PARENT HANDBOOK

Part 1: Welcome & Philosophy

Dear Families,

I am incredibly excited to welcome you and your children to Jeremy Johnson Playgroups. Our mission is to connect young explorers with the natural world right here in our local San Diego parks. We believe that childhood is at its best when it is mixed with fresh air, open play, and the freedom to explore.

Through hiking, nature exploration, arts and crafts, and active enrichment programs, we aim to cultivate resilience, curiosity, and a natural rhythm of play. Thank you for trusting our team with your most cherished loved ones; we look forward to exploring, learning, and growing alongside your child every weekend.

Warmly,

Jeremy Johnson

Founder, Jeremy Johnson Playgroups LLC

Our Core Activities & Vision

At Jeremy Johnson Playgroups, our curriculum is organized around four core pillars designed to engage the whole child. We use the natural landscapes of San Diego as a living classroom to build physical strength, critical thinking, creative expression, and social confidence.

Hiking & Motor Development

What We Do: Navigate local trails, climb natural obstacles, and log active footsteps every session.

The Benefit: Builds gross motor skills, physical stamina, and spatial awareness. Children learn to trust their bodies, calculate physical risks safely, and develop lifelong resilience through movement.

Nature Exploration & Scientific Inquiry

What We Do: Observe seasonal shifts, study local flora and fauna, and engage directly with the soil, plants, and ecosystems around us.

The Benefit: Nurtures innate curiosity and introduces early scientific concepts like hypothesizing, tracking, and sorting. Children shift from being passive observers to active stewards of the environment.

Wilderness Arts & Crafts

What We Do: Create art using natural, loose parts found on-site—such as mud painting, twig weaving, leaf printing, and clay shaping.

The Benefit: Sharpens fine motor skills, tactile coordination, and imaginative problem-solving. By utilizing nature as the medium, children learn that creativity does not require plastic or screens.

Active Enrichment & Social Games

What We Do: Participate in cooperative group challenges, open-ended boundary play, and structured group games. This pillar also includes special, rotating pop-up enrichment experiences, such as integrated outdoor music classes, kids' yoga sessions, interactive face painting, and visiting puppy petting zoos.

The Benefit: Fosters rapid social-emotional growth and introduces varied creative mediums. Children practice verbal negotiation, conflict resolution, collaborative teamwork, and self-regulation within a supportive peer group.

The "Natural Rhythm" Approach to Play

Children don’t need to be taught how to explore; they just need the space to do it. We curate safe, immersive natural environments that invite child-led discovery, giving your little adventurer the freedom to grow and thrive through three core principles:

Active vs. Restorative Cycles: Children naturally fluctuate between high-energy bursts and quiet, focused observation. Our staff gently guides the group through these waves. A scenic trail walk or active game is always naturally followed by a stationary, shaded art session or story circle under a tree, ensuring children stay regulated, hydrated, and physically energized throughout our time together.

Supported Risk-Taking: We believe that navigating physical challenges is a wonderful way for children to build confidence. We encourage independent development through the diverse terrain that the children may come across during our sessions. By exploring under a watchful but guiding eye, children are empowered to lead their own discovery while developing the essential gross motor and cognitive skills that come naturally with mapping out new environments.

Accountable Unstructured Play: We believe that choice-based play is an incredible environment for growth. During these blocks, our staff remains right alongside the children as active participants and close supervisors. We keep our play space compact and tightly defined, gently guiding the children's focus toward our on-site arts, crafts, and natural materials while ensuring every child remains within immediate arms-reach and sight of our team.

Part 2: Logistics, Schedule, & Financial Policies

Tuition, Promotions, & Loyalty

To keep our groups small and provide high-quality guidance, spaces are limited and must be reserved in advance.

Standard Single Session Rate: $120 per 4-hour session.

Sibling Discount: $200 total for two siblings. This discount applies to any selected playgroup sessions booked together, regardless of whether the siblings attend on the same day or in the same time slot.

New Family Discount: All new families receive 25% off their very first playgroup session so you can experience our program risk-free.

Referral Program: We love our community growing through word-of-mouth! If you refer a new family who books a session, both you and the new family will receive a 25% discount credit toward a future session.

Loyalty Rewards Program: We love seeing our regular explorers grow with us! For every 10 individual sessions your family books, your 11th session is discounted at a 75% rate!

Cancellation, Absence, & Refund Policy

Because our helper-to-child ratios are strictly planned based on enrollment, we rely on predictable scheduling. However, we know family plans change and life happens, so we use a flexible, tiered window for changes:

Cancellations More Than 72 Hours in Advance: If you cancel your booking more than 72 hours before the scheduled session start time, you can choose between a full monetary refund or a session credit for a future weekend.

Cancellations Within 72 Hours: If you cancel within the 72-hour window leading up to the session, you are not eligible for a cash refund, but you will still receive a full session credit to use at a later date.

Same-Day Cancellations & Illness: Cancellations made on the day of the session—including absences due to sudden morning-of illness or waking up under the weather—are not eligible for a refund or session credit. Because our helper staffing and supplies are locked in advance based on headcount, our operational costs remain the same.

Severe Emergencies: We completely understand that true, major family emergencies happen. In the event of a severe crisis or hospitalization, please reach out to us directly when you are safe, and we will handle your booking privately and compassionately on a case-by-case basis.

Inclement Weather: We love playing in various types of weather! However, if conditions become unsafe (such as severe thunderstorms, extreme high winds, or excessive heat advisories in San Diego), Jeremy Johnson Playgroups will cancel the session. If we cancel due to weather, you will receive a full refund or a priority credit for a future weekend.

Part 3: Weather, Environmental, & Safety Risk Policies

The "All-Weather" Philosophy

At Jeremy Johnson Playgroups, we believe that experiencing nature in different types of weather builds resilience and adaptability. We do not cancel for light rain, cool mornings, or typical San Diego overcast days. We play through it! However, child safety is our absolute baseline. When environmental conditions pose a genuine risk, we will modify or cancel our sessions immediately.

Weather Cancellation Triggers

Sessions will be cancelled by 7:00 AM on the morning of the playgroup (or the evening before, if predictable) if any of the following local San Diego County safety thresholds are met:

Extreme Heat: If temperatures are forecasted to hit 90°F or higher during our session hours at that specific park location.

Heavy Rain & Mud Hazards: Heavy downpours turn San Diego’s clay-heavy trails into hazardous mud-slips and create flash-flood risks in canyon areas.

High Winds: If sustained winds or gusts are forecasted at 30+ mph. High winds create a significant hazard for falling branches and flying debris on forested trails.

Air Quality (AQI): If the Air Quality Index reaches 100 or higher (Unhealthy for Sensitive Groups) due to regional wildfires, dust, or smog.

Park Authority & Vector Closures: If San Diego County Parks or City Rangers officially close a trail due to Red Flag fire warnings or storm damage, our session is automatically cancelled. This also applies if the county schedules low-flying aerial vector control (such as helicopter mosquito larvicide treatments) over our specific park site during session hours, as the noise and overhead activity create an unsafe environment.

On-Site Safety & Hydration Protocols

When we are out on the trail, our team uses active monitoring to keep the environment safe and controlled:

Adaptive Adventure: We naturally pace our adventures to match the weather. We focus our high-energy games and hiking during the cooler morning hours, and transition into deep shade for storytelling and hands-on wilderness crafts as the day warms up. Our team closely monitors everyone's energy and hydration levels to ensure a safe, breezy, and comfortable afternoon

Hydration Breaks: Children don’t always recognize when they are thirsty. Our helpers initiate collective group water breaks every 20 to 30 minutes.

Sun Protection: Sunscreen must be applied before drop-off. Helpers will guide children to reapply their family-provided sunscreen halfway through our 4-hour session.

Flora & Fauna Boundaries: San Diego trails are home to rattlesnakes, ticks, and poison oak. Our team conducts a visual sweep of play zones before letting kids explore. Children are explicitly taught the "look but don't touch" rule for local wildlife and unauthorized plants.

First Aid & Emergencies: Every playgroup leader carries a fully stocked, professional wilderness first aid kit at all times.

Certified Staff: For your absolute peace of mind, all Jeremy Johnson Playgroups staff and helpers are fully First Aid and CPR certified.

Minor Injuries: For minor scrapes, bumps, or small splinters, helpers will administer basic first aid (cleansing, bandaging, ice packs) and inform parents completely at pickup.

Severe Emergencies: In the highly unlikely event of a serious injury, our protocol is immediate: 911 will be called, life-safety measures will be administered, and parents will be notified immediately after emergency services are en route.

Part 4: Health, Behavior, & Risk Mitigation

Behavioral Guidance: Staff as Guides, Not Enforcers

At Jeremy Johnson Playgroups, we view social friction not as a failure, but as a natural opportunity for growth. Our goal is to help children navigate social cues and interpersonal turbulence healthily and safely. We approach behavioral guidance with the following principles:

Peer-Led Resolution First: When minor disagreements or conflicts arise, our staff intentionally gives children the space to safely work out problems among themselves first. Learning to negotiate boundaries with peers is a vital social skill.

Staff as Supportive Guides: Our team does not hand out arbitrary punishments. Instead, we step in as guides to facilitate conversations. We ask open-ended questions, help children articulate their feelings, and support them in finding collaborative solutions.

Dedicated 1:1 Support Buffer: We intentionally maintain excellent staff-to-child ratios to remain flexible. If a child is experiencing a heavy emotional wave or behavioral challenge, our ratios allow one helper to step away from the main group to provide dedicated, supportive 1:1 attention to that child without disrupting the flow of the playgroup.

Positive Redirection: If a child is struggling to regulate, we use gentle redirection—guiding their focus toward a new hands-on activity, a different trail exploration tool, or a supportive task alongside a helper.

The Safety Boundary: Peer-led resolution is quickly bypassed if a behaviors are creating a physically unsafe to the child, their peers, or local wildlife. In those instances, staff will immediately intervene to ensure safety, pause the activity, and help the children reset and redirect.

Bathroom Logistics & Supportive Care

To ensure safety, hygiene, and a comfortable experience on the trail, we maintain a deeply supportive, full-care approach to bathroom breaks that honors each child's development:

Potty Rhythm & Full Support: We absolutely welcome children who are still in pull-ups or transitioning! We just ask that children have a general baseline rhythm to potty practices—meaning they can communicate when they need to go. While we are not a program designed to take a child through initial potty training from scratch, our staff will provide full, hands-on assistance with all aspects of bathroom needs, from helping with difficult clothing and fasteners to ensuring they are completely clean.

Accident & Care Assurance: Nature is full of incredible distractions, and accidents are a completely normal part of childhood. Any bathroom accidents on the trail will be handled by our staff with the utmost cleanliness, compassion, and care. Our team will fully assist in cleaning your child up, changing their clothes, and handling the situation with total dignity so they can get right back to playing without any shame or stress.

Public Restroom Safety: We utilize park restroom facilities whenever available. For safety and security, our staff will always enter, inspect, and secure public restroom facilities first to ensure they are safe and appropriate before allowing children to enter under close supervision.

Trail Outings & Portable Potties: On deeper trail hikes where public facilities are not nearby, our staff carries clean, dedicated portable potties so the kids can use the restroom safely, comfortably, and hygienically.

Agreement to Facility Use: Participation in our program requires explicit consent to these outdoor and public facility bathroom logistics. Because we move as a cohesive group, we are unable to accommodate alternative bathroom arrangements, and agreement to these protocols is a requirement for enrollment.

Mandatory Illness Exclusion Policy

To maintain a safe and healthy environment on the trail, we maintain a strict, non-negotiable exclusion policy for the protection of all children and staff. A child will not be permitted to attend if they exhibit any of the following symptoms or conditions within 24 hours of the session:

Fever: A temperature of 100.4°F or higher. Children must be completely fever-free for a full 24 hours without the assistance of fever-reducing medications (like Tylenol or Motrin) before returning.

Vomiting or Diarrhea: Any instance of vomiting or two or more episodes of uncontained/loose stools within the past 24 hours.

Contagious Rashes & Blisters: Any unexplained rash, open sores, or blistering bumps. This includes Hand, Foot, and Mouth Disease (HFMD). Children with diagnosed HFMD are strictly excluded until they are completely fever-free and all blisters/lesions have completely dried, flattened, and scabbed over with no new bumps appearing.

Respiratory & Cold Symptoms: A constant, hacking cough, wheezing, or a continuous runny nose requiring constant wiping (unless documented by a physician as non-contagious allergies).

Eye Discharge: Red, watery, or irritated eyes accompanied by yellow or green crust/discharge (suggestive of pink eye/conjunctivitis).

Lethargy: If a child is visibly exhausted, pale, irritable, or unable to comfortably participate in a 4-hour outdoor hiking and play session.

Antibiotic Window: If a child is prescribed antibiotics for a contagious infection (like strep throat), they must complete a full 24-hour cycle of the medication before attending.

On-Trail Illness Protocol

If a child begins to exhibit any of the symptoms listed above during our session, they will immediately be given a comfortable, shaded place to rest under the direct supervision of a dedicated helper. The parent or emergency contact will be notified and must arrange for immediate pickup from our trail location.

General Risk Mitigation

Exploring nature inherently involves uneven terrain, dirt, and wildlife. We manage these risks proactively without stripping away the magic of exploration:

Visible Boundaries: At every site, we establish clear, physical "boundary markers" (like a specific large oak tree or a trail post) that the kids learn to identify. Staff keeps the group compact and well within immediate sight and arm's reach.

Part 5: Gear, Clothing, & Packing Recommendations

Our "Come Prepared to Play" Philosophy

If there is one thing nature experience teaches us, it’s that children learn best when they are comfortable—and that they will get dirty, dusty, and muddy! We do not expect perfection, and we do not want to micromanage your morning routine. However, we do want to give you our best recommendations so your child can focus entirely on the fun.

💡 The Golden Rule: We always come fully prepared with a backup stash of extra hats, sunscreen, and spare clothes of various sizes. We have your back!

Clothing & Footwear Guidelines

Shoes (What Works Best): Sturdy walking shoes, running sneakers, or trail shoes with good grip work best for navigating San Diego’s natural terrain. If you choose to send your child in sandals or slip-ons, please do so at your own risk, keeping in mind that our trails can be steep, rocky, and uneven.

Shorts vs. Pants: Long pants or durable leggings are great for protecting little legs from brush and scratchy plants. However, San Diego gets hot! On warm days, shorts are completely fine. Because we always carry extra clothing adjustments in our mobile stash, we can easily adapt on the fly.

Sun & Bug Protection: Sunscreen should be applied before drop-off, and hats are highly recommended. If your explorer forgets their hat or needs a touch-up, don't sweat it—we keep clean backup hats and extra sunscreen ready to go.

What to Pack

The Backpack: It is recommended that every child arrive with a personal backpack to keep their items together and easy accessible.

Water Bottles: Please pack a water bottle, but don't worry about your child lugging it around. To keep your explorer light on their feet, our staff carries all children's water bottles and our medical kits in staff-provided backpacks while we are actively moving on the trail.

Fueling Our Adventures: You are entirely free to pack your child whatever foods they like best! Because our sessions fit into a focused 4-hour window, our days flow much better with a few quick, active snack breaks rather than sitting down for one long, heavy lunch period. We highly recommend packing high-nutrient, easily accessible snacks to keep your little explorer energized and effortlessly fueled on the go. If your child has specific food allergies, just let us know; all allergy accommodations will be organized, planned for, and coordinated directly with families beforehand.

Toys, Electronics, & Personal Belongings

Toys & Stuffed Animals: We know how comforting a favorite toy or stuffed animal can be! If your child wants to bring a cherished personal belonging, they are welcome to, but it is strictly a bring at your own risk situation. Jeremy Johnson Playgroups cannot be responsible for tracking down or finding lost toys that decide to stay behind in nature.

Electronic Devices: To protect the magic of the outdoor environment, tablets, smartwatches, and cell phones will not be utilized or permitted during our playgroup sessions. We are all about plugging into nature!

Part 6: Drop-Off, Pick-Up, & Late Policies

Meeting Up in the Great Outdoors

Operating in public parks means we don’t have a front desk or a static lobby. Our "lobby" is the trailhead, a specific picnic shelter, or a designated grove of trees! Before your scheduled weekend session, you will receive an exact pin drop and meeting location instructions for that day's park site, but we will always try and ensure it is the most convenient and safe choice!

Drop-Off & Our 30-Minute Wiggle Room

Staff Setup & Early Drop-Off: Our team arrives 30 minutes prior to the official session start time to set up materials, scout the immediate area, and plan our day. Because this time is reserved for preparation, we ask that drop-offs happen at the scheduled start time. However, if your family needs an early drop-off for any reason, please coordinate with us beforehand so we can ensure we are fully ready to safely welcome your child. For families needing a bit of extra flexibility, early drop-off is available during our 30-minute morning setup window at a rate of $10 for every 15 minutes.

The 30-Minute "Wiggle Room" Buffer: We know that getting out the door on a weekend morning can be chaotic! To give everyone a little breathing room, the first 30 minutes of every session consists of supervised, open free play right at our initial meeting spot.

The Moving Group Warning (If You Are Running Late): Once that initial 30-minute buffer ends, our explorers will head out on our first official hike. Because we maintain strict staff-to-child ratios to ensure safety in an outdoor environment, our team cannot easily split up. If you arrive after the 30-minute mark and the group has already hit the trail, it will generally be the parent’s responsibility to check for location updates and hike out to meet us. If we happen to have an extra helper free and it is operationally manageable, we will do our best to send someone to meet you—but if we are fully booked, you may need to track our adventure down or wait until we return to basecamp.

Safe Pick-Up Protocols

Authorized Pick-Up Only: Your child’s safety is our absolute priority. We will strictly release children only to the parents, guardians, or individuals explicitly listed on your authorized pick-up form. If a different family friend or relative is picking up your child, please notify us in writing beforehand; our staff will check their photo ID before releasing your child.

Early Pick-Up: If you need to pick your child up before our 4 hours are up, please coordinate with us at drop-off. However, similar to our late arrival policy, parents may be the ones responsible for hiking out to meet us at a designated cross-section on the trail rather than our staff breaking off to meet you. This will ultimately come down to our safety ratios on any given day.

Late Pick-Up Policy

We want to respect our helpers' weekend time, as they are scheduled strictly for the duration of the playgroup session. Please call or text us as soon as you know you are running behind so we can reassure your explorer.

Late Fees: If you are late picking up your child, a fee of $10 for every 15-minute block (or fraction thereof) past the scheduled end time will be automatically charged. This fee goes directly toward compensating the helper who stays behind to keep your child safe and engaged.

Part 7: Photo, Media, & Privacy Policy

Our Privacy & Protection Philosophy

At Jeremy Johnson Playgroups, the safety and privacy of your children are absolute. We believe that capturing the magic of outdoor exploration is a wonderful way to share your child's growth with you, but doing so should be completely voluntary.

We want you to feel entirely in control of how your child’s likeness is handled. You have the right to select your level of comfort below, and you have the right to change your mind at any point in time by notifying us in writing.

Media Participation Levels (Choose One)

When enrolling, you will be able to select one of the following options on your intake form:

Full Access (Internal & Marketing): You permit us to take photos/videos of your child to use for private parent updates and for our professional business marketing (website, flyers, and our business Instagram/Facebook pages).

Private Community Only (No Public Marketing): You permit us to take photos of your child only to share privately with the families currently enrolled in that day's session (e.g., via a secure, private check in/check out application). Your child's face will never be posted on public social media or our website.

Strict No-Photo Policy: No photos or videos will be taken of your child under any circumstances, even for private parent updates.

Policy for Changing Your Mind (Retroactive Requests)

We completely respect that family circumstances and comfort levels change. If you have previously granted marketing permission and decide to withdraw it, we will honor that change immediately for all future content.

Regarding content that has already been published on our social media platforms, please keep the following operational boundaries in mind:

Solo Featured Content: If a past post features your child as the primary or sole subject, we will gladly archive or remove the post immediately upon your request.

Group & Background Content: For historical posts where your child appears as part of a larger group, in the background of a wide trail shot, or where a post has established significant business reach/engagement, total removal may not be operationally feasible. In these instances, we will do our best to utilize digital tools to blur or crop your child out of the image rather than deleting the entire successful post.

Part 8: Our Daily Rhythm & The "Core Four"

Loose, But Not Chaos. Structured, But Flexible.

If there is one thing a play-based, child-led structure teaches us, it's that children do not watch the clock—they follow momentum, curiosity, and energy. While we do not bind our days to strict, rigid times, we do maintain a deeply predictable flow.

Our 4-hour session is built around The Core Four—the fundamental blocks of experience that guide our rhythm, ensure active and restorative cycles, and let the group explore safely without feeling rushed.

Block 1: Gathering & Accountable Free Play

Focus: Welcoming, low-pressure, and fluid arrival.

What We Do: The first 30 minutes of our 4 hours is our universal "wiggle room" buffer. As families arrive at our basecamp, children dive right into supervised, open-ended free play. This block allows children to socialize, ease into the outdoor environment, and choose their own play invitations while the full crew assembles.

Block 2: Trail Hiking & Nature Exploration

Focus: High-energy movement and active discovery.

What We Do: Once the crew is assembled, we get our gear organized, do a quick headcount, and seamlessly transition right onto the trail. There’s no lengthy, rigid lecture here—instead, we keep the group moving while organically guiding them through our visual boundary markers and trail rules as we walk. This block is all about letting our explorers log active footsteps, safely navigate natural obstacles, and engage their innate curiosity by interacting directly with the San Diego landscape.

Block 3: The Restorative Break & Nature-Based Arts & Crafts

Focus: Grounding, tactile, and calming exploration.

What We Do: After a big physical exploration, we head back to a shaded basecamp to rest and rehydrate. To transition from high energy to a quiet focus, we pass out the water bottles and sit down for a relaxing, hearty snack break. This seamlessly flows into our hands-on wilderness studio time. Children work with loose, natural parts found on-site—shaping clay, mud painting, or weaving twigs—sharpening fine motor skills in a compact, deeply supervised setting.

Block 4: Cooperative Games, Open Play, & Pick-Up Transition

Focus: Collaborative fun, winding down, and smooth departures.

What We Do: We shift back toward basecamp with cooperative group challenges, active social games, or rotating pop-up enrichment experiences when scheduled. We wrap up our final block right where we began our day, transitioning into a closing period of open free play. This allows the kids to organically wind down, pack up their gear on their own timeline, and ensures they are relaxed and ready right as parents arrive for pickup.

Dynamic Grouping & Mixed-Age Adventures

Because we are a weekend playgroup rooted in the community rather than a static, age-segregated school classroom, our enrollment numbers and age ranges will naturally vary from week to week. To ensure every child experiences the "Core Four" at a pace that feels deeply successful and empowering for them, we lean into dynamic, fluid grouping for children ages 3 to 10 years old:

Tailored Trail Sub-Groups: Depending on who is on the roster for any given session, we may organically divide our crew into smaller sub-groups after our opening basecamp play.

Meeting Kids Where They Are: On days with a wide age span, this allows us to cultivate a supportive, gentle pace for a group of younger explorers (such as our 3–5 year olds) while simultaneously letting a crew of older kids (such as our 6–10 year olds) form a faster-paced "adventurers crew."

The Best of Both Worlds: This flexibility ensures that older kids get the rigorous physical challenges, advanced wilderness crafts, and deep scientific inquiry they crave, while younger children get the space, patience, and close 1:1 support required to build their outdoor stamina safely.

Handbook Acknowledgement & Agreement

Thank you for taking the time to review our community policies and daily rhythm. By completing your child's registration and checking the acknowledgment box on our website, you confirm that you have read, understood, and agree to abide by the guidelines, safety protocols, and financial policies outlined in this handbook. We cannot wait to explore the trails with your family!