now enrolling
Outdoor Homeschool Enrichment Program in Olympia, WA
One afternoon a week on our sixteen-acre meadow, where homeschooled children ages six to twelve build real wilderness and homesteading skills alongside the same small group all year. Tuesdays, 2:00 to 4:00pm, beginning October 6th.
Program Starts
2026
Schedule
2:00 to 4:00pm
Ages Served
12 years
Campus
School Calendar
We See You, Homeschool Families
You have built a homeschool life around your child’s curiosity and your family’s rhythm. What is often hardest to recreate at home is a steady outdoor homeschool community and the kind of nature-based classes for homeschoolers that take real planning, space, and an experienced guide. That is the gap we want to fill.
What Your Child Walks Away With
Enrichment can mean a lot of things. Here it means your child comes home able to do something they could not do the week before, and with something in their hands to show for it.
And the parts that do not fit on a list: being comfortable outside in weather most people go in for, the patience for work that takes more than one afternoon, and the particular confidence that comes from making something with your hands that actually works.
Jake O’Rear
Co-Director
Phone :
(360) 259-7196
Email : contact@hidden
meadowschool.org
your child’s guide
Who Will Be Out There With Them
Jake O’Rear, BCBA, leads our homeschool enrichment afternoons. Two years apprenticing in primitive skills and ethnobotany at Earthwalk Northwest, trained at The Tracker School and through NOLS, and a certified Wilderness First Responder.
He is also a Board Certified Behavior Analyst with sixteen years working with children. The child who has never quite fit a classroom is often the child he reaches best.
“I am their friend first and teacher second. I enjoy helping kids through lessons on plant ID and nature observation, sure, but also learning how to understand our emotions, thoughts, and feelings. Without that, learning the other stuff can be an uphill struggle.”
He teaches fire, knives, and tools the way you would want someone to.
Slowly, and never before a child is ready.
Wilderness First Responder
Earthwalk Northwest
NOLS
BCBA
16 years with children
For Your Records
What These Afternoons Count Toward
You are the teacher of record, and you are the one keeping the log. Here is what an afternoon here puts in it.
Washington asks home-based families to cover eleven subject areas, and the good news is that they never have to be taught separately. The forest does not teach that way either.
An afternoon spent carving a bowl is occupational education, art appreciation, and a surprising amount of math once a nine year old is working out how deep to go before the wall gets too thin.
We will not fill your hours log on our own. Two hours a week is two hours a week. What we do cover is the part of your subject list that is hardest to do at a kitchen table: hands-on occupational education, outdoor science you cannot get from a book, and health and safety learned by actually handling a knife and a fire under supervision.
Those are usually the subjects still sitting unchecked in February.
Subject Areas We Touch
From Washington’s eleven required areas for home-based instruction.
Nearly every week
Science
Occupational Education
Health
Regularly, depending on the project
Math
Art Appreciation
Social Studies
History
Hidden Meadow School is not an accredited school and does not issue transcripts or grades. You log the hours and the subjects, exactly as you do now. We just make one afternoon of it easy to fill in.
Outdoor Homeschool Activities That Follow the Seasons
This is project-based learning, and we are outside for nearly all of it. What we build and study shifts with the year, because the forest is doing the same thing. Wilderness living, survival skills, and homesteading run through every season, and each forest school session builds on the one before it
• Shelter building
• What holds up to weather, and why
• How animals and plants prepare for cold
• Fire making and cordage
• Oil lamps and candles
• Carving spoons and bowls
• Wilderness cooking and basic tool use
• Plant identification
• Foraging
• Medicinal and utilitarian plants
These are outdoor activities for homeschoolers that are genuinely hard to run at home, and they build on each other. The bowl a child carves in January is the bowl they eat from in April.
Homeschool Enrichment Program Tuition
Month to month, with no contract and no season-long commitment. You are welcome to continue for as long as it serves your family.
Tuition
$150
per month
Registration and Materials
$100
one time, due at registration
To Hold Your Place
Deposit
first month’s tuition
Sibling Discount
FREE
registration for additional siblings
One Less Thing You Have to Build Yourself
You already plan the curriculum, track the hours, and hold the whole week together. This afternoon runs itself.
One drop-off, one pickup, two children learning together.
Your child works alongside the same nine other kids from October through spring, long enough for real friendships.
Why Families Choose Our Nature Homeschool Program
The same nature-based foundation that already serves our forest preschool families, built out into a homeschool enrichment program for school-age children.
More Than a Homeschool Co-op
Many families piece together a homeschool co-op, a homeschool pod, and a handful of co-op classes for homeschoolers to cover everything their child needs. Our program is designed to be one steady, educator-led place that brings the best parts of those together in the forest.
Register for Homeschool Enrichment
Fill out the form below and we will follow up with next steps, including how to submit your deposit and your registration fee. If you would rather meet us first, come to the open house on September 1st.
By submitting this application, you agree to our Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy.
Homeschool Enrichment Program FAQ
Homeschool Enrichment in Olympia, WA
Hidden Meadow School offers a nature-based homeschool enrichment program in Olympia, Washington, for homeschooled children ages six through twelve. We meet one afternoon a week on sixteen acres of forest, meadow, garden, and creek, and the work we do together follows the rhythm of the seasons. Families searching for homeschool enrichment classes near them in the South Sound will find that very few local options are built entirely outdoors.
What Is a Homeschool Enrichment Program?
A homeschool enrichment program offers part-time classes and experiences that complement the learning families do at home. Rather than replacing your homeschool, enrichment fills in the environments and expertise that are hard to create alone. For some families that means academics or arts.
For us, it means an outdoor classroom, experienced nature-based educators, and a steady community of fellow homeschoolers. Think of it as the focused, place-based piece of your week that you do not have to build from scratch.
Nature-Based and Outdoor Homeschool Learning
Outdoor, place-based learning supports physical development, attention, emotional regulation, and curiosity in ways indoor settings cannot fully match. Homeschooled children often have more schedule flexibility than traditionally schooled children, which makes consistent outdoor homeschool enrichment a natural fit.
In our forest school sessions, children spend the afternoon exploring our sixteen-acre outdoor classroom, taking part in hands-on projects, and building real skills through play and discovery. This is structured nature homeschool learning, not unstructured drop-off, designed by educators who specialize in outdoor education.
How This Differs From a Homeschool Co-op or Pod
Many families assemble a homeschool co-op, a homeschool pod, or a set of co-op classes for homeschoolers to round out their week. Those models depend heavily on parent volunteers and rotating schedules. Our homeschool enrichment classes are led by experienced educators on a consistent weekly rhythm, so your child gets the connection and structure families look for in a co op or homeschool network, while you stay focused on the learning you lead at home. It can also function as a homeschool support network for parents, a friendly group of local families who value the same things.
Choosing Among Home School Programs in the South Sound
Families comparing home school programs usually weigh three things: what the program teaches, who leads it, and whether the group holds together over time. The best homeschooling programs tend to be strong on all three rather than one.
Our answer to the first is practical skill work that follows the seasons. Our answer to the second is a team with years of nature-based education experience. Our answer to the third is a group of ten children who meet every Tuesday from October through spring, which is long enough for real friendships and real skill to develop.
Who This Program Serves
Our homeschool enrichment afternoons serve families in Olympia, Lacey, Tumwater, the South Sound, the South Bay Neighborhood, and Henderson Inlet who want regular, intentional outdoor learning for their children. This includes children who are already homeschooled and families newer to homeschooling.
Children ages six through twelve are welcome, and we design the afternoon to support a range of learning styles, sensory needs, and personalities, the same inclusive approach we bring to our forest preschool.
Learn More About Hidden Meadow
Our homeschool enrichment program grows out of the same land and the same approach that shapes our forest preschool.
STARTING OCTOBER 6TH
A Season of Real Skills
Ten children, one afternoon a week, sixteen acres, and a year of learning that follows the seasons. We would love to have your child with us.