play in nature.
LA Nature Kids was founded and is guided by Christopher Pierre, who serves as Chief and Teacher. He was raised in Switzerland, has lived his adult life in Switzerland, Tahiti, and Los Angeles, is a seasoned multi-sport and adventure racer, has been studying Aboriginal practices that incorporate a balance between nature and the human experience, has three children, and speaks English, French, and German. The core teachers have extensive training, education, and experience, and have worked in traditional, progressive, and Reggio Emilia inspired schools including Palisade Preschool, First Preschool, The First School, Clarefontaine, First Year, and Crossroads.
The stated mission of LA Nature Kids is to provide a safe, nurturing environment where children learn to love and respect themselves and others, develop social skills, build confidence and self-esteem, and discover new ways to express themselves creatively. LA Nature Kids, founded and guided by Christopher Pierre, is described as the first Forest School in Southern California and blends an expeditionary learning model into a nature school. The program offers outdoor education for children ages 3–12 that includes creative experiences, cooperative learning, and adventures in a new location every day, and it provides leadership opportunities by training teachers on the outdoor learning model of the Forest School curriculum.
LA Nature Kids has grown to a community of over five hundred families who have experienced the program. It is described as serving all of West Los Angeles and as the first Forest School in Southern California, with many similar nature school programs in the West Los Angeles area noted as having come after it.
Families are asked to pack each child’s belongings into a backpack, bring a hearty lunch, snack, and water, provide appropriate outdoor clothing based on the weather, have beach clothing worn under clothes for summer camps, send snug-fitting footwear with no sandals, and include a towel. The program states that it provides a safe environment with a wide range of outdoor activities for children aged 5 to 12 years old and a developmentally appropriate Preschool Program, After School, and Day Camp, and that it provides a supportive environment for the introverted child.
Last updated March 24, 2026.
• Ages: 3–12 years old
• Schedule: Preschool runs from 8:30am to 1:30pm, with optional extended care; day camps run from 9:00am to 4:00pm and summer day camps are booked in weekly increments during the July 6–31 summer program.
• Price: Preschool tuition ranges from $800 to $1596 per month depending on the number of days per week; summer day camps cost $650 per week and other day camps are $130 per day.
LA Nature Kids offers a Preschool Program, After School, and Day Camp, including nature educational programs after school and nature day camp sessions throughout the school year, including summer camp, spring break, and winter break. Day camps have a staff-to-child ratio of a maximum of 6 kids to one adult, and camp culture allows children to have access to their food and clothing all day. Unstructured free play is a cornerstone of all programs, and the program states a belief that kids belong immersed in nature and advocates for children’s birthright to have unstructured blocks of time for free play in nature.
LA Nature Kids was founded and is guided by Christopher Pierre, who serves as Chief and Teacher. He was raised in Switzerland, has lived his adult life in Switzerland, Tahiti, and Los Angeles, is a seasoned multi-sport and adventure racer, has been studying Aboriginal practices that incorporate a balance between nature and the human experience, has three children, and speaks English, French, and German. The core teachers have extensive training, education, and experience, and have worked in traditional, progressive, and Reggio Emilia inspired schools including Palisade Preschool, First Preschool, The First School, Clarefontaine, First Year, and Crossroads.
The stated mission of LA Nature Kids is to provide a safe, nurturing environment where children learn to love and respect themselves and others, develop social skills, build confidence and self-esteem, and discover new ways to express themselves creatively. LA Nature Kids, founded and guided by Christopher Pierre, is described as the first Forest School in Southern California and blends an expeditionary learning model into a nature school. The program offers outdoor education for children ages 3–12 that includes creative experiences, cooperative learning, and adventures in a new location every day, and it provides leadership opportunities by training teachers on the outdoor learning model of the Forest School curriculum.
LA Nature Kids has grown to a community of over five hundred families who have experienced the program. It is described as serving all of West Los Angeles and as the first Forest School in Southern California, with many similar nature school programs in the West Los Angeles area noted as having come after it.
Families are asked to pack each child’s belongings into a backpack, bring a hearty lunch, snack, and water, provide appropriate outdoor clothing based on the weather, have beach clothing worn under clothes for summer camps, send snug-fitting footwear with no sandals, and include a towel. The program states that it provides a safe environment with a wide range of outdoor activities for children aged 5 to 12 years old and a developmentally appropriate Preschool Program, After School, and Day Camp, and that it provides a supportive environment for the introverted child.
Last updated March 24, 2026.
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