From Outdoor Preschool to Camps
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By Nicole and April Hughes, co-founders of Sunhouse Camps
For nearly a decade, Sunhouse ran as a year-round outdoor preschool. Children ages three to seven spent their weekdays with us in Vancouver’s parks, through the rain, the wind, the snow, and the long stretches of summer sun. We watched hundreds of children grow up outside, and we learned an enormous amount about what young children actually need from outdoor education.
This year, we made a significant change. Sunhouse now runs seasonally, as outdoor day camps during July and August. We are no longer a year-round preschool. This piece is for the families who have asked us why we made that decision, and for the new families finding us this season who want to understand the depth of practice behind what we do.
What We Built First
The preschool model gave us something irreplaceable: time. Time to watch the same child move through three full years of outdoor childhood, from the wobbly first weeks of nature integration to the leadership of an older returning camper. Time to refine an approach across hundreds of hours, hundreds of meltdowns, hundreds of small breakthroughs, hundreds of conversations with parents at pickup.
That repetition is where The Sunhouse Method™ was born. The five principles of the Method, The Capable Child, The Body as the First Language, Regulation Before Reason, The Steady Adult, and Reinforcement, Reflection, and Integration, were not invented at a desk. They were noticed, refined, and named through years of practice. We saw what worked across many children, in many weather conditions, in many group dynamics. We saw what failed. We kept what consistently produced calm, capable, regulated children.
By the time we formally documented The Sunhouse Method™ in 2026, it was already the unwritten muscle memory of every educator who had worked with us. The document is the structure. The practice is older.
What We Learned in Years of Daily Practice
The year-round preschool taught us things that no week-long program could have shown us:
- That young children regulate faster in consistent outdoor environments than indoor ones. The forest does work that walls cannot.
- That the 6:1 ratio is not aspirational, it is mandatory. Below that, an educator cannot read every child’s body. Above it, capability cannot be scaffolded individually.
- That educators who are present and engaged are unmistakably more effective. Adjacency is not supervision. Presence is.
- That the language an educator uses in the first thirty seconds of an escalation determines the next ten minutes. This became the foundation for the named techniques inside The Sunhouse Method™.
- That weekly video recaps are more meaningful than constant social media updates. Parents want depth, not feed.
Each of these became a non-negotiable in the camps.
Why Summer Camps Now
The honest answer is that running a year-round outdoor preschool is logistically immense, and we wanted to focus our energy on the moments where outdoor pedagogy has the deepest impact. After years of observation, we became clear about something specific: a child who experiences a full week of immersive Sunhouse pedagogy comes home different. Not subtly different. Visibly different. A week is enough.
For most families, weekly enrolment year-round is a major commitment. Many of the families who would benefit most from our approach do not have the schedule, the proximity, or the budget for a five-day weekly outdoor preschool. Summer camps open the door to many more children, while concentrating our pedagogy into the high-impact format of full-day weekly immersion.
Summer camps also let us focus where the demand is most acute. July and August are the moments when Vancouver parents are actively searching for meaningful, capable, well-staffed outdoor programs for their children. We are now able to serve that need with full attention.
What Has Not Changed
Everything that mattered about the preschool is in the camps. The same 6:1 ratio. The same pedagogically grounded educators. The same daily structure of morning walks, shared meals, child-led play, and structured activity blocks. The same insistence on educators who are trained, calm, and present. The same refusal to substitute supervision for adjacency.
Our educator standards have only tightened. Every Sunhouse educator is now reference checked, CPR and First Aid certified, background checked for child safety, and trained directly in The Sunhouse Method™ by the founder. Camp staff managers are qualified primary school teachers. This is the same calibre of practice the preschool families experienced for years, now applied to a summer format.
What Has Changed
A few things are genuinely different in the camp format, and we want families to understand them clearly.
The cohort changes weekly. In the preschool, the same children were together over months and years, which built deep continuity. In camps, the cohort is different each week. We compensate by anchoring each session in a clear, consistent structure that helps children settle quickly.
The age range is tighter. The camps serve ages 4 to 7. Children younger than four are not currently enrolled. The Sunhouse Method™ is most effective when children have the language and motor skills to engage with the principles consistently.
The pace is more concentrated. A week of Sunhouse camp is intentionally full. There is no slow ramp. We meet the children where they are on the first morning and walk them through a week of growth.
The schedule is summer-only. Outside of July and August, we are not currently running camps. This means we cannot serve every season for every family, and we have made peace with that trade-off.
What This Means for Long-Time Families
Some of the families reading this are families who attended the preschool. We want to say thank you. The years of trust you gave us, the hours we spent watching your children become themselves, the conversations at pickup, the videos shared at the end of each week, all of that built what Sunhouse is now. The Method exists because of those years of practice. Your children helped shape it.
For families with children still in our age range, the camps are the natural next chapter. The pedagogy is the same. The educators are trained by the same founder. The intent has not changed. We invite you back, in whatever season makes sense.
What This Means for New Families
For families finding us for the first time this year: we want you to know that the camps you are considering are not a new program. They are the summer expression of a pedagogy that has been practised for years and refined in real-time with real children. When you enrol your child at Sunhouse, you are not booking a recently launched outdoor camp. You are accessing the focused, concentrated form of work we have been doing for nearly a decade.
The Sunhouse Method™ is the proprietary work of Nicole Hughes. It was synthesized from years of outdoor preschool practice and formally documented in 2026. It is taught only to Sunhouse-trained educators. It is the foundation of every interaction at every camp.
Common Questions
How long has Sunhouse been operating?
Nearly a decade in some form of outdoor education for children. The brand has evolved from year-round outdoor preschool to its current summer camp format.
Why did you stop year-round programming?
We refocused our energy on summer camps, where a full week of immersive Sunhouse pedagogy has the highest impact and where Vancouver families have the greatest need.
Are the camp educators the same as the preschool educators?
Our standards have only tightened. Every Sunhouse educator holds current CPR and First Aid certification, has been reference checked and background checked, and has been trained directly in The Sunhouse Method™ by the founder. Camp staff managers are qualified primary school teachers.
Will you ever offer year-round programming again?
We are focused on the summer camps for the foreseeable future. The next chapter of Sunhouse will likely involve making The Sunhouse Method™ available to other educators and programs through training and certification, rather than running our own year-round preschool.
What Comes Next
The camps are the current home of The Sunhouse Method™. They are not the only future home. Over the coming years, we will be making the Method available to other educators, parents, and programs through training, certification, parent workshops, and published materials. The full pedagogical text will be published at sunhousemethod.com.
For now, our focus is on running the best possible summer outdoor day camps in Vancouver for children ages 4 to 7. We do this at two locations: Trout Lake (John Hendry Park) in East Vancouver and Pacific Spirit Park on the West Side. We run rain or shine, Monday through Friday, in July and August.
If your child is ready, we are ready.