Nurturing children. Supporting families. Building community.
Our mission is to instill a deep and abiding respect and love for the earth and all who live and grow here.
About Us
Oak Hill Forest Programs offer a variety of outdoor, free-play based early childhood programs 4 miles from Cooperstown. Our campus sits on 100 beautiful acres in rural upstate New York. Our play areas are located in the woods and along hillside trails; in ankle deep streamlets and mountain top meadows. Since 2006 we have been catering to local families with half-day nursery school programs, a half-day kindergarten, Caregiver and Me playdates and Mini Camp for the very young, Homeschool-, and After-School Enrichment and a Summer Camp.
Within the context of the seasonal changes, play leads the children through the year with an ever deepening appreciation and respect for the world around them.
Programs at Oak Hill
Nursery School
Nursery School here at Oak Hill is all about building and nurturing relationships with each other and with the world around us. From the friends we meet, to the forests we hike through and the little creatures we encounter along the way, we learn to treat it all with reverence and respect.
Our ‘Little Explorers’ are the youngest friends, who might not be quite ready for a full morning outdoors. The forest preschool is for children who can manage a full morning of outdoor play, hikes and exploration year round! Beautiful indoor play spaces are reserved for the coldest days or when the weather becomes so inhospitable that even our rugged outerwear can’t cope!
Friends join together for songs and stories, free play and teacher-led activities, hikes and exploration. We make harvest soup for our colorful community autumn festival, and lanterns to shine a light on the gathering darkness of winter. We dip beeswax candles for Candlemas Day and celebrate the return of spring with a Maypole Festival. Arbor Day and Earth Day are celebrated with campus clean ups, trees to plant and a community picnic. Throughout the year, the children create friendships and learn so much about the world around them before they head off, excited and ready to embrace the world of formal academics in the classroom.
Kindergarten
There is so much to be learned from the world outside our window. Our kindergartners know that everything tells a story; Whether we find tracks in the snow, a cluster of hazelnuts hidden in a tree knot in the fall, half a bird egg shell under a tree in the spring or branches chewed off the bottom half of our blueberry bushes after a long winter, we learn from what we see and find outdoors. These stories are carried back into the classroom with us and form the foundation for our curriculum.
Our quiet kindergarten classroom allows for a peaceful and unhurried transition into the world of letters and numbers. Children spend a portion of their time here, busy with early literacy skills, before heading outdoors for snack, stories, singing, whole group games and free play.
Enrichment Programs
Home school support programs are designed to add an element of social collaboration and discovery to your home school curriculum. Together the children engage in projects on a wide variety of topics and experiments, from geology, meteorology and climate to ecology, habitats and health. Children dissect owl pellets, grow bacteria in agar, smash open geodes, graph heart rates and more!
Our Friday after school program for K-4th graders runs in six week sessions in the spring and fall. Together we engage in a variety of STEM and art projects. We sing and hike, we play and explore together. There is no better way to kickstart your weekend than spending time on a Friday afternoon engaging with friends in nature. Friendships forged and lessons learned in this setting last well beyond the preschool years and far beyond the borders of our campus.
Summer Camp
Summer is a time for fun and exploration and at Oak Hill we offer a wide variety of exciting outdoor fun for children ages 3yrs-4th grade. Our Mini Camp is an opportunity for even the youngest friends (3 yrs) to experience the joys of sun and free play alongside friends.
With all the favorite activities summer time has to offer, campers can engage in bubble play, splash in the creek or sprinkler, build sand castles, cook in the mud kitchens, go on nature hikes and picnics, make smoothies and popsicles, roast marshmallows, tie dye, climb trees, sing camp songs and so much more.
The Summer program in 2025 will run for four weeks, Monday- Thursday every other week starting in early July.
Mini Camp registration forms can be requested per email via the Contact links
