Little Rubies - A Farm & Nature Based Learning Center
Registration
Little Rubies - A Farm & Nature Learning Center
2025-2025 Hours: 8:00am-4:00pm
Class Options:
We offer 2 day, 3 day, 4 day and now 5 day education options! View our handbook for the pricing breakdown (page 11). We have 6 elementary education licensed teachers and one full time chef to make food from scratch and bake/cook alongside the students too!
To register you will complete the forms on the provided link. Please note that all families pay a $100 registration fee for custom YETI water bottles, t-shirts and registration fees. Then your first payment starts when they start school (payments can be weekly, monthly or annually).
Registration for 2024/25 is LIVE!
Staff & Sizing
Staff will be 10:1. The lead teachers will be licensed in elementary education and have a strong understanding of the values and missions at Ruby Ranch.
Building a Dream
We opened Ruby Ranch in 2018 for Summer Camps, then we launched Little Rubies Preschool in 2021 for an opportunity for our youngest learners to connect with animals & nature and learn through play. We are now hoping to grow our programming to Kindergarten in the Fall of 2024! But our dream doesn’t stop there. We have our barn in the center of Ruby Ranch and we would love to renovate it to be a large Farm and Nature Learning Center for multiple grades. If this something you’re interested in or want to give feed back on, we are here to listen! Email Ashley at ashley.rehder@rubyranch.co!
Animal Interaction
We have over 50 different animals to care for at Ruby Ranch. We have our students build a relationship with animals as early as preschool. This helps them build responsibility and helps them learn to care for something other than themselves and they take a lot of pride in this relationship.
Farm & Nature Based
We are located on 9 acres east of Pemberton. Little Rubies is a farm and nature program for ages 3-6. We emphasize social, emotional, physical and intellectual growth though experiential learning through animal interaction, garden time, pond exploration, walks through the wooded trails and using nature as our daily learning environment.
At Little Rubies - Farm & Nature Based Learning Center we use The Creative Curriculum for Preschool - 6th Edition and Wild Reading and Wild Math for our older students. We take a lot of materials with us in our class wagon. This allows our students to spend a significant amount of time outside every day in large and small groups learning and exploring with nature. We can have a maximum of 20 students and 2 teachers.
We have hired 5 full time licensed elementary education teachers - as well as speciality licenses in STEM and/or early childhood.
We do have a daily schedule, but we also know that learning can happen at any time, so we just use this schedule as a guide.
experiential & PLAY-BASED LEARNING
Children are given opportunities to learn by doing. We create authentic and meaningful learning, through real-world experiences and questioning, play, relationship building, academics, life skills, mindfulness and stewardship. Children learn best through play and discovery, and the outdoors provides endless opportunities to do so.
Is this a good fit for your child?
At Ruby Ranch, our lessons are mostly conducted outside through all seasons. We utilize all 10 acres of our property - this includes having students near bodies of water (pond and creek), our small and large animals, open fields and our woods.
In addition to group instruction, we provide daily opportunities for children to participate in reasonable risky play like playing with rocks, climbing trees, sitting near fires and playing with sticks.
We provide experienced and licensed educators, low class sizes, and discuss safety practices help ensure that our students have a safe and developmentally supportive educational experience.
Despite the many benefits of our program, the outdoor setting and absence of specialty staff present unique limitations that may not meet the needs of all children. Therefore we feel your child will feel successful with our programming if:
They are able to follow critical rules and boundaries.
Can tolerate a variety of clothing and materials.
Can handle exposure to different climates - wind, rain, snow, heat, etc.
Has skills needed to work in a group safely and respectfully.
We can do this!
We will spend our days exploring, playing and having fun. But a big part of our program will be pushing our youngest learners to be independent and responsible too! They will be part of daily farm chores with feed and water. They will help make snacks with Chef Ali by measuring and mixing. They will help eat, plant and harvest what is in the children’s garden. They will help with daily clean up both indoors and outdoors. They will put on and take off their gear daily. These pieces teach them that they are strong, smart and very capable children!
