Bluff Lake Forest School is inspired by the European Forest School and Reggio Philosophies. Operating entirely outdoors, this program connects children ages 3-7 with the natural world through exploration and inquiry. Educators are present to guide children’s learning and engagement with the natural environment, as well as facilitate and scaffold their learning.

Bluff Lake Forest School focuses on pre-academic skills including but not limited to critical thinking, problem solving, risk assessment, and social emotional competence. We encourage collaborative learning and independent problem solving. Learning experiences are guided by the children’s own interests, while educators model appropriate behavior and language, ask questions and are there for the children for whatever they might need.

Our aim is to provide high-quality, meaningful learning experiences that meet children’s developmental needs, while fostering their natural curiosity. Bluff Lake Forest School offers a nurturing learning environment, experienced educators, and unique, hands-on learning opportunities that help build the foundation for the future.

School Year Logistics

This program is strictly for students ages 3-7. We are a licensed program with strict rules around a 3 year minimum age for participants. In addition to the age limit, all students are required to be potty trained by their start date.

Registration for the 2026 Fall Trimester is open! - Follow this link to register today!

Registration runs through our platform CampDoc. After registering, you will be required to fill out a health profile - this includes a student picture, parent/guardian contact information, student health information, authorized pickup list, emergency contacts, healthcare provider information, etc. If you have any questions during the registration process, please don’t hesitate to reach out to kaitlin@blufflake.org

This program is not available to our Outdoor Homeschool Enrichment Students as we do not allow cross-enrollment.

LOCATION:

Bluff Lake Nature Center

11255 E. MLK Jr. Blvd, Denver CO, 80238

YEARLY SCHEDULE AT A GLANCE:

Spring Trimester: January - May

Summer Trimester: June - August

Fall Trimester: September - December

Bluff Lake Forest School is now a Universal Preschool (UPK) provider! This state funded program covers 10 or 15 hours of childcare per week the school year before kindergarten. Eligible families may qualify for up to 30 hours per week! If your child turned 4 on of before October 1st of this school year, they meet the age requirement. To learn more and to apply for UPK, click here!
Bluff Lake Forest School hosts an online informational session one evening a month. Once per trimester, Bluff Lake Forest School hosts an in-person open house. See our public events calendar on the home page for the online meeting link and for open house dates. Reach out to kaitlin@blufflake.org with any questions!
Private tours are also available - reach out to kaitlin@blufflake.org to schedule!
Costs are as follows for the Fall trimester, September through December
Full days (8:30am-3:30pm) and Half Days (8:30am-12:00pm)
Mon Full/Half - $1365/$685*
Tues Full/Half - $1,575/$790
Wed Full/Half - $1,575/$790
Thu Full/Half - $1,470/$740**
Fri Full/Half - $1,470/$740**
*Monday is prorated due to school holidays
**Thurs/Fri prorated due to CAEE Conference
A deposit equivalent to one month of tuition required. There is a $100 cancellation fee per day registered (example: $100 for cancelling Mondays, $500 for cancelling Mondays-Fridays) before the first day of the trimester. Once the trimester starts, no refunds will be issued.
Monthly payment plans are available. If you register your child after the trimester has started, your total cost will be manually prorated to account for your childs start date.
If you register for multiple days, you will receive discount of 10%! This will be manually applied to your account balance by our team after you register
We have a 1:5 staff to student ratio, with 3 instructors and 15 students each day.
Parents receive a daily newsletter reviewing what we learned, practiced, and worked on that day. These are helpful in prompting conversations with your child after class! Teachers also share photos of the day to a photo album.
Our staff members' workdays are scheduled to end at pickup, so when students are picked up late it puts a practical and financial strain on the organization. For this reason, if there are any instances in which you are more than 20 minutes late for pick up, you will be charged a late pickup fee for each occurrence as follows:
$20 You arrived 20-25 minutes after pick-up
$30 You arrived 26-30 minutes after pick-up
$50 You arrived 31+ minutes after pick-up

What Forest School Parents are Saying:

"I think my top value is the confidence my son has in himself, his body, how comfortable he seems to be in the world now that he's at forest school."
"I think that many places say "child-led" but Forest School embodies that principle in a safe, engaging, and educating way"
"The teachers clearly care about the kids and the student to teacher ratio is great. It feels great to know he’s having fun and learning about himself and the natural environment and burning energy outside."
"I look forward to receiving the updates of what everyone did during the day- and the photos! It is helpful to be able to talk with and ask my child more about what they were up to."
"My student gets to figure out who she is away from my intervention. She is gaining independence and a sense of self within a natural setting."
"I'm thinking of the daily newsletters which are excellent. we have considered screenshotting and saving as a memento for our child for some of the ones that display some of his funnest days at FS."

Meet the Team!

Emily began her career in Early Childhood Education back in 2017, before joining Denver Forest School in September 2021, and joining Bluff Lake Forest School in 2025. She's a native to Colorado, where she discovered her love for all things outdoors and nature related. It's a passion of hers to share this with her student's, in hopes that they too foster a love for the outdoors and all of its amazing creatures, for the rest of their lives. When she's not working with kids, Emily enjoys hiking, reading, crocheting, birding, and spending quality time with her son.

Erika (she/they) has been passionate about nature and all things outdoors ever since she can remember. As a kid the trees, plants, and animals were some of her first friends. She could spend hours outside beneath the trees, letting her imagination run wild and never get her fill of the outdoors. She is thrilled to be a forest school teacher who gets to mentor children in their daily discoveries and share with them her own love for nature, and build on their intrinsic capacity for the joy and curiosity that the natural world brings, as well as respect and appreciation for the way nature connects us to each other. She views our human connection to nature as integral to shaping the future of our world in a positive way as we recognize our capacity for adaptability and emergence. Erika is originally from Richmond Virginia, where she attended Virginia Commonwealth University for music and psychology. When Erika isn't teaching or adventuring she enjoys a myriad of creative projects like poetry writing, journaling, jamming out on the violin, and cooking vegan for her friends.

Kaitlin joined Bluff Lake Nature Center in 2024. An enthusiastic "nature nerd", some her favorite natural wonders to nerd out about are water, birds, and plants. Kaitlin gets way too excited about species identification. She has a degree in environmental science and a professional background in environmental education and business management. Her favorite aspect of environmental education is encouraging students to be curious about and explore the natural world. She enjoys hiking, birding, swimming, and baking. She's a firm believer that there's pretty much no such thing as bad weather, only bad clothing choices!

Email Kaitlin

BLUFF LAKE FOREST SCHOOL

Register for Spring and Summer 2026!