Forest Folk Early Learning Outdoors

10/02/2022

05/21/2022

The Department of Early Education and Care (EEC) and the Department of Higher Education (DHE) jointly offer this scholarship to help early educators increase their qualifications through a college degree.

04/28/2022

9th Annual Early Childhood Leadership Forum (Virtual) hosted by the Institute for Early Education Leadership and Innovation at UMass Boston

04/26/2022

When even our water play area is a moveable loose part! 💦

If you could hear the audio, you would hear ‘more mud!’ ‘More water’ and endless laughter.

04/11/2022

ICYMI: Spring Week is back for 2022! We have partnered with old and new friends providing FREE admission and opportunities to some of Massachusetts favorite cultural institutions during April School Vacation Week (April 18-22)!

*Please note that some places are still requiring advanced registration*

Check the calendar below and visit our website at https://www.highlandstreet.org/spring-week-2022 for all information.

04/04/2022

Forest Tots is pure joy. It is open-ended, child-led, exploratory, warm, and joyful. Due to popular demand, and the fact that we are trying to limit the group to eight families, we are opening a new Forest Tots session. Yes!

The new session will be open on Thursday mornings and will begin April 28. Come and join us for community, sweet Forest nature play, and making some new parent/caregiver pals!

The link to sign-up is in our bio! 🌲

03/30/2022

Place, memory, and play.

One log pile, a very particular log pile invites climbing and jumping and..meowing. 🐈‍⬛

Perhaps it’s the way children need to crawl to climb the logs. Or perhaps it is how they feel midair when jumping. This log pile transforms our children into kittens. They can not see it without meowing, without taking the log pile over, and fashioning their own plate of cat food.

Place
Memory
Play

It is so beautiful and silly and joyful to see. Less silly is that I am always asked to play the role of grandma cat. Grandma!

It is in these moments that I can feel children building deep love and connection to this land and place. There is nothing more powerful that memory, and a joyful memory at that. 🐈

03/29/2022

Transitions and routines are so much more than often given credit. Those in-between moments of the day have the power to be grounding, relationship-building, and joyful.

We snacked in the sunshine to stay warm(er) today. After our snack time children always put there snacks and water bottles away, and then get cozy in the forest library to read independently or with a pal. Today, our Forest library was moved to a sunny patch of grass and children settled there after snack.

Routines feel good for children…actually for all of us. It feels good to know what comes next In a child’s day, and what that transition to the next step will look like, sound like, and feel like. And just like this photo, those moments of transition can be really quite lovely when we establish a routine with care no attention.

I don’t often capture these moments. The in-between moments. But they are important. The post-snack-forest-library is one of our favorite routines. What are some of yours? 🌲

03/24/2022

We have been playfully inquiring into dams over the last two weeks. The first iteration of children’s dams used only sand and mud. These dams were joyously goopy, gloppy, and washed away with time.

Over the next several sessions together we went on hikes to nearby nature play areas where I knew we could also find dams. We still centered these trips on nature play, and we also took time to notice the materials in the dams. Always astute observers, children noticed rocks, sticks and branches, leaves, and pine needles.

Wouldn’t you know it, this new knowledge emerged in their play back in the forest classroom. They remembered and utilized all of the materials they noticed in the natural dams we have been encountering. They tested their dam, and we all enjoyed observing its strength.

There’s power in observing children’s play and intentionally planning invitations for the environment. What emerges is never known beforehand, and always better than what we could have imagined.

03/22/2022

Some days are…

Milk crate building, fort making, tree climbing, bird snuggling, hiking in the sunshine kinda days. ☀️

03/15/2022

Afternoon play is back! Mixed-age, child-led play in the woods. Does it get any better than that?

After a long day of school children thrive in the sensory rich environment of the forest, free to play - make - and explore in a slow and unhurried way. Parents and caregivers pull up a tree stump or bring a blanket and build community with other families.

Join us every Monday from 3:45 to 5:15. Link to sign up is in the bio. Sign up is one session at a time. 🌲

03/14/2022

We welcomed our toddler friends and their grownups back to the forest today after a winter break. Small spaces welcomed exploration, play, and storytelling.

The most beautiful thing was to watch a forest filled with families who followed the lead of their child. Children were able to explore independently, seek support when they wanted it, move materials throughout the forest. Such small moments are incredibly big and powerful. These small actions empower children, show our trust in their capabilities, and develop their own relationship to the land, materials, and the the community.

Parenting is powerful. And witnessing such trust-filled parenting is powerful as well.🌲

03/09/2022

One of my professional joys has been facilitating learning among early childhood educators In Massachusetts. We are halfway through a second PLC cycle on nature-based practices and I am reminded of how we are always learners, always beginners, and always engaging in our own cycle of inquiry. Or we should be, that’s the only way we get the privilege to keep growing. When we are with our children we often rely on our observation to make intentional changes or choices. With adult learners we continue to observe, but are also dependent on forms of feedback. These two quick guide resources came from feedback that more how-to tips are needed, and I used these as the basis for a short guidebook. I tend to go big picture, and place more emphasis on constructing our own knowledge through inquiry (raise your hand 🤚🏼 fellow social constructivists). But the truth is we often need both, some guidance and images to go along with reflection and inquiry. What do you think, does that resonate with your learning process?

02/23/2022

02/20/2022

02/18/2022

New blog post is up on the Forest Folk site!

Spring is in the air and we are thinking about backyard outdoor play! In fact, we are going to be visiting some backyards in the coming weeks to share home play designs and ideas.

For now, here’s the latest read:

https://www.forestfolkschool.com/blog/the-places-we-play

02/17/2022

For decades, child care has been a significant barrier to accessing higher education, says the director of the college's early childhood education program.