Over the past two day I’ve spent with the Natural Patterns kids…. k-3 graders…. we talked of clouds, painted outside, looked at how the top of the trees roll up and down like a roller coaster against the sky, discovered spittle bugs hiding out in the fields. So delicious, every moment of discovery. Some […]
Well not really, but today the kids planted their pizza garden. It is comprised of tomatoes, onion, pepper, oregano, parsley and basil. They worked hard to create the homemade separations for their garden, comprised of wood found in the pile of branches out back behind the barn. But first we had to make the branches […]
I am grateful for every moment I spend with these kids. They are excited by a fallen tree, collected branches from a broken down lean-to, the adventure of being high up above the ground. It is as magical as this photograph, this image that was a single moment, a collective group of breaths and laughs. Gone forever […]
This place, this magical place where kids open their minds ….. Avalon Park. Where our children arrive ready for a new adventure. It is never the same. For today my 9, 10, and 11 year olds will be given the gift of creating their own garden. That means visiting the shed, getting the tools and weeding. This […]
A lovely video I found while looking at the blog, rethinkingchildhood.com . It is a video set to a poem. Sit for a moment, listen. You can feel a swelling urgency through the cadence of the poem, that we need to get our kids outside. Enjoy! Sue
I love being with all the kids out in the garden; so free, digging in the dirt, searching for that elusive worm. They are all so present. There are no Common Core standards, no learning for the test… it is more of just learning to be what we are naturally. Inquisitive doers. That is what I […]
The the end result of an in-depth look at dandelions. While some people think that dandelions are pesky, historically they were of great use ….. food, drink and medicine. But now many of us just think of them as weeds. Pesky weeds that many people shoot with chemicals to assassinate them especially before they turn […]
The last time we got together our class ventured into the woods to create a fort. The idea was driven all by the kids and their desire to collect long branches. We ran out of time last visit and only had a little luck. I told them we could return on our next visit […]
Yesterday the 3, 4 and 5 year olds took an awesome hike to the little pond at Avalon. Owen was thrilled and couldn’t get there fast enough so he made himself the leader! I was so excited by his motivation. Along the way we found a praying mantis egg case, dandelions blooming, leaves opening and […]
Couldn’t help but write about something that occurred last week while I was teaching my class. I was working with my Kindergarten gang in the garden and field. When we finished, the moms, dads and siblings hung around as they sometimes do. Today it was extra special because Emma, who is in my older Natural […]
