Tuesday, March 21, 2017

Philosophy. Curriculum. Bio.

San Antonio Nature School – for children ages 6-12 – opened May 26, 2015, and will be available for before school care, after-school care, Thanksgiving Break, Winter Break and four weeks in the summer. 

Our educational philosophy at San Antonio Nature School is as follows: We believe that children feel safe and enjoy being in a home environment. We value long periods of uninterrupted exploratory play for the development of maximum creativity and confidence. Children will spend several hours outside daily and be given choices of activities to engage all of their senses.

Our curriculum is creative, hands-on and artistic. Our classroom will not be constrained by walls, but rather we will get "out of the box" and into the wild! Best of all, we value a mixed-age classroom to encourage peer mentorship and the development of leadership skills. San Antonio Nature School is perfect for school-age children and homeschool students who are looking for enrichment outside of their own home environments.

San Antonio Nature School has been inspected and is registered with the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services. The last inspection in 2018 received a 100% rating, a perfect score. 

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Lisa Mares was born in San Antonio, Texas. She has been an advocate for children since age 12, she was the neighborhood mama! After high school, she went to San Antonio College and studied business where she received an A.A.S in Management. She continued her education at St. Mary's University where she received a B.A.in Philosophy and English. After teaching for three years in a middle school setting, Lisa began a home child care business in 1987. She was very active in the child care community and became the founder of Home Grown Kids (1989), a support group for childcare providers and the organization still exists today. In 1990 she became a certified trainer for new child care providers with SMART START for Teachers and worked as a contractor for the City of San Antonio Childcare Licensing Department as a writer. In 1992 Lisa was asked to become a Nationally Accredited Family Home Childcare Provider. The City of San Antonio paid five child care providers to evaluate the program and Lisa received accreditation in 1993. It was through the national accreditation program that Artworks Art Studio was founded. The last project for the accreditation program was to create a business that would reach more families in San Antonio. Artworks was created in 1995 and opened in February 1996. She has owned and managed Artworks since 1996. After almost 22 years, Lisa sold Artworks in October 2017 to Sarah Longridge, a longtime employee. Sarah has a BFA and a Masters in Education from Trinity University. Lisa currently works part-time as an art teacher at Howard Early Childhood Center and substitute teaches in Alamo Heights I.S.D.

Lisa and her husband, Steve, have been married for over 30 years and have two daughters. Megan, (age 29), graduated from the University of Texas at Austin in May 2015 and moved to Sweden with her husband in the summer of 2015 to begin graduate school in Educational Research at the University of Gothenburg and in 2019 began a Ph.D. program at the University of Gothenburg. Marina, (age 27), graduated from nursing school from The University of Texas Health Science Center in May 2016 with a B.S. in Nursing and is employed at University Hospital. 



Please call or email Lisa if you have any questions at 210-862-2787 text/talk or email sanatureschool at yahoo dot com.