After the week we’ve had with all the rain and watching the kids play, I feel like I’ve got to write about mud! The kids have been very into playing in the mud and dirt the last couple of weeks, good thing, too, considering the rain we’ve gotten.  I know my kids enjoy playing in […]

We officially have one month of school left! This month we may have said goodbye to our tulips, but we were excited to see a tulip go from a bud to an open flower in only two hours during one of our school days.  We’ve been loving how green everything has gotten and how many […]

The first day of Spring has come and gone, and so have some of our first flowers! In March, we’ve noticed that many of our days have started cold and warmed up and even gotten pretty hot. We have been listening to our bodies and taking off layers as needed. We’ve also had mornings that […]

February was quite a warm month on the farm!  The littlest learners noticed that it felt like spring but knew it was a bit early. Lots of flowers have started growing and even blooming around the farm. We have identified tulips, daffodils, crocuses, Persian speedwell, purple dead nettle, grape hyacinth, daylilies, and even a few […]

This February has brought us an early blooming of flowers, and that has been one of our biggest observations during Nature Notes. All of our Sprouts have noticed some sort of flowers blooming. Some Sprouts have been learning the names of several of the flowers blooming. We have had Crocus, Daffodils, Violets, and Birdseye Speedwell, […]

Explorers ushered in the new year with enthusiasm! We were all so excited for a new month and year to write every day in our journals, to be back in our forest classroom, and most of all, to be back together with Farmstead friends after an extended break! We noticed that we had to prime […]

January is a month of beginnings and intentions. We are so happy to be starting the second half of our year!  Although we have had some of our coldest days and our first “snow day” and two-hour delay related to weather, we are already seeing signs of Spring around the corner thanks to our observation […]

The littlest learners noted that January was full of rain! The pitter-patter of rain became a very familiar sound for us during our lessons and mealtime. With so much rainfall, it left our trails muddy and slippery. Since our classroom is up a hill, the littlest learners had to practice their balance and mindfulness each […]

December is a short month for Explorers at the Farmstead. We started the month with the last full moon of the year, the Cold Moon or Quiet Moon, known locally by the Cherokee as the Snow Moon. The Cold moon symbolizes the end of the year and a time to look back on the year’s […]

In December, we welcomed the quiet moon. The quiet moon reminds us to “be.” Be content with this moment, be thankful, and be still. The moon tells us to find ways to maintain peace and honor the light within us. The littlest learners filled their December days with lots of mud play. It seemed like […]