Little Garden Patch Farm Camp

Little Garden Patch Farm offers a wide range of hands-on activities, including painting, playdough, bubbles, fairy gardens, a tree fort, swings, a slide, a trampoline, dress up, a play kitchen, baking, and an indoor play room with books, toys, games, puzzles, Legos, arts and crafts. Children can take part in farm-related activities such as milking goats, observing egg collection, gardening, helping to feed the chickens, ducks, pony, and pigs, and shucking corn husks from the garden to feed the goats. The program also includes story time, theme-related stories and games, hands-on craft and science projects, engineering activities, cooking projects like baking muffins, learning to tie-dye, creating a personal fairy garden to take home, sewing, crochet, weaving, fuse beads, drawing and coloring, paper crafts, putting on outdoor plays and puppet shows, learning something new in the science area, climbing a tree, playing games of make believe, playing “farm” with toys in the sensory tables, and baking mud pies in the outdoor play kitchen.

• Ages: 5–9 years old
• Schedule: After school care during the 2025–2026 school year with pick up beginning at 2:30pm Monday–Thursday and 11:30am on Fridays, and Spring Farm Camp running Monday 4/6 through Friday 4/10, plus summer Farm Camp with full-day and half-day options
• Price: Beginning Spring & Summer 2026, Farm Camp sessions are $200 per week for a 4-hour half day and $325 per week for an 8-hour full day, with additional hours at $8/hour within business hours; full-time after school care is $7/hour for 15 or more hours per week and $9/hour for less than 15 hours per week

For the 2025–2026 school year, after school pick up begins at 2:30pm with care opening after 3pm Monday through Thursday, and Friday after school pick up begins at 11:30am. Summer Farm Camp offers full-day sessions from 9–5 or 9:30–5:30 and afternoon half-day sessions from 1:30–5:30, with early drop off at 8:30am available by arrangement for an added fee, and the program closes at 5:30pm during summer with no care available after that time. Families are asked to leave hand-held gaming devices, tablets, laptops, and other electronics at home and to send children in weather-appropriate gear.

The stated mission of Little Garden Patch Farm is to reconnect kids with nature, to nurture the values of compassion, creativity, and stewardship, and to provide a safe, family home setting where kids can build community and experience a sense of belonging. The program holds Community Care License Number 444413332 and has been mentioned in the publication Growing Up in Santa Cruz. It is described as a play-based, emergent program with an emphasis on nature immersion and a hands-on, whole child, developmental approach to education, and as an exceptional licensed after school care and summer day camp program for school-aged children in kindergarten through 3rd grade.

Little Garden Patch Farm includes gentle farm animals such as goats, chickens, ducks, a pony, and pigs, and offers weekly themed Summer Farm Camp sessions such as Medieval Make Believe, Fairy Tales, Dinosaur Daze, and Blast Off for Space Fun. It is described as a “childhood wonderland” and a cozy home environment with outdoor play and learning areas, a picnic area with socially distanced tables, a kitchen deck, an outdoor art studio, a garden, an outdoor play kitchen, swings, a trampoline, a science area, and various indoor playroom areas including a reading area, dollhouse area, and Lego table. No screen time is generally offered once children arrive at the farm.

The program offers what is described as an extraordinary after school program with pick up and transport available for Main Street and Soquel Elementary school students, and it is available to homeschooling families aged 5–8 years during regular after school business hours. One local mom, Linnaea Avenell, states that she and her husband have been committed to the idea that connecting kids with nature would help them become more caring stewards of the Earth and other creatures, and she describes transforming their home and property into Little Garden Patch Farm so that children who might otherwise be indoors can spend child-led time playing outdoors. In her words, she loves watching a child arrive after school tired and then get “thoroughly recharged” by running outside, playing games of make believe, playing “farm” with toys in the sensory tables, feeding goats with corn husks from the garden, laughing at the chickens, chasing a ball, and enjoying story time, and she says this makes all the farm chores and maintenance feel worthwhile.

Last updated March 12, 2026.