At Stonebrook, children interact in and with nature almost every day. Our school sits on 3 acres of partly wooded land, with two natural play areas that give children authentic learning experiences they'll carry for the rest of their lives.
A natural playscape blends natural materials, features, and vegetation with creative landforms to build complex, high-value play spaces. It offers all the benefits of a traditional playground, gross motor activity, risk-taking, problem solving, and social interaction, but encourages the kind of play that matters most to children: pretending and building.
Unlike catalog playgrounds of steel and plastic, our playscape invites children to use their imaginations while experiencing the smells, textures, and wonders of the natural world. With few tall structures and no moving parts, it's also remarkably safe.
For our pre-k children, Stonebrook Forest brings a richer, deeper outdoor experience of open-ended creative play and investigation, a place where nature can be perceived, observed, and touched. Birds, insects, plants, trees, soil, and water are all experienced firsthand under the canopy of towering pecan and oak trees.
"A three-and-a-half-year-old finds a stick, but in her mind it's not a stick. It's a wand. Then it becomes a drumstick, and a gnarled tree stump her drum. She taps away contentedly, the rhythm all her own."
Teachers see the difference quickly. "They learn observation skills after just a few visits," one shares. "Parents tell me, 'I can't believe what my child sees now.'" It's a one-of-a-kind outdoor classroom where imagination soars and real learning takes root.
