ARROYO NATURE SCHOOL
LEARNING THROUGH NATURE
WHO WE ARE
Arroyo Nature School is a play-based, purely outdoor program that offers a quality alternative to the traditional classroom. Research shows that nature offers everything a child needs to have an enriching learning experience. Our emergent curriculum empowers children to ask questions, problem solve and think creatively. Through this constant exploration, children are engaged in using their whole self and get the hands-on learning that they need to understand the world around them.
This approach builds self-confidence, resilience and meaningful connections between the environment, themselves, and each other. We will provide the tools to explore the significance of inclusivity, community-building, healthy risk-taking and the beauty of diversity. A big part of our program is the daily inclusion of art, music and literacy.
WHAT WE OFFER
OUR PROGRAM
In the course of this pandemic, we have all been aware of the importance of the precautions needed to keep our families and community safe during this time. The teachers have put much thought and planning into creating a safe, responsible, and enriching space for your children. Until further notice, we are planning to follow the official safety regulations required by the city and state. We will have access to hand washing stations which will happen often. We will closely follow the development of the pandemic and will reassess our protocol accordingly.
• School year : September 3rd, 2024 - June 13th 2025
• Monday - Friday 9:00 am - 1:00 pm
• Ages: 2-5 years old
• Student / Teacher ratio: 3:1
• Tuition: $ 1600 / month
• Access our calendar through the menu or by clicking here.
Our 2024-2025 school year is full. If you would like to be placed on the waitlist please email us at arroyonatureschool@gmail.com. Thank you!
We strongly believe that school should be available to everyone and we have worked hard to find opportunities to offer scholarships/discounted tuition to those in need. We have currently fulfilled our scholarship fund for the 2024/2025 school year. If you are interested in our receiving a scholarship for the 2025/2026 school year, please email us and we will try our best to coordinate if available.
OUR STORY
Since working together at a preschool in Pasadena, Fabienne Hadorn-Hitz and Elisa Romero have often talked about the dream of creating their own program for young children. Their idea was to offer a high-quality program to a small group of children, incorporating Art, Music, and Literacy on a daily basis. They both shared a strong belief in progressive education and the importance of child-initiated play in a diverse, anti-bias environment. Fabienne grew up in Switzerland where Forest schools are quite popular and people recognize the benefits of children spending time in Nature. What better place than Southern California to add this element to the idea!
Losing their jobs during the pandemic and the high demand for a safe place for children to learn during that time gave them the necessary boost to make their dream come true. With the help of parents and coworkers, Arroyo Nature School was founded in 2020. In 2023, Elisa decided to leave Arroyo Nature School to pursue her own endeavor in Portland, Oregon.
OUR COMMUNITY
With years of training and practice in the field of Early Childhood education, we are able to support your child's learning through daily discovery in nature, art, music and literacy.
Fabienne Hadorn
Co-Founder
Teacher
Fabienne grew up in Burgdorf, Switzerland. She had a very happy childhood, playing outside in the nearby forest with her siblings and all the neighborhood kids.
At the age of 19, she joined a traveling circus where she lived and worked with people from all around the world. Two years later, she attended a school for performing arts in Paris, France. Alongside her studies, she began working with children, teaching music, theatrical expression, and mime.
She received her teacher diploma from the Académie Française de La Danse. She used her time studying early childhood music education while waiting for a green card. In 1997 and 1999, her children were born. While they were little, she got certified by Music Together LLC and taught her own classes for parents and children in her neighborhood.
In 2002, her Journey at PO Children’s School and College began, teaching music, taking early childhood education classes at the college, and teaching in a classroom. In November of 2020, she completed the Nature-based Teacher Certification with ERAFANS (Eastern Region Association of Forest and Nature Schools). The Anti-bias philosophy that is based on diversity, equality, and social justice is very close to her heart. Together with her colleagues of many years, she is excited to begin a new journey with Arroyo Nature School.
J. Michiuye
Teacher
Jane was born and raised in Los Angeles. While an undergraduate student at UCLA, she enrolled as a practicum student in the Infant Development Program. Although she had no prior experience working with very young children and had no intention of becoming a teacher, she quickly discovered tremendous joy in working with infants and toddlers and altered her career plans.
She went on to earn a master’s degree from Pacific Oaks College and was offered a job at the Pacific Oaks Children’s School after completing her practicum. The bulk of Jane’s teaching career was at the Children’s School where she spent over twenty years in the same classroom.
Jane is thrilled to be reunited with her former PO colleagues in a beautiful and extraordinary setting. She looks forward to working with children again and getting a glimpse into how they interact with and interpret the world around them.
Maya Haywood
Teacher
Maya Haywood grew up in Southern California with her parents and younger sister. She was raised by parents who strongly valued peace, equality, and respect for all people, shaped by their involvement as activists in the Civil Rights and Poor People’s Movements of the 1960s. Maya was encouraged by her teachers and parents to read any book of interest to her. She believes that reading gives a window into another person’s experiences, and can be a way of developing empathy for other people through identifying with authors and their characters. Her love of travel also started during her early years, with summer road trips to the Grand Canyon, New Mexico, and Michigan.
Maya completed a B.A. in Psychology from UC Santa Cruz, spending one year studying in Accra, Ghana. She then attended San Francisco State, where she studied education, graduating with Multiple-Subjects and Special Education teaching credentials. She completed her Masters degree in Human Development in 2017 at Pacific Oaks College, writing a thesis on the topic of visual arts at progressive preschools. During her time as a Pacific Oaks teacher, she became more interested in gardening, free-expression art, children’s literature, poetry, and book-making with children. She loves reading, singing, hiking and creating stories, poems, and art projects with children. Maya believes in the importance of teachers encouraging children’s rich imaginative play as they explore and learn together. She has experienced the wonder and excitement felt by children and teachers learning together in a natural environment
Jose Gonzalez
Teacher
Jose started his child development path on a whim. He needed to take some courses in order to stay on the swim team at LATTC and figured child development would be fun, because someday he could become a dad and he would like to be somewhat prepared (is that even possible??).
He's been working with kids since he was 16, doing swim lessons as a lifeguard in South Gate. During sign ups, Jose's swim classes were always filled up first, and he didn't understand why he was in such high demand. It wasn't until 2008 when he began to work at Celebration Kids pre-school (as their first male teacher) that he began to understand why.
This is where he met and became good friends with Elisa!
Connecting with children comes naturally for Jose. He takes your childs feelings, concerns, and enthusiasm seriously. Everyone deserves a chance to be heard and validated. Jose wants to provide that as best as he could.
He is also very high energy. Jose loves to exercise and likes to become good enough at something and move on to develop another skill. But his favorite things to do are biking and boxing.
In the summers, Jose has a youth summer cycling group. You should ask him about it!
Carly Hadorn
Teacher
Carly is happy to say that she discovered a passion for working in the child development field after having opportunities to observe in both indoor and outdoor classroom settings. Along with her pursuing her interests in early childhood education, she has always been passionate about Photography and has studied it from middle school onto college.
She has also always had a deep connection with nature and is very passionate about gardening. Both of her parents being from Switzerland, she spent every summer with her family there. Days were spent picking fresh raspberries in the forest with her grandpa, swimming in the local river, and being outside all day long. Carly is currently attending Pasadena City College to achieve a degree in Early Childhood Education while working alongside Arroyo Nature School.
Sherrie Lea
Teacher
Sherrie is a Pasadenan, born, raised, and schooled. Her education includes a degree in Library Science, which she used to pay her way through school while working in college libraries. She has a BA in Art, along with Early Childhood classes with an emphasis in Special Education.
She was a Special Education Preschool teacher in Glendale Unified School District. She also worked at Pacific Oaks Children's School in Pasadena where she had the chance to work with Jane, Maya and Fabienne. Besides being a classroom teacher during the school year, she was part of a special program in the summer that included extra art, music, and literacy for the students. She was lucky enough to be on the same team as Fabienne!
During Covid, she worked in a backyard Pod School with several former teachers from P.O. She has a yoga teaching certificate, but she has recently become interested in QiGong and will be inviting the children into that!
She looks forward to being a part of the Arroyo Nature School team!
Kelsey McCurdy
Substitute Teacher
Kelsey grew up on the central coast of CA, where she developed her love of nature, art, and learning. She had a very vivid imagination and would spend hours outside creating her own magical dream world.
As a teen she began playing music, later performing in experimental music bands and traveling as often as possible. She spent many years living in the Bay Area performing music, curating art shows, and hiking and exploring all the natural beauty of the Bay, Marin, and beyond.
In 2016 she went back to school at the California Institute of Integral Studies, receiving a BA in a unique hybrid program that explored holistic psychology, identity politics, and social justice. She began teaching visiting K-12 students art, science, and history workshops at the Oakland Museum of CA, which brought her heart much joy. She spent the last handful of years living rurally in Bolinas, CA, working as a farmer on multiple organic vegetable farms in West Marin. In 2022 she relocated to Pasadena, CA, where she is beyond excited to be a part of Arroyo Nature School. She feels very lucky to be spending time outdoors with young friends and kind creative teachers, exploring the Arroyo and learning together while sharing in the wonderment of friendship and the natural world.
The Forrer-Munro Family
We can’t praise Arroyo Nature School enough. Rain or shine the kids are outside
guided and cared for by the most amazing humans. Never did my daughter cry
because she did not want to go to school and afterwards she was always happily
exhausted from a day spent in nature. She learned how to identify plants as well
as walk for an extended period, she learned to respect nature, she learned to be
kind and stand up for herself, her balance, agility and stamina improved within a
week; the list goes on and on and I think for me the most amazing thing was to
see her imagination bloom amongst sticks and stones. I wish Arroyo Nature
School could be for all ages!
Katie Walker
I can’t imagine a more perfect start to my daughter’s education than Arroyo Nature School. The
teachers are all phenomenal, and my daughter was excited to go to school every single day.
After two years there, she can name almost every native plant in SoCal. She loves and respects
nature and can go on hikes for longer than most adults I know. Fabienne’s wonderful songs are
now family favorites- my husband and I loved being part of “circle time” in the mornings. It really
is the warmest, most welcoming environment imaginable- the children are respected and
listened to while being taught how to socialize and follow the rules. My daughter always came
home with new craft projects and stories about the animals and plants they encountered. We
are so grateful for this amazing school!
The Yi Family
Our twin toddlers joined Arroyo Nature School at 2 years old. We were so glad to have found a place that could nurture their need for play and exploration in an outdoor setting. From the start, we could see they felt right at home, starting the day in song, cooking up fun in the mud kitchen, picking up sticks, marching out for daily adventures. There is such a sense of warmth and community in that little pod thanks in large part to the wonderful teachers there who connect and guide with compassion and empathy. Our children grew to love their teachers so so much and miss seeing them everyday!
Now, in addition to the piles of rocks and painted sticks we have collected (and still use daily to spur our imaginations), our children have so many special memories to look back on.
Our time at Arroyo Nature School has left a deep and meaningful impression on our hearts. The experiences and bonds forged there continue to hold a special place in their personal narratives.
The Kinori Family
Arroyo Nature School built a beautiful foundation for our son of a love of school and a deep trust of teachers that we are so grateful for. It's such a special place, we count ourselves extremely lucky for being able to send our son there and gaining access to its community ourselves. As first time parents, the feeling of belonging we gained from the school has been deeply beneficial to our own growth. Often drop off and pick up are the high points of our days--time when we all get to slow down, experience the nature of our own backyards, and be present as a family. We love the Arroyo Nature School and cannot recommend it enough!
CONTACT US
Please do not hesitate to contact us if you have any questions!
If you would like to help our school to get its roots settled in and contribute to educational materials, please feel free to donate! All extra donations will be put into our financial aid fund.
Thank you very much!