The Emergent Curriculum: Following the Child's Lead to Deep Learning

following the child's lead... literally!

At GWFS, we often get asked about our "curriculum." Academic achievement is assumed to have to follow a structured, teacher-led, content heavy approach. At Growing Wild, we prioritize academic readiness and feel confident that each student who graduates from our program is ready for their next school. But, our curriculum isn't top-down, teacher and content driven. Rather, It’s emergent!

This means that while our environment is carefully prepared, such as daily games and crafts (offered to our learners, never forced), the day’s deepest learning often emerges from the children's curiosity. Did a child spot an unusual mushroom on the trail? Awesome—we've just launched into a lesson on fungi, decomposition, and color observation! Did a group find the perfect patch of soft mud? That becomes an instant class in material science, engineering (building dams!), and sensory regulation.

We trust that a child's deep interest is the strongest catalyst for learning. Our role isn't to direct, but to skillfully provide the language, tools, and support needed to turn a spontaneous moment of curiosity into a profound, hands-on educational experience. It’s authentic learning in real time.

Why Curiosity is the Most Powerful Textbook

The decision to embrace an emergent, child-led curriculum is not just philosophical; it's backed by science. Research into early childhood development consistently shows that when learning is personally relevant and driven by the child's own questions, the neural connections formed are stronger and the knowledge is retained longer.

Studies on nature-based learning confirm that outdoor, unstructured play directly enhances cognitive abilities. Exposure to natural settings improves a child's ability to focus and increases their attention span. Instead of being passive recipients of information, our students are active participants, leading to significant gains in self-regulation and problem-solving skills. When a child chooses the focus, they are inherently more motivated to sustain their attention on the task at hand—whether that task is navigating a slippery log or spending forty minutes observing a millipede.

The Forest as a Multidisciplinary Laboratory

When learning emerges from the land, it is automatically holistic. A spontaneous interest never belongs to just one subject area. Here are some common examples:

• The Mushroom Discovery: What starts as an opportunity for species identification (botany), evolves into Math (comparing sizes, shapes, and counts of the caps), and Risk Assessment (learning which things are safe to touch and which are only safe to observe).

• The Mud Pit Engineering Project: What starts as "playing in the dirt" quickly becomes a sophisticated lesson in Physics (how slopes affect water flow), Teamwork (collaborating to haul large rocks and logs for dam construction), and Sensory Regulation (using the cooling, tactile earth to ground and calm their bodies).

  
  

In our fully-outdoor forest environment, children aren’t just learning about science or engineering—they are practicing it with real materials, fostering creative thinking and complex problem-solving capacities that are impossible to simulate indoors.

The Teacher: Intentional Listener and Co-Explorer

The concept of an "emergent curriculum" can sometimes be misinterpreted as passive teaching or even the absence of true "teaching moments" more akin to general babysitting, but at GWFS, the opposite is true. Our teachers are highly trained and highly intentional listeners.

The educator's role is to act as a co-explorer and scaffolder, turning moments of interest into sustainable threads of learning. They constantly observe, ask leading questions, and introduce specific vocabulary or tools at the precise moment a child is ready to absorb them. This subtle yet intentional teaching style ensures that while the subject material is flexible, the developmental outcomes—confidence, self-esteem, cooperation, and robust cognitive growth—are consistent and profound.

We invite you to witness this profound process firsthand. When you visit our campus, you won't see children sitting still—you'll see them engaged in the deep, rigorous work of discovery.

We trust that a child's deep interest is the strongest catalyst for learning. Our role isn't to direct, but to skillfully provide the language, tools, and support needed to turn a spontaneous moment of curiosity into a profound, hands-on educational experience. It’s authentic learning in real time.

by Katie Wilson, Forest School Foundation Director, 2025