WELCOME TO BEan IN NATURE
The Forests, fields, streams and meadows, ‘our invisable classroom’ makes for the perfect learning environment for BEan students. In our outdoor program we create a structure that helps guide our days in a rhythmic flow, engaging in ancestral forest knowledge and following the love of learning .
See our UPDATED 2025 Welcome letter written by our program director and founder, Marisa Bean.
CLICK ON THE LETTER TO READ MORE!
What is BEan in Nature?
In a time of earth’s fragile ecology, BEan In Nature's mentors, support children to connect with wonder and amazement to the natural world, growing their innate curiosity and passion for the earth and its flora and fauna. We do this through mentoring, guided creative exploration and hands-on discovery. Our caring staff use ancestral teachings and primitive technologies to build upon children’s reverence and to create lifelong stewards of the natural world.
Want to Know More about Bean in Nature?
Our Philosophy
BEan In Nature mentors facilitate kids to love, care and connect to nature not by using a ‘teach at the child’ didactic model, instead we use the skillful art of questioning, creative guiding and mentoring, experiential child-led focus and facilitate learning by doing, where we share our contagious enthusiasm, our imagination, and our own love of nature.
We believe that connecting to nature with the guidance of a creative nature mentor, who skillfully facilitates nature awareness, ancestral skills and crafts, while out in nature’s classroom, allows children to develop a strong sense of self and a natural love of science. In this design children are naturally accessing their whole imaginations, incorporating their whole focus, all the while growing into amazing earth stewards.
How We Teach
In our programs, children become naturalists, scientists, and artists as they develop their innate curiosity and discover their passions. At the end of the day we collect our epic adventures, sharing our experiences with each other.
We teach through ‘coyote mentoring’, where we focus on child-directed experiential learning, acute observation and inquiry, whereby students are "learning by doing".
Small groups
Hands-on projects
Guided exploration and Inquiry based learning
Experienced educators & naturalists & artists
Stories and games
Student centered activities
Acute observation and inquiry skills
Low instructor-to-student ratios (1:9 ratio with the additional support of a Teen Assistant for the group)
“Each year my kids ask to come back to Bean In Nature. The staff is caring and attentive. They have the know how to engage kids in varied activities and connect with nature. Thank you !
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“I am so pleased my son joined the nature science class this semester. He is naturally introverted and sometimes finds it hard to join into group activities. He was thrilled about the active, fun games and play used to start class. It really helps him to have some physically active fun before sitting down to focus. It has been fun watching him bloom and engage in BEan in Nature classes. It is a testament to the program’s willingness to meet children where there are and hold space for their being.”