FAQs
Is Mulberry Forest School licensed by the Massachusetts Department of Early Education and Care?
We are in the process of licensing with EEC as a nature-based small group program. The EEC is aware of our existence and we are currently running under an EEC license excemption, which allows us to offer a lessons-based curriculem where children register for a set of discrete lessons.
What is Community Care?
We are all interconnected, and our decisions in this world impact not only our immediate family and household, but our broader community and the landscape around us. For us, community care means taking pride in centering the needs and experiences of our most vulnerable community members. Community care is inspired also by the principles of disability justice.
Public Health Policy
In order to keep all our community members more safe, we employ layers of protection to protect against the spread of aerosol transmitted virus. All students and caregivers wear N95/KF94/KN95 masks at all times. We employ weekly survillence testing, covid exposure quarantine, and offer generous paid sick leave for all staff.
Do you have indoor space?
We are outside 100% of the time. In light-medium rain, we put up tents and use rain gear to stay dry. We rely on hot-water bottles, handwarmers, layers and keeping on moving to keep ourselves warm in the winter. As per EEC regulations, we use a portable children’s toilet with disposible liners and a handwashing station. When it is *very* bad weather (think hurricane or blizzard), we meet online. We are exploring options for adding more covered space for 2024-2025 winter.
I want my child to learn literacy and math, how do you teach those outside?
We follow a variety of outdoor and child-led pedagogical approaches to teach core literacy and math skills. Nature zines and diaries provide a great place for scaffolding writing practice. The forest is full of objects to count, categorize, and practice basic addition and subtraction and chalk is a simple tool that allows us to practice concepts using the materials around us.