An outdoor learning program to supplement your homeschool · Austin, TX · Ages 5–12 · Enroll up to 3 days per week
Grounded in nature.
Connected to each other.
Ready for the world.
Give children nature, purpose, and each other. They'll change the world.
NatureKin is an outdoor enrichment program designed to supplement your homeschool — where children ages 5–12 learn through nature, build real skills, and lead community service projects in Austin, TX.
Our Philosophy
Picture this: Your child arrives while the morning air is still cool and the grass is damp beneath their feet. Some children are already at the creek, turning over stones to find the tiny ecosystems living beneath the water. Others are hauling branches toward a structure that yesterday was a fort, then a bakery, then somehow became an animal rescue center before the day ended.
No one assigned those roles. The children created them together — negotiating ideas, solving problems, experimenting, adapting, and learning how to collaborate through meaningful shared experience. Without realizing it, they are practicing engineering, communication, leadership, and ecological thinking. Not through simulation. Through life itself.
Over time, something shifts. Children stop asking "Am I smart enough? Did I do it right?" and begin asking "How can we help? What can we create together? How do we care for this place?" That shift changes everything — because confidence grows most deeply when children experience themselves as capable contributors within a connected world.
Inspired by Jane Goodall's Roots & Shoots and the Green School model of Bali, NatureKin is built on the belief that children who grow up feeling genuinely connected to the living world around them will naturally want to protect, nurture, and contribute to it. Each season culminates in a real service project — something children design, lead, and carry out within their community.
Reserve Your Spot →Children develop a felt sense of belonging to the living world — not just knowledge about it. The creek, the soil, the seasons, and the creatures they share space with become deeply familiar and genuinely cared for.
Through hands-on inquiry, children come to understand how ecosystems work, how humans are woven into them, and what happens when that relationship falls out of balance. Science rooted in real places, real questions, and real stakes.
Inspired by Roots & Shoots and the Green School model, each NatureKin season builds toward a child-led service project — something real, local, and meaningful. Children learn that they have the power to make things better.
Older children lead. Younger children grow. Mixed-age groups mirror how real communities function — with care, responsibility, and the understanding that we are stronger when we look out for one another.
Real skills build real confidence. Fire-making, gardening, building, cooking, navigation — children discover what they are capable of through authentic challenge, not performance. Competence earned, not given.
Guides create the conditions. Children ask the questions. Within intentional learning rhythms drawn from forest school philosophy, space is protected for genuine curiosity, self-directed discovery, and the kind of thinking no worksheet can teach.
Who NatureKin Is For
NatureKin is for parents who sense that something important is missing from conventional childhood — not just more time outside, but a genuine relationship with the living world, and a real role within it.
It's for children who are ready to do more than consume. To observe, to wonder, to build something, to care for something, and to contribute something meaningful to the community around them.
"My daughter came home and asked if we could start a composting program for our neighborhood. That's when I knew — NatureKin isn't just teaching her about nature. It's teaching her that she has the power to change things."
A NatureKin Parent
Circle C Park, Austin TX · Ages 5–12 · 15 spots per age group
Explore, observe, and understand the natural world through hands-on discovery and ecological inquiry.
Build confidence, teamwork, and a sense of adventure through physical challenge and exploration.
Create, innovate, and lead — from life skills and cooking to entrepreneurship and community projects.
Breaks: Thanksgiving (Nov 23–27) · Winter (Dec 21–Jan 1) · Spring (Mar 22–26)
Try a day before committing. Great for families exploring NatureKin for the first time.
A perfect way to get started. Use at your own pace across the season.
Commit to a rhythm. Great for families joining one or two days a week.
A full semester's worth of learning. Our most popular flexible option.
For families fully committed to the NatureKin experience across the season.
Lock in all 93 sessions for the full year. The deepest investment in your child's growth.
Families with multiple children receive 15% off for a second child and 25% off for a third. Because community starts at home.
Families who participated in our inaugural year are invited to enroll at a special 20% founding family discount as a thank you for being part of the beginning.
We believe every child deserves access to meaningful learning in nature. Two sliding-scale scholarship spots are available per age group. Inquire at enrollment.
Parents are welcome to stay, work, and participate as much or as little as they like. NatureKin is a community — not just a drop-off program.
🌿 We're growing — interested in joining the NatureKin guide team? Apply here.
NatureKin's next season is forming now. Join the waitlist and be first to receive program details, dates, and enrollment information. Spots are small by design — so every child is truly known.
Join the NatureKin Waitlist →Your information is never shared. We'll only send you program updates.