Parent Education

Wild Roots offers a variety of supports to ease, nourish, and enrich the parenting journey!  ​​
The well known phrase, "It takes a village to raise a child." is no cliche.  Humans have evolved in a context of community and relationship to one another and the land we live within.  Modern life has left many of us without the supports necessary to take on the monumental tasks of fostering healthy future generations.  Nature did not prepare humans for parenting alone.  At Wild Roots we believe we are all in this together and that needing one another is a gift!    Join us and see what we have to offer.
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​Wild Roots Parent Support Series 2025
with Lia Grippo, Wild Roots’ Founder / Director
January - May 2025
one Thursday evening per month, 5-7pm
January 16 ~ February 27 ~ March 20 ~ April 17 ~ May 22 

We all need support in bringing up young children.  No one should be going at this alone. We need each other, now and always.

The intention of this series is to offer support, deepen understanding of child development, and find creative means of easing the role of guiding and nurturing young children in our lives. This series of conversations, led by Lia Grippo, is open to any, and all, caregivers of young children.

It is highly recommended that folks attempt to attend all, as this series will build, each session developing out of the one that came before.

If you're interested in joining us, please fill out this registration form.  The series is free of charge.

Looking forward...

Lia Grippo
Wild Roots Forest School, Founder / Director
Academy of Forest Kindergarten Teachers, Co-founder/Instructor

​Past and Future offerings

About Lia Grippo

Born in Riga, Latvia, Lia spent many of her earliest years foraging and fishing the nearby woodlands with her family.  Her early relationship with Nature has remained a constant thread in her life. At an early age, Lia was drawn towards working with young children and has been an early childhood educator since 1989.  She has been fortunate to have had wise and skilled mentors in both early childhood education as well as nature connection.  Lia has taught in a variety of settings including small and and large preschools, a Waldorf kindergarten, a parent cooperative, and wilderness programs.  In 1996, Lia founded her first preschool, Seedlings, and in 1998 she opened Wild Roots Forest School, a preschool and kindergarten roofed by the sky and carpeted with the living woodland floor.  Lia is an accomplished storyteller, parent educator, naturalist, and herbalist and teaches classes and workshops in all of these areas of study. She is co-founder and presenter of the annual Reaching Nature Connection Conference and co-founder of the Academy of Forest Kindergarten Teachers.  Lia resides in Santa Barbara, CA with her husband and two sons.

Parent Support Series Topics include ...

Conservation of Energy in Parenting Young Children ~ Rhythm and ritual in family life
Holding Boundaries as a Gentle Parent
Holding our Children's Feelings with Grace and Clarity
The Academics of Play
The Social Lives of Young Children
Storytelling for Your Young Child​
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Guiding the Young Child with Confidence and Creativity
with Lia Grippo
This workshop will focus on what the young child needs
and how we as adults guide them to it. 
Learn to ~
Teach rather than preach 
Bring calm and wonder to a child’s day   
Develop a child’s attention, memory, imagination, self discipline, and self regulation
Resolve problems and shift behavior with creative discipline 
Build empathy, moral fortitude, and emotional intelligence

​Storytelling Workshop
​with Lia Grippo
Join us for an endeavor into extraordinary storytelling! 

​A workshop to build our skills in sharing stories embedded with meaning, heart and purpose. 
Develop storytelling skills to guide and enchant
Teach rather than preach
Bring calm and wonder to a child’s day
Foster attention, memory, imagination, and self discipline
Creatively resolve problems and shift behavior
Increase children’s empathy, moral fortitude, and emotional intelligence​
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Lia Grippo is also available for group workshops and private parent coaching. 
For inquiries, please write [email protected].
Classes include:
Creative Discipline
Story Telling as a Parenting Tool
Rhythm and Ritual in Family Life
​The Nature Connected Family
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​HOMEFOLK

HOMEFOLK is a newsletter/blog, initiated as a support to families during our time of collectively sheltering at home.  It is filled with writings on:
a variety of parenting topics, nature connection inspirations, stories, songs, crafts and activities, much needed humor, ​and more...​​
Go to HOMEFOLK here to visit the webpage and search topics.