Welcome to Real Red Riding Hoods homeschool enrichment and nature school programs.

We offer a variety of programs designed to suit your child’s age and learning needs. Our programs complement each other, offering children beautiful and enriching experience.

Traditional values and parental choice are fundamental to our beliefs.

Our passion is to provide the children of Colorado Springs, Monument, Palmer Lake, and surrounding areas with opportunities to enhance their homeschool education through music, art, science classes, outdoor activities, and socialization with their peers.

“My oldest child has participated in Real Red Riding Hoods for nearly one year—through winter, spring and summer. It has easily been the most incredible, unique and educational experience of his childhood to this point.” ~ Emily (google review)

Our programs

Want to see what we do?

The best way to see what occurs at our forest school and music, arts and science programs is to follow us on Instagram, where we share photos almost daily. On our blog we share photos from recent community events at the forest school as well as our learning activities.

“Real Red Riding Hoods Forest School was a dream come true for our family. Both locations had magical qualities and benefits and if we had stayed in Colorado I would have been thrilled to have days in both locations.

“… They LOVED going to school and looked forward to it so much. And they were always proud to tell people about their school and how they were out in the forest for hours in any kind of weather. Maria is SO incredibly gifted at working with children and creating an environment that fosters creativity and interest in learning, while allowing the children freedom to follow their own interests too.” ~ Elan (google review)

Values and Mission

Our program’s goal is to provide children with a beautiful educational environment where they can learn about the world around them, acquire and strengthen new skills, spend ample time outdoors, and socialize with their peers.

In our program, we emphasize fostering resilience, respect, kindness, and a commitment to community service among children.

Traditional values and parental choice

We believe in traditional values and close parental involvement in education, which we see as crucial for laying a strong foundation for children’s future success in life.

Education approach

Our curriculum design focuses on associative learning, encouraging connections across disciplines and fostering the development of different intelligences in each student.

We believe in balancing art and science projects to support well-rounded student growth. Art and science bring unique skills and perspectives that complement each other beautifully.

Here are some reasons why mixing art and science is important in education:

• Develops the whole person
• Sparks creativity and innovation
• Shows how subjects connect
• Builds flexible thinking
• Improves communication skills
• Cultivates appreciation for beauty
• Enhances emotional understanding
• Relates learning to real life
• Makes learning more engaging
• Explores diverse cultures

On importance of outdoors

Did you know that since the 1970s, children have lost 12 hours a week of free time? Additionally, an average American child spends only four to seven minutes per day in unstructured outdoor play.

Children simply aren’t spending enough time outdoors in unstructured environments. Studies show that today’s children are weaker, less fit, and less emotionally stable than previous generations. Experts even suggest that this could be the first generation at risk of having a shorter lifespan than their parents.

The Forest School portion of our HSE programs aims to take children out of classrooms and into nature, where they can learn, discover, and experience the touch of the living world, developing in a more balanced and natural way.

There are numerous benefits to regular attendance at nature school:

• Building confidence
• Promoting happiness
• Allowing for unlimited open-ended free play
• Providing a space where children are free to move, explore, build, break, and re-build to learn
• Improving brain development by stimulating the entire sensory system
• Preventing shortsightedness
• Contributing to more balanced and stronger physical development