About Us
Community. Connection. Whole-Child Development.
Our Ethos
At Gentle Roots Forest School, we are going back to the fundamentals that humans were always meant to have.
Connecting to our environment helps us feel safe. Knowing what grows around us, who lives around us and how to utilize these tools for our wellbeing makes us feel secure in the world.
To feel a sense of belonging, feeling connected, having support and a sense of community are fundamental for our nervous systems.
Self-esteem is another fundamental human need. Building confidence, feeling a sense of achievement, feeling safe to be our unique selves are things that humans not only crave, but need, in order to be wholistically healthy.
Our core values at Gentle Roots Forest School are Community, Connection to Nature and Whole Child Development through exploration in nature and child-led learning. We are dedicated to creating a support system for Houston families, helping likeminded individuals connect with nature and each other, and help raise humans who will thrive in the real world.
Our Mission
Our mission is to provide a space in our Houston community where children and children at heart go to gather, play and connect, with nature and each other. A space to learn directly from our non-human neighbors, while getting fresh air and sunlight, guided by the changing seasons.
Here, we believe in the power of free play and the creativity nature inspires in all of us. We honor the children's interests and focus on their wholistic development.
Through exploration and connection to our environment, we nurture empathy, curiosity, critical thinking and resilience.At Gentle Roots Forest School we aim to become "the village" parents were always meant to have, and inspire a deep love for the land that sustains us all.
Our Stories
Viktorya grew up in the small country of Armenia where children play outside freely, often without parent supervision, because the whole community watches them. Growing up playing outside with her friends from dusk till dawn, Viktorya built independence, resilience and bravery that define who she is as a person today.
Being the first child and grandchild, having two siblings and seven cousins in a very close knit family, Viktorya naturally developed mentorship and leadership qualities.
She moved to Houston in 2017 to study Hospitality at UH with a passion to help people without being in public safety or the healthcare industry. After graduating in 2021 and having multiple Supervisor/Manager positions in the Hospitality industry and feeling like her passion was not being fulfilled, she decided to return to what brought her true fulfillment - working with nature and children.
She started working remotely for her grandmother's naturopathic clinic in Armenia, while spending lots of time outdoors and connecting to her environment, getting to know the plant allies that grow in the Houston area and making medicine with them. She has since been committed to healing root causes with nature rather than covering up symptoms, while trusting the body's innate wisdom.
While working with herbal medicine, Viktorya also returned to babysitting and working with children. She realized how much families in Houston lack that community she grew up with, and how much children lack freedom, trust and nature in their lives.
Through connecting with Lydia, life events brought to the birth of Gentle Roots Forest School to create the community parents were always meant to have, the connection to nature that many of us lack and to give children the right tools to build confidence, grow in resilience and thrive in what comes to them naturally.
Lydia has worked with children since she started babysitting when she was 14. This led her to tutoring, teaching art classes, volunteering in Sunday School, and being a camp counselor.
Originally from Pennsylvania, Lydia has been in Houston since 2008. While working in the energy sector for 15 years, she traveled internationally, fostered over 100 dogs, trained as a Behavior Technician, and received her Master’s Degree. Once her daughter was born, she decided to stay home full-time.
Lydia loves living downtown and enjoying the arts and diverse culture of the city. She also enjoys the vast natural world in and around the city that preserves forests, plains, and biodiversity.
Connection to nature has been integral to reclaiming a simpler (and scientifically proven) way of raising her kid rooted in goodness, resilience, and bravery.
Craving community, she started organizing meetups for local new parents in parks, libraries, and homes in 2021. After becoming a parent, she felt the need to build more community connection and support. She hosted monthly, local meetups for new parents and is passionate about bringing that sense of connection to others.
As her daughter grows, so has the need for varied types of peer-to-peer interaction, and independence. Seeking out like-minded families that want to build resilient, connected, grounded, and capable kids has become a passion project.
After linking up with Viktorya, ideas and ethos were shared and Gentle Roots Forest School was born. We hope you can join our community and find the connection that has been lost to modern life and the village of care that humanity craves.
Viktorya Avetisyan
Founder & Mentor
Lydia Williams
Founder & Mentor