EARTH EXPLORERS AfterSchool Program
KEEN’s Earth Explorers envisions a generation of bold explorers with meaningful connections to self, community, and the natural world.
With the increase in electronic influences on our children’s lives, KEEN’s Earth Explorers believes in letting kids be kids, outdoors.
December 31, 2022
Hello Families and Explorers,
I hope you all had an amazing winter break. Snow Camp, albeit very cold, was a success and we were so glad to see so many familiar AND new faces!
We had informed many of you at the end of fall quarter that the future of the program was uncertain. We were dealing with a three-fold problem of school district rental prices being unreasonably high for community space use, conflicts with staffing schedules (as most of them are CWU students) and low enrollment numbers to reach a break even point.
Unfortunately, we were not able to find a long-term solution to these issues and will be cancelling the program for the foreseeable future. We love this program and all it offers your children and we hope to bring it back someday. All future invoices will be cancelled and appropriate refunds will be issued for those who had prepaid for a quarter/year.
️For those of you with older kids in Mountaineers, that program WILL continue into the new year. Look for an email with those details.
️For those of you with kiddos in 4th & 5th grade, a Mini Mountaineers program is in the works for spring, so look for details on that program coming up soon.
As always, KEEN’s Pond to Pines Summer Camp planning is in full swing and we had some big things in the works! The Camp Brochure will be sent electronically on January 5 for families to peruse our 7-weeks of camp offerings! Registration with Early-Bird Tier 1 pricing will be open January 15 for those families wanting to claim their spots early!
We love our KEEN families’ commitment to our programming and appreciate all of the continued patience and support you give to us. KEEN promises to continuously pursue opportunities to make programs like EARTH EXPLORERS possible in the future.
KEEN’s Earth Explorers program – Frequently Asked Questions
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What is KEEN’s Earth Explorers program? Earth Explorers is a supplemental outdoor program designed to unplug children from their screens and reboot their curiosity with the natural world. Earth Explorers is a part-time enrichment program.
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Earth Explorers program is not designed to replace traditional classroom time. Earth Explorers is not a charter school or childcare center.
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Does our program replace traditional classroom time? No, Earth Explorers is not a full-time school program.
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Will we have scholarships available? Currently, KEEN does not have any scholarships available. However, we encourage you to reach out to HopeSource, as they provide funding for many community programs.
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What will my child learn in your program? Earth Explorers promotes a child’s natural inquisitiveness for the world around them by providing a safe environment to explore and learn. We will be integrating grade-appropriate Washington Learning Standards into the program, including but not limited to mathematics, science, environmental science, and art. Each grade level will have a learning goal to reach at the end of every quarter.
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What will you teaching style be? Nature-based education allows the outdoor environment to be the teacher, permitting a child’s curiosity to allow them opportunities to learn and make connections themselves. Our educators focus on safely guiding children along this path, encouraging their natural process of deduction and questioning to lead the way.
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Will you have bathrooms on site? Yes!
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What about handwashing? Our bathroom facilities are equipped with handwashing stations. We also use child-safe hand sanitizer when moving around the natural area.
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Will programming be affected by the weather? Nope! Children are resilient and can flourish in any weather scenario. We have access to a portable near the nature area at Mt. Stuart school but kids still need to come prepared with clothing appropriate to the weather.
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What is your cancellation policy? Our hiring, programming, and planning all depend upon tuition dollars. Tuition is non-refundable. No refunds are available once the program begins. We appreciate the understanding.
