“The child gives us a beautiful lesson-that in order to form and maintain our intelligence, we must use our hands.”

—Maria Montessori

Classroom Updates

The weather has not stopped our Water Clan from having fun and letting their light shine. I am sure it will be an adjustment getting back into the swing of school after such a long break. Perhaps taking them to the park as a reminder of what’s to come might help get them in the head space. Here is an article to encourage outdoor time even in winter. Also, reminding them school is coming up by saying something like “which jacket are you going to wear on your first day back?”, or “which friend are you most excited to see?”

Hi Earth Clan families! Welcome back after winter break! I hope you all had wonderful times with your family and friends! We missed you and are excited to begin learning again out in the beautiful forest! With the new year brings some new learning opportunities and we are going to kick off 2024 with a rock unit! The kids will be “mining” and testing some rock samples and learning about the rock cycle as well as the 3 families of rocks (igneous, sedimentary, and metamorphic). I know how much they enjoy agate hunting and since the beach is fairly flooded right now, I am hoping this will give us some rock fun even though we can’t be there. Speaking of rocks, I also know how sweet everyone is with bringing in rocks (and other things) to share with their classmates. I so love that this class is giving and wants to share the love in their heart with others but I think it’s even more special when it is an item someone made for someone else. In the interest of that, I’d like to offer the opportunity to keep bringing something to share with the class on Wednesdays for a show and tell, but for the other days let's keep special things at home unless you choose to make something to bring and give to a friend. I look forward to hearing all about your breaks and seeing you back!

January marks the start of several exciting new learning opportunities for the Air Clan! We will be boosting our academic progress by offering daily reading and writing practice (at all levels) in the first half of each school day. Secondly, your children will embark on a child-led investigation of all things water-related! This will be a great chance to ask questions about how things work and to learn how to be a good scientist through our innate curiosity, careful observations, and record keeping. One additional big change starting this month is increased adventure time. During these cold months we need to keep our bodies moving, and your children will decide together which areas of the park they hope to explore in the next few months, with the goal of finding new and undiscovered wilderness spaces!

The Fire Clan showed up strong in December! They were instrumental in helping with our seasonal celebrations, organized and executed St. Lucia Day independent of teacher help, led all school circles on Thursdays and brought some amazing goodies and homemade crafts to our Maker’s Market. These kids are so full of ideas and curiosity. They are leaning into the colder weather with aplomb and great resilience. All in all, they are wonderful role models for all the younger children in our program and we are lucky to have this ‘older’ kid energy in our school! Please see below for what’s coming up for us in the next few months.

Maker’s Market

All the money these kids made they spent right back in the forest school community. I was so impressed with the level of craftsmanship and entrepreneurial skills these kids have! I almost can’t wait until next year to see what they will dream up! We still have many of the block print greeting cards our Fire Clan kids made. If you are interested in ordering some more contact Heidi.

Returning to the Cold

January is going to be wet, cold and full of discomfort. These dark cold months are the bedrock of what we stand for at forest school and its value is greater than we can quantify or see in our students on the daily. The resilience and grit that they collect in these harder months will burrow deep in their psyche and when discomfort greets them later in life they will use this unconscious resilience to help move themselves along. When the weather is bleak and they protest about going to school remember its value and benefit. Cold weather is good for your brain, reduces the risk of cold and flu, strengthens your heart, reduces stress, helps you sleep better, rejuvenates the skin, burns calories, increases brown fat and absorbs excess glucose—just to name a few benefits.

Next Year

We are humbled and grateful for the response to our elementary program. We have only been in business as a K-5 for two and a half years and the reception has been astounding. Many of our families who enter our program reenroll their children each year making few spots available for new families.

This school year we won’t be able to open enrollment the way we have in previous years due to limited open spots for new students. We will be distributing pre-enrollment applications to families after they have completed a tour. Pre-enrollment applications will close on March 8th. You will be notified of your acceptance or waitlist position on March 22nd and will have a week to confirm that you would like to accept the spot before it is offered to the next family on the waitlist.  

Committing to Forest School is a big decision, it takes a lot of work to get your kiddo to school each day. Coming to do an observation of our school is a great way for you and your family to see our program in real time and get a feel for who we are and what we do. Tours will be offered in January and February 2024. Please email info@downtoearthforestschool.com for more details about our tour dates.

Rates for 24/25:

The elementary tuition is $8,500 per child annually and the preschool program is $6,500 per child annually. We offer a variety of payment options, including a monthly plan. There is a materials fee of $200 (K-5) or $150 (Pre-K) each year. We do not charge an application fee but upon enrollment a non-refundable deposit of $200 is due, and will apply to the first tuition payment.

This is what each class will look like in the coming year:

• Water Clan: Preschool, 3-5 year olds

• Earth Clan: Kindergarten and First grade

• Air Clan: Second and Third grade

• Fire Clan: Fourth and Fifth grade

A Quiet Place

Constant Stimulation of your child’s senses

creates insensitivity.

They see so much they become blind.

They hear so much they become deaf.

They taste so much they become nauseated.

They desire so much they become forever unsatisfied.

They do not come to know that which truly satisfies.

It will be hard to create a quiet place where your children can find their souls.

You must first quiet your own world and then approach theirs.

They are accustomed to the barrage of noise

and will complain loudly in its absence. But you can find a quiet way.

What will you do today?

 A walk?

A book?

A simple game?

The Parenting Tao Te Ching by William Martin

Water Clan - A preschooler got stuck on Wild Cat Rock last week. My philosophy is “if they can get themselves up, then they can get themselves down.” I don’t say that out loud but that’s what I am thinking. She wanted me to get her down and she wasn’t budging. Instead of telling her things like “I’m not going to help, you can do it,” or “I told you not to climb up there, now you can’t get down” which could further aggravate the situation, I told her “Here is what I am going to do—get your warm gloves ready, stand right by you and I won’t leave. First you climb down and then we can put on warm gloves.” First—Then statements let the child know what you are willing to do and what the expectation is from them without a power struggle. It also helps them know what’s happening next, once they do the thing they don’t want to do. It’s important to use a positive tone and language so they don’t go further into the resistant. In a loving and positive tone say something like “It’s ok that this is hard, and when you climb down we can put your gloves on—I bet they will feel so warm!” First—Then, one of the best tricks of Positive Discipline! My favorite book is Positive Discipline for Preschoolers in case that wasn’t already obvious!

Earth Clan - This month in Earth class we continue to do our sign language letter work, even coming up with their own symbols and beginning letter sounds during circle time. The students are helping to lead parts of our circle time and are continuing to practice rhyming, beginning sounds, and letters. We continue to practice math and reading songs as well. We have been searching and finding agates at the beach as well and loving it! We are going to capitalize on the rock frenzy and begin our rock unit in the next couple months! We are also talking about reading emotions on the faces of our friends and trying to hold space for them to share how they are feeling. Keep sharing the love in your hearts with your friends Earth class!

Air Clan -Air Clan kids are learning so much! Recently, we started playing the Same/Different game at Circle Time, which allows each child to notice, not only the differences between us (which tend to be front and center in our brains), but also the ways in which we share commonalities. Those common traits and values are what lead to connection and friendship. Academically, every student is engaged and working hard. They are learning to be responsible for all their gear and remembering how to take care of their own bodies in this cold season.

Fire Clan - It’s been a busy month for the Fire Clan, and we’re on track for December to be just as wild! These kids have been hard at work carving their Forest Family animal into a rubber block to make prints for Forest Family flags, greeting cards and other artwork. They’ve been sewing up a storm on Mondays with Ms. Holly’s ancestral lessons, making small gathering pouches or amulets to wear around their necks. Fire Clan kids are working hard and engaged during our literacy, math and writing academic blocks. They are taking leadership roles in our community by helping to lead all-school circle on Thursdays and organizing/mediating/teaching large games (without adult help) that include kids from preK—5th grade during unstructured time! They are also doing the hard and sometimes uncomfortable work of navigating changing and/or new friendships, speaking up for their needs with peers and adults, and sharing insights with each other respectfully. This class is working together wonderfully!

One of the best ways for kids to stay comfortable in the forest on cold and/or rainy days is to have the appropriate gear and food. We talk about it a lot with kids and parents, but want to make sure everyone is clear that the time is now! Sending kids with the following items to school every day will make their days more enjoyable and comfortable:

• Mittens, hat, warm base layer, warm mid layer, warm heavy layer and rain layer.

• Warm boots with wool socks. (Please pack extra socks for kids everyday in their backpacks) Also, please send a smallish hand towel for each kid to help clean off muddy wet hands.

• Hand warmers (many options - disposable, rechargeable, Hot Snapz)

• Warm food/tea - Warm food and tea helps kids to keep warm from the inside out!

When autumn grieves

she bows her head

so rainbow-tears

fall gently

on her leaf-bed

-Angie Weiland-Crosby

Halloween

We will be celebrating Halloween at school this year in our own way. Children are welcome to get dressed up but please remember their costumes are likely to get very muddy and potentially ruined. Alternatively kids can come with crazy hair or a hat! We will have a morning dance party.

Day of the Dead

With cultural guidance from folks in our community we are excited about acknowledging the Day of the Dead on November 2nd. If there is time and if your family is in alignment with this offering, on November 1st create an alter with marigolds, candles and photos of loved ones that have died. You can set out a favorite item of food or drink for the departed as well. On November 2nd children can bring in their alter (just a few pieces is fine) and we will have a table set up that will stay at school all day.

Clan updates

Water Clan — The weather last week and no Ms. Heidi was an interesting combo. It’s an important part of our program, having to stay fluid and flexible to change and be resilient and find joy in the downpour. GRIT is what the word of the day- “Initial findings and studies in Europe suggest that children who go to nature preschools and forest kindergartens are just as well prepared for kindergarten and first grade as their compatriots in more traditional early childhood programs. But these nature programming students are also developing persistence, stick-to-it-ive-ness, and collaboration, and they’re more physically active. In short, they’re just as smart but perhaps have more grit-more self-reliance, persistence, ability to stay on task. And grit, we’re learning, may be a better predictor of school success then academic test scores.” (Duckworth and Eskreis-Winkler 2013)

Earth Clan — This month in Earth class we continue to do our sign language letter work, math and reading songs. We are practicing retelling stories and continuing to carve and work on some art projects and crafts. We are using our nature journals as we practice drawing things we see in the forest that begin with the letter of the week. Earth Class begins nocturnal animal studies next month and will be learning about nocturnal animal habitats and adaptations.

Air Clan — This month we are settling into our block scheduling which is an adjustment, kids seem to be settling into the routine. We are the biggest class in the school and some very big personalities here too. A lot of conversations around self control, pausing before reacting and developing an awareness of others. We have also been making our lanterns, enjoying Holly’s weekly ancestral skills offerings and trying to stay dry!

Fire Clan — October has flown by with chilly mornings, sunny afternoons and the occasional all day torrential downpour. We welcomed two new students into our clan, brothers Finn and Kai - they’ve been a wonderful addition! We’ve been busy making large watercolor paper lanterns, carving (spoons, spears, and block prints for Forest Families), and working hard during block scheduling on literacy and math!

Warm Gear and Food

One of the best ways for kids to stay comfortable in the forest on cold and/or rainy days is to have the appropriate gear and food. We talk about it a lot with kids and parents, but want to make sure everyone is clear that the time is now! Sending kids with the following items to school every day will make their days more enjoyable and comfortable:

• Mittens, hat, warm base layer, warm mid layer, warm heavy layer and rain layer.

• Warm boots with wool socks. (Please pack extra socks for kids everyday in their backpacks) Also, please send a smallish hand towel for each kid to help clean off muddy wet hands.

• Hand warmers (many options - disposable, rechargeable, Hot Snapz)

• Warm food/tea - Warm food and tea helps kids to keep warm from the inside out!

Last year’s Lantern walk, our fall tradition

Can you believe it’s already October? This first month of school has absolutely flown by and it’s been so wonderful to be back with children in the forest!

Clan (class) Updates

Water Clan:

I wonder how many parents out there are still dressing their kids each day? Preschoolers are capable of dressing themselves and when they do it boosts their confidence and makes them feel capable and when they feel proud they are more receptive to further learning and growth. Do any of you have very early risers? How about putting some dishes down low for them to get themselves, a small pitcher or container in the fridge so they make themselves breakfast in the morning. This is another opportunity to build independence. Tonight try having them set out their clothes for the next day and then task them with getting dressed first thing. These kids are showing they can be so autonomous at school, they are very capable!

Earth Clan (formerly Fire):

Our Kinder kids are jumping into this year by being great leaders and helping Ms. G learn the forest play spots. We have been learning a sign language ABC song, counting forest critters, doing fruit tasting, graphing, learning the days of the week song in Spanish and English, (as well as many other songs, the kids are teaching me some great new ones) and so much more! We will be continuing letter name and sound work (building them and using forest tools to practice earth writing). This class LOVES books and I am so happy to read with them! They are finding and making rhymes in songs and books and just from forest finds. I am so excited to get into a nocturnal and diurnal animal unit with them next month! It has been a fantastic start at DTE for Earth class, I am excited to be a part of this community.

Air Clan (formerly Earth):

Your children in the Air Clan are doing so great! The hard work right now is the social/emotional learning, specifically self-control and using words to explain our feelings and needs. We read a native story every day, and we're getting into the groove of daily focused academic work. I am enjoying watching your kiddos learn to work as a team by asking each other for help, encouraging one another, and last Thursday they even got to a consensus decision on the day's adventure destination without help from an adult! We're off to an awesome start of the school year! 

Fire Clan (formerly Air):

This group of 14 is settling into school like the pros they are! These kids have been in the forest for at least one, if not two years or more - and it shows. They are quickly acclimating to the cooler weather and rain, solving disputes and problems by themselves and tuning into their bodies and needs to stay comfortable and happy. We may be squeezed onto the bus, but everyone is excited to be there and we are making it work! We are getting into the swing of things academically by beginning our ‘block scheduling’ this last week with one, one hour block per day. Next week we’re trying for two blocks, one full hour and another 45 minutes after a short break. These are times you student is practicing and learning skills around literacy, math and ancestral skills. You can expect more information coming once we really get rolling in a few weeks. Feel free to ask myself or Erin for more info if you’re dying of curiosity before then!

Ancestral Skills

Here is what’s coming up for students in the coming months. Kids love these days of hand crafting!

October - Corn husk dolls and/or necklaces, Indigenous Peoples Day, Lantern Making Part 1, Lantern Making Part 2.

November - Sewing projects, winter gifts for families.

December - Winter gifts for families, Solstice craft.

And, we’re back!

Welcome to our 3rd year with the school age program. Things are really coming along as we begin the process of finding out who we are as a school and shaping our program to meet the needs of all enrolled.

Clan Updates

Preschool is back at it with hours of unstructured time and a FANTASTIC rotation of teacher/momma/helpers. This weather has made for some pretty dreamy days at school for the little ones and an easy transition. We have ten boys and only two girls. If you know someone with a preschool GIRL encourage them to come do a tour of the school, Ms. Ada Louise says “thank you in advance” for any leads!

Welcome Erin Gingerich to the forest school scene. Ms. G is our Earth Clan (kinder) teacher and comes with over 17 years of experience in education. Her bio is coming soon to our website. I am told the best part of kindergarten so far is the stuffed animals Erin bought and hand sewed pencil pouches to their bellies!

The first through fifth grade is grounding in to the new clan dynamic and developing relationship with their teachers and assistants. Erin and Audra are gently assessing kids this week and next so that they are put in the right grouping once the block schedule begins in a few weeks. If you’re not sure what the block schedule is or want more information reach out to me, Audra or ErinPaige and we can fill you in.

Fall Equinox is here

During school next week all the clans will be celebrating the fall equinox. Air clan will share with us what Equinox means with a short skit complete with Earth and Sun globes, Fire clan will be hosting our annual cider press and Water and Earth clans will revel in not yet having a leadership role. We encourage families to send to school any extra items that are coming out of the garden as we offer a sample table for children to try new things and visually see the bounty of the season.

Traditionally, the Autumn Equinox marks the end of the harvest season, where we take stock of what we have grown and gathered and give thanks for what we have received.

“The main thing is that the groups should contain different ages, because it has great influence on the cultural development of the child. This is obtained by the relations of the children among themselves. You cannot imagine how well a young child learns from an older child; how patient the older child is with the difficulties of the younger.” —Maria Montessori

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Class Updates

Water Class—I always enjoy late Spring when they shed their gear and a pack of independent self sufficient little wildlings appear before my very eyes. These precious beings made it through the dark cold winter and gained a true sense of resilience. We have earned the sun and with gratitude we relish these days.

Earth Class—The Earth kids have been writing and illustrating some pretty phenomenal works of fiction over the past couple weeks. Students created their own tiny books and got right to work. Imagination and cooperation are turned up to eleven in the Earth Class, and everyone is reading! Eight of our thirteen Earth students will be graduating from the Earth Class and starting as Air Class kids with Ms. Audra this fall!

Air Class —The end of the school year is always an exciting and bittersweet time. I’ve been soaking up these last few weeks with the Air Class as our small crew of nine. They will forever be my first Forest School Class! Predator Prey went off without a hitch thanks to the Air Class and all their hard work put into their maps. We also couldn’t have done it without all the parent volunteers and teachers - THANK YOU! Everyone had a blast! We’ve also been practicing Contra dancing for the end of the year shindig and working hard on finishing our last project: How Things Work!

Fire Class—Can you believe it's June Fire Families? The Fire Class is delving deep into the world of Plants for the last few weeks of school, and will be discovering all parts, processes and mysteries of plant life. Lots of great experiments that I am looking forward to! Fire Class has also been putting forth such great effort at learning to read and write and are making huge gains in this area.

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Predator & Prey

Predator Prey was a complete success! We could not have pulled that off without parent volunteers. Air class hid almost too well.

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And Now It's Spring

The grass is green across the hill,
But yellow blooms the daffodil.
It's sunshine on a little stalk,
A friendly flower, I bet they talk...
Of little kids, too long inside
They burst outdoors to play and hide.
Tracking mud and bringing bugs.
Look, there's footprints on the rug!
Tiny whirlwinds, these little tykes,
They skin their knees while riding bikes.
They rip and roar, they're running wild!
What fun it is to be a child.
It grows warmer every day.
Shoo the children out to play!
Pick the flowers, play in mud.
Too much rain, here comes a flood!
My snowy, winter days are gone.
I mourn them, but I hear a song
Of birds in trees; wind chimes ring.
I guess it might as well be spring!
By Lhtheaker

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Class Updates

The look on the kids faces when they walked into Root Wood to find it transformed into a magical tea party was priceless! How filled their young minds are with imagination and how accepting they were of the magic of the experience. Taking time to draw out their creative nature in these early years by reading them fictional books, scattering open ended play things or art offerings and telling wildly impossible stories are how we grow those parts in their brain that help them think creatively. Cheers to magical tea parties!

The Air Class has been having a wonderful time the last few weeks. The weather has been both the sunniest and the rainiest we’ve had all year! May Day was a huge hit with kids wow’ed by the parent effort with flower crowns and a magical tea party. The memories they made with these experiences are priceless. They also helped out almost all day by leading the other classes in learning how to weave and dance around a May Pole. They finished up their projects last month with an exhibit of their learning - all about how things are made - and have moved on to studying humans. ALL things human! Students will be writing essays and giving a verbal presentation to the rest of the class as a final project. In math, we’ve been working on fractions, multiplication and multi-digit addition and subtraction!

Fire Class is enjoying spring for sure. We are well into our Water Unit and exploring all the magical components that are water. Students are crushing it at the social/emotional piece of friendship and problem solving with peers at this point in the year. I hope you are proud of your Fire student because they have mad skills at checking in with themselves, what they need and working to express it. We have our Elephant and Piggie play coming up at the end of May!

The Earth Kids have spent the last month studying the human body! Each student made a life-sized illustration of their insides, following their own interests to discover more about how their bodies work - a child-led project! These kids are also finishing up a many-month project carving with Ms. Victoria, as we prepare for our goodbyes to her. Ms. Victoria has been an Earth Class staple since the beginning, and we will miss her dearly! Also this past month, we explored rocks with the Fire Class, practiced skip counting, introduced multiplication, and everyone in the Earth Class is reading like mad. These kids are blossoming like springtime in our forest!

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We will miss you Ms. Victoria

Our school has been so lucky to have this treasured human for over a year. She came on board mid year last year to take on a wild pack of 3rd and 4th graders-mostly boys. As a brand new program Victoria joined us with an open heart, an open mind and so much flexibility. We are so grateful to have had Victoria during DTE’s growth and change, her true nature was exactly what we needed. You can always find Victoria laughing at a child’s silly jokes, listening intently to someone sharing or gracefully holding space for a child to learn a new skill. I know that all the children she has yet to meet in her new home in Peru will soon understand why we treasure her so!

We bid you farewell and send you with prayers of abundance, adventure, opportunity and a prolific new community to encircle you in your journey ahead. Thank you for all the ways you’ve shared a heart connection and translated skills to the children and adults in our community.

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A river day with Air and Water class.

These two go together like peas and carrots!

Air class frying up some Maple Blossoms.

A rare moment for these two wild ones.

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Thank you to our parent volunteers! May Day was a day to remember.

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On the Horizon

We are looking for volunteers to help with our very last Forest Families adventure! We are going to play a GIANT game of hide and seek, we call it Predator and Prey. Fire, Earth and Air classes will be working on their map making skills and heightening their sense of space and place in the next few weeks. We are looking for 9-10 parents to help all the classes “seek” out the Air class kids hidden in their favorite forest hide out.

Our end of the year potluck and Contra dance gathering is quickly approaching. You won’t want to miss this one! Our Contra dance caller will be coming a few times before our gathering to give our kids some Contra lesson.

Trillium, trillium how do you grow?

With three leaves of green, and three white as snow.

In early spring you emerge from the ground

growing slowly, slowly - without a sound.

Surrounded by waterleaf, a vibrant emerald green,

your home is a paradise; a woodland dream.

Written by the Air Class, March 27, 2023

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Class Updates

Water Class—Water class is coming right along. We can collect most of our gear and be ready when we hear “gear check.” We are working together more and discovering new friends to play with. We had our first “sit spots” in the backwoods and next week we get to use dry erase boards! 

Fire Class—Holy Fire Class Batman! Fire Class has been growing leaps and bounds these last few weeks. It's always at this time of the year for kinder's (Spring, go figure) that they are really growing up and into themselves. They have developed so many skills towards social/emotional processing and are in a space of actively doing the work with each other. I love watching this class problem solve, they are building up some great tools. We have been delving into the silly world of Elephant Gerald and Piggie which has been a stellar way of getting Fire Class excited to learn to read. These books are giving me a chance to model good reading strategies, sounding out words and identifying our sight words. These students are ready to get reading!

Earth Class—The Earth Kids have started skip counting, the precursor to learning how to multiply! Since they learned how to add doubles earlier this year, skip counting just makes sense, and they are flying through this skill with lots of hands-on learning. Additionally, we have started reading a fable every day and summarizing the story the next morning. We will be looking at lots of stories this month in preparation for character-development and story writing coming soon!

Air Class—Last month, students completed their first Project Based Learning study on Food and are now embarking on a second project based on the essential question: How is it made? Students choose their own topics and are doing wonderful research and writing at the library and during school on the bus. They are planning on sharing their learning with families and the rest of the school on April 13th from 1:30-2pm. The Air Class has been counting all the trillium they see on our adventures. Recently the count was over 200 on one trail alone!! The poem we worked on as a class last week and shared with the whole school is at the top of this newsletter, please check it out!

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School News

Forest Family Face Paint—This coming Thursday April 13th, will be a Forest Family day. One of the activities students will be a part of is coming up with Forest Family specific face paint to represent their group. We are planning on using plant derived coloring (beet juice, spices, berries, etc) and a child friendly mineral sunscreen base to make the face paint. If your child has skin allergies, and you don’t want them to participate, please let your teacher/assistant know.

Myceli-Moms—The room parent moms now have an official name the Myceli-moms. Like mycelium working underground, our mom helpers work behind the scenes, largely unnoticed, but have a great impact on our school and seasonal celebrations! Thanks to Grace (Iris), Kathryn (Owen), Helena (Ronin) and Natalie (Karris and Kallen) for all their hard work with Equinox planning. May Day is fast approaching, reach out if you are interested in helping out

Elderberry Syrup—This Wednesday (tomorrow) Melissa (Aya and Talon) is going to come to the school and make Elderberry Syrup with each class. The Air Class is going to support each class in chopping, grating cooking, labeling and bottling. Kids love to gulp their whole bottle down which won’t hurt them but drinking straight from the dropper makes it mold quite fast-just FYI. 

Book Club—I have heard from a few of you regarding our book club. We are going to start with “Free To Learn” by Peter Gray.  If you need a copy of the book please let me know, I have an extra or two. The hope is that you’ve read some, all or skimmed the book so we can generate discussion. This is an experimental gathering and all are welcome. Please RSVP Heidi.  

Ms. Märta and Ms. Heidi had the pleasure of attending a training hosted by Wilderness Awareness program called Coyote Mentoring. It was well worth the drive and sleeping in the cold! The WAS (Wilderness Awareness School)  trainors travel and I am curious who would be interested in attending a weekend with our teachers in learning more ways to guide your children in nature connection. WAS also hosts sleepaway camp for kids, bird language classes and other very cool adult programming. Check them out! 

Class Websites—

Fire Class (coming soon!)

Earth Class

Air Class

Enrollment—Preschool is now full with a waitlist for the 23/24 school year. Air class is just about full also. We still have a few spots in Fire and Earth next year - tell your friends!  

April Break—There is no school April 17th-20th  for a Break.  Please try your best to squeeze in those family trips during that week. 

Camp—Forest Camp will be the last week in July and first week in August. Camp is hosted by Ms. Heidi and is for kids aged 3-8 years old. McIver Park Monday-Friday. The cost is $350 for the week. Heidi is looking for counselors also! Reach out downtoearthheidi@gmail.com.

Thank you for a lovely Spring Equinox Celebration. We are so grateful to our parent volunteers!

Parking Restrictions—Paving at MSY The overflow gravel parking lot will be paved this month with anticipated closures from April 17-29th. This could potentially impact our pick up and drop offs if the main lots are more full than normal. Please keep this in mind and arrive early and/or carpool if possible. Thank you!

Heron Watch—Just down the street from Mary S Young, is a small park called Maddax Woods. It’s along the river and has a wonderful view of Goat Island. Right now and through mid-May, you can observe roosting/nesting Great Blue Herons. Their large nests are built in rookeries high up in trees and grouped together for safety. On Saturdays through June 11th from 1-3pm, you can join at the park for volunteer led heron viewing and activities. Bring your binoculars! 

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Volunteer Opportunities

We have some great things coming up this Spring, and we could definitely use your help! May 2nd we will celebrate May Day (Bealtain), dancing the Maypole and making fresh flower crowns.

June 15th, the last day of school and our end of the year celebration with Contra dancing and a potluck is my personal favorite! Can’t wait!!!