Green Season
June 1 – October 31, 2025 · Ages 1–12 · Costa Rica
Dandelion Wildschooling
this is not a summer camp.
This is five months of living, learning, and growing — rooted in one of the most biodiverse, culturally rich places on Earth. While the rest of the world calls it the rainy season, we call it the Green Season. Because this is when everything grows.
This is not a school either. It is a living community where children of different ages share one garden, one kitchen, one music circle, one art space — and one deep encounter with the land, the culture, and the living world of Costa Rica.
Our Philosophy
Wild Child doesn't belong to a single pedagogy. Our curriculum is inspired by the wisdom of many traditions — each one chosen because it serves children, this land, and this moment in history.
Waldorf gives us rhythm, beauty, and the understanding that imagination is the foundation of all future thinking. That arts are not extras. That a child who kneads bread, tends a seedling, or hears a story told by a living voice is doing the most important work of their life.
Reggio Emilia gives us the belief that children are capable, curious, and full of their own ideas. That the environment is the third teacher. That documentation and deep listening matter. That projects emerge from children's genuine questions — not from a predetermined plan.
Forest School gives us the outdoors as the primary classroom. Mud, rain, roots, and insects. The understanding that risk, challenge, and unstructured time in nature build resilience, confidence, and a relationship with the living world that no indoor curriculum can replicate.
Summerhill and democratic education give us respect for the child as a whole person with real rights, real choices, and real agency. Children here are not managed. They are trusted.
Indigenous wisdom — and specifically the living knowledge traditions of Costa Rica — give us the deepest roots of all. The names of the plants. The ways of reading the land, the water, and the sky. The understanding that humans are not separate from nature, managing it from the outside — we are part of it, accountable to it, nourished by it.
Montessori's Cosmic Education gives the older children the biggest possible frame — the story of the universe, the emergence of life, the arc of human civilization — so that everything they learn has a place in a larger whole.
All of it held together by one belief: childhood is not preparation for life. It is life itself.
Our Teachers
Wild Child is built around a team of dedicated specialists — each one a practitioner, not just an educator. This is not a program where one teacher covers everything. Each discipline is taught by someone who has lived it.
Our two lead teachers are Costa Rican educators steeped in Waldorf and Reggio Emilia philosophy. They hold the rhythm and heart of each day — knowing every child by name, by nature, and by need. They are the ones who weave all the threads together into something coherent, warm, and alive.
Our leadership and activism teacher works with children to find their voice, understand their power, and take responsibility for something beyond themselves. This is not civic education from a textbook — it is real practice in speaking up, showing up, and making change at the scale a child can touch.
Our music teacher brings the full living tradition of Waldorf music education — drumming, singing, flute, and world instruments. In the Waldorf understanding, music is not a subject. It is the way a child learns to feel the world in time and rhythm. Every child sings. Every child plays. Every child belongs in the music circle.
Our permaculture, nutrition, and capoeira teacher brings three practices that are more connected than they first appear — all three are about understanding systems, reading your environment, and moving through the world with intelligence and grace. Children who learn permaculture learn to see. Children who learn nutrition learn to nourish. Children who learn capoeira learn that strength and beauty are the same thing.
Our acrobatics and circus teacher works with bodies — building strength, coordination, trust, and courage through movement that children find genuinely thrilling. Acrobatics and circus teach children what their bodies are capable of. That knowledge stays with them for life.
Together this team creates something rare — a place where every hour of the day is held by someone who truly knows what they are doing, and truly loves it.
Four Programs. One Living Community.
Tiny Roots · Ages 1–3
3-hour morning sessions · Green Season · June–October With on-site coworking for mums
A gentle 3-hour morning program for the youngest explorers — guided by teachers who understand exactly what a 1, 2, or 3-year-old needs: rhythm, warmth, repetition, and sensory richness. No rushing. No outcomes. Just a safe, beautiful morning of touching soil, smelling herbs, hearing live music, painting with natural materials, and being completely, joyfully present.
Inspired by Waldorf's reverence for early childhood, Forest School's love of the outdoors, and the indigenous understanding that the natural world is the first and best teacher — Tiny Roots gives the very youngest children something simple and profound: a second home, a living garden, and a community that knows their name.
While your child is held in that warmth, you have three hours entirely to yourself. Stay on-site and work from our coworking space — good wifi, herbal drinks, real quiet. Or go — come back at pickup. Every morning, you choose.
Nourishment add-ons: organic snack · healthy lunch · herbal drinks for you and your little one.
Tiny Roots runs the full Green Season — June through October. We ask for a season commitment because consistency is everything at this age. Six months of the same faces, the same songs, the same garden gives your child something that drop-in programs simply cannot: roots.
Little Roots · Ages 1–5
Full day · Green Season · June–October
A full sensory immersion in the natural world. Every day, young children move between garden, kitchen, art space, and music circle — planting, cooking, painting, singing, and crafting in Spanish and English.
Inspired by Waldorf rhythm, Reggio curiosity, Forest School wildness, and the living traditions of Costa Rica — Little Roots gives young children a day that is nourishing from first song to last story. No desks. No screens. Just hands, soil, color, sound, and wonder.
Children paint with watercolors and natural pigments. They model with beeswax and clay. They make pottery. They learn songs on flute, drum, and voice. They bake bread, tend seedlings, walk in the forest, and learn the names of plants that feed, heal, and color. They hear stories told by teachers who know that imagination is the foundation of all future thinking. They move their bodies through creative movement, music, and the joyful beginnings of acrobatics and circus play.
Mornings follow a gentle, nourishing Waldorf-inspired rhythm — the gift of security through repetition. Afternoons open into Reggio-inspired project exploration — children follow their curiosity, build, create, and make things that matter to them.
Wild Roots · Ages 5–9
Full day · Green Season · June–October
For older children ready to go deeper. The same living philosophy — but with more complexity, more skill, more challenge, and more responsibility.
Permaculture design and biodynamic gardening. Pottery. Sewing and weaving with natural fibers and plant-based dyes. Nature crafts with found materials. Herbalism and plant wisdom — from seed to medicine to dye to story. Ensemble music — singing, drumming, flute, and world instruments. Acrobatics, circus arts, and capoeira. Bread baking and healthy nutrition rooted in real food culture. Natural pigments, watercolor, and beeswax. Earth and ocean stewardship woven into every week.
Inspired by Waldorf's understanding that arts are curriculum, Reggio's trust in children's own questions, Summerhill's belief in real agency, and Montessori's cosmic frame — Wild Roots gives children a day where every activity connects to every other. The plant they grow becomes the food they cook becomes the dye they use becomes the story they tell.
This group follows a Cosmic Education in English — connecting biology, history, geography, numbers, and letters into one great story of life on Earth. Children learn to read the world before they read a book.
Afternoons are dedicated to project-based learning — children choose, plan, and build real projects over weeks, developing focus, collaboration, and the deep satisfaction of finishing something that matters.
Earth Leaders · Ages 9–12
Full day · Green Season · June–October
For the ones who are ready to lead.
Earth Leaders takes everything the younger programs plant and grows it into something bigger — real skills, real responsibility, and real contribution to the community and the living world. Guided by the full range of Wild Child's pedagogical inspirations — and grounded in the democratic education tradition of Summerhill and the indigenous wisdom of Costa Rica — this program trusts young people with meaningful work and meaningful questions.
The land: Advanced permaculture and biodynamic gardening. Food sovereignty — understanding where food comes from, who controls it, and how communities can feed themselves. Fermentation, preservation, and traditional food preparation. Cooking real meals for the community.
The arts: Deeper work in natural pigments, pottery, weaving, and sewing. Nature crafts as cultural practice. Music as ensemble and as performance.
The body: Acrobatics, circus, and capoeira — with increasing mastery, discipline, and collaborative choreography. The body as instrument of strength, grace, and expression.
The mind: Cosmic Education in English — deeper into biology, ecology, history, and geography. Reading, writing, and research through real projects rooted in the natural world. Critical thinking rooted in real questions about the real world.
The community: Leadership and ecological activism — not as theory but as practice. Earth Leaders take on real stewardship roles within the Wild Child community. They mentor younger children. They design and lead projects. They speak up for the land and the ocean. They begin to understand that they are not just growing up in Costa Rica — they are responsible for it.
Afternoons are entirely project-based — long-arc, community-facing projects that leave something behind when the season ends.
The Thread That Runs Through Everything
Cultural and ecological awareness lives at the heart of all four programs. A real, deep encounter with Costa Rica — its land, its water, its forests, its people, its traditions, its food, its language. Not as tourists passing through but as children putting down roots. Learning the names of the trees. Understanding why the rivers matter. Hearing the stories told here for generations.
Spanish immersion happens the way language is truly learned — through song, story, play, and daily life. Not taught. Absorbed.
Earth and ocean stewardship is woven into every day across every age group — caring for living systems with our hands and learning to speak up for them with our voices.
Healthy nutrition is part of the curriculum at every level. Children who grow food, cook food, and understand where food comes from develop a relationship with nourishment that lasts a lifetime.
Music runs through the entire day — from the morning song that opens Tiny Roots to the ensemble playing of Earth Leaders. Drumming, singing, flute, and world instruments. Rhythm as the foundation of learning.
All four programs share the same space, the same garden, the same meals, and the same spirit. The 11-year-old who mentors the 3-year-old is learning as much as the child being mentored. That's a real community — and it's rare.
Pura Vida isn't a phrase. It's what we teach.
For Families Who Work
Wild Child operates alongside a coworking space for parents. While your child learns, you work — in the same place, surrounded by the same beauty. One drop-off. One address. One community for the whole family.
Stay on-site and work from our beautiful coworking space — good wifi, good coffee, herbal drinks, and the sound of children learning in the garden. Or drop off and come back at pickup. Full flexibility, every day.
Coworking is available to all Green Season families at a committed seasonal rate.
Costa Rica has one of the most extraordinary natural and cultural environments on Earth. The Green Season is when it truly comes alive — when the waterfalls run full, the frogs sing at night, the garden grows faster than you can keep up.
Your child will know this place. Not as a visitor. As someone who belongs here. Held by a team of specialist teachers who are practitioners first — in music, movement, permaculture, herbalism, leadership, and the art of truly seeing a child.
Inspired by Waldorf, Reggio Emilia, Forest School, Summerhill, Montessori, and the indigenous wisdom of this extraordinary land — Wild Child is not a method. It is a living thing. And it grows a little wilder every day.
Come grow with us.