Recess was sledding in the garden and body surfing on the snow banks. In the leather making workshop Little Bears made knife sheaths, bracelets and pouches this week.
Saturday, February 19, 2011
Copper Moon on a full moon day
Little Bear Campers were busy this week!
We had cold windy days, warm thaw days, snowy days and a bright blue sky sunny day. On Thursday we went down our hill to the Hartland Cross Country ski Trails under a bright warm sun. Little Bears were busy on snow shoes or skis touring the flat pastures and hay fields with great snow conditions that made for a terrific morning.
During our afternoons we worked with crafts in the hay barn. Doug led a leather workshop, copper tinkering, mask making, cooking, beading and bow drill fire makers made cooking fires with two simple pieces of cedar wood, dry plant tinder and a string.
Cooking and eating together three times each day was a big part of Little Bear Camp. Each main meal had three courses- appetizer for new taste tests, main meal and fruit desert. We ate outside under the trees in the snow and inside the log cabin. We had many kinds of fires and our special Little Bear cast iron frying pans and dutch oven. New vegetables we tried included jimcama, a nutty white crispy vegetable that is great raw in salads. Radish-egg plant for blue day was sauteed in butter and blue squid noodles with cheese sauce were a big hit.
Monday was Valentines Day, so we ate red pepper and red chili pizza, raspberries, strawberries, and anything red that tastes good! Tuesday was yellow day so we had bananas for snack on crisp bread, chicken noodle soup made with ingredients from or own eggs and chickens. Wednesday we ate Orange foods like butternut squash soup, mandarins and fried eggs up in the camp in the woods over fires.Thursday was blue day- blue corn chips, salsa, guacamole, squid ink colored pasta and shredded purple cabbage slaw with fresh pineapple. Friday was green day so every imaginable vegetable like celery, kale, chunks, fried eggplant and fruit melon salad with yogurt.
The sheep escaped only once and went peacefully back inside after looking around for a few minutes. The Little Bears collected eggs every half hour or so and the 37 hens got lots of cuddles and attention.
On Friday Little Bears were sad that the week was already over and many wished for several more days to play and do projects. Parents were treated to a wild little play about Cinderella made by the girls and poems written by our hardworking and loving intern Lily Adler for each Little Bear about their special gifts.
Thank you Little Bears for a wonderful week! It is our favorite time of year when we have beautiful snow, sun, a cabin full of Little Bears and life in the woods as we wait for spring to come.
Tuesday, August 3, 2010
Happy Little Bear Campers strutt their stuff!
At Little Bear Camp we started the day watering and feeding the sheep and gathering eggs from the many chckens. At the big leather table Chandrima and Doug helped make real leather moccasins and knife sheathes, pouches and scissor holders from a big natural cow hide Linda brought from Bogota, Columbia. Jeffrey Simpson told a geat story in the woodship in the afternoons and helped Little Bears carve and embellish cool swords.Grace, Jackson, Latham, Sofia, Clay and Clara all made beautiful moccasins which took many hours of hand sticthing and decorating. Ethan, Sofia C., Simon, Nicoya and Kylah used their skills and made many beautiful gifts for others to enjoy things with leather.
The day was spent outside in the woods cooking over a fire, in the big teepee for a story and a water fight on the grass helped when it got hot.
The campers were excited about chicken recess where they helped the young roosters to become tame and friendly birds by holding them often!
Thursday, July 22, 2010
Welcome to Little Bear Log Cabin Camp! Monday July 26th-July 30th

Welcome Little Bears
to Log Cabin Indian Camp!
July 26-30th 9 am - 4 pm
We will soon be welcoming you and 11 other campers for a week of fun and play.
You can choose what you want to do all day long...
Make fire with a bow drill
Make moccasins from leather hides
Sew leather bags, belts books or headbands
Felting paintings and animals
Paper sculpture and paper making from nature
Plays and puppet shows
Teepee building
We will be cooking our food in the woods over fires
Sheep , young pullets and chickens to play with
Woodcrafts and fort building
Clay and pottery crafts
To bring:
Clothes to get dirty and painted in - extra long pants, shorts t-shirt and sneakers. Bug spray if you need it. Maybe sun screen if you use it and a sun hat.
We provide all snacks and lunch
Map quest:
We are located at 6 Vireo View Road, 05089 Windsor, Vermont
Take exit 9 Highway 91 turn right off ramp
Turn at the first left (Rice Road) 1, 7 miles left on Vireo View Road. Look for our Red log cabin with a green roof.
From Taftsville/Quechee Highway 4
Take 12 south to Skunk Hollow Tavern. (It is Right on Brownsville road)
Left on County Road (Hospital sign) Go 1 mile up
Left on Rice Road 1/2 mile down
Right on Vireo view.
802 436 2834 See you soon! Linda and Doug
Tuesday, June 29, 2010
Monday, April 19, 2010
Wednesday, March 31, 2010
Op-Ed Contributor
Playing to Learn
· New York Times
By SUSAN ENGEL
Published: February 1, 2010
New Marlborough, Mass.
Hollis Duncan
Related
How Has N.C.L.B. Affected Your Teaching?
Holly Epstein Ojalvo asked the question to readers of the Learning Network.
THE Obama administration is planning some big changes to how we measure the success or failure of schools and how we apportion federal money based on those assessments. It’s great that the administration is trying to undertake reforms, but if we want to make sure all children learn, we will need to overhaul the curriculum itself. Our current educational approach — and the testing that is driving it — is completely at odds with what scientists understand about how children develop during the elementary school years and has led to a curriculum that is strangling children and teachers alike.
In order to design a curriculum that teaches what truly matters, educators should remember a basic precept of modern developmental science: developmental precursors don’t always resemble the skill to which they are leading. For example, saying the alphabet does not particularly help children learn to read. But having extended and complex conversations during toddlerhood does. Simply put, what children need to do in elementary school is not to cram for high school or college, but to develop ways of thinking and behaving that will lead to valuable knowledge and skills later on.
So what should children be able to do by age 12, or the time they leave elementary school? They should be able to read a chapter book, write a story and a compelling essay; know how to add, subtract, divide and multiply numbers; detect patterns in complex phenomena; use evidence to support an opinion; be part of a group of people who are not their family; and engage in an exchange of ideas in conversation. If all elementary school students mastered these abilities, they would be prepared to learn almost anything in high school and college.
Imagine, for instance, a third-grade classroom that was free of the laundry list of goals currently harnessing our teachers and students, and that was devoted instead to just a few narrowly defined and deeply focused goals.
In this classroom, children would spend two hours each day hearing stories read aloud, reading aloud themselves, telling stories to one another and reading on their own. After all, the first step to literacy is simply being immersed, through conversation and storytelling, in a reading environment; the second is to read a lot and often. A school day where every child is given ample opportunities to read and discuss books would give teachers more time to help those students who need more instruction in order to become good readers.
Children would also spend an hour a day writing things that have actual meaning to them — stories, newspaper articles, captions for cartoons, letters to one another. People write best when they use writing to think and to communicate, rather than to get a good grade.
In our theoretical classroom, children would also spend a short period of time each day practicing computation — adding, subtracting, multiplying and dividing. Once children are proficient in those basics they would be free to turn to other activities that are equally essential for math and science: devising original experiments, observing the natural world and counting things, whether they be words, events or people. These are all activities children naturally love, if given a chance to do them in a genuine way.
What they shouldn’t do is spend tedious hours learning isolated mathematical formulas or memorizing sheets of science facts that are unlikely to matter much in the long run. Scientists know that children learn best by putting experiences together in new ways. They construct knowledge; they don’t swallow it.
Along the way, teachers should spend time each day having sustained conversations with small groups of children. Such conversations give children a chance to support their views with evidence, change their minds and use questions as a way to learn more.
During the school day, there should be extended time for play. Research has shown unequivocally that children learn best when they are interested in the material or activity they are learning. Play — from building contraptions to enacting stories to inventing games — can allow children to satisfy their curiosity about the things that interest them in their own way. It can also help them acquire higher-order thinking skills, like generating testable hypotheses, imagining situations from someone else’s perspective and thinking of alternate solutions.
A classroom like this would provide lots of time for children to learn to collaborate with one another, a skill easily as important as math or reading. It takes time and guidance to learn how to get along, to listen to one another and to cooperate. These skills cannot be picked up casually at the corners of the day.
The reforms suggested by the administration on Monday have the potential to help liberate our schools. But they can only do so much. Our success depends on embracing a curriculum focused on essential skills like reading, writing, computation, pattern detection, conversation and collaboration — a curriculum designed to raise children, rather than test scores.
Susan Engel is a senior lecturer in psychology and the director of the teaching program at Williams College.
Playing to Learn
· New York Times
By SUSAN ENGEL
Published: February 1, 2010
New Marlborough, Mass.
Hollis Duncan
Related
How Has N.C.L.B. Affected Your Teaching?
Holly Epstein Ojalvo asked the question to readers of the Learning Network.
THE Obama administration is planning some big changes to how we measure the success or failure of schools and how we apportion federal money based on those assessments. It’s great that the administration is trying to undertake reforms, but if we want to make sure all children learn, we will need to overhaul the curriculum itself. Our current educational approach — and the testing that is driving it — is completely at odds with what scientists understand about how children develop during the elementary school years and has led to a curriculum that is strangling children and teachers alike.
In order to design a curriculum that teaches what truly matters, educators should remember a basic precept of modern developmental science: developmental precursors don’t always resemble the skill to which they are leading. For example, saying the alphabet does not particularly help children learn to read. But having extended and complex conversations during toddlerhood does. Simply put, what children need to do in elementary school is not to cram for high school or college, but to develop ways of thinking and behaving that will lead to valuable knowledge and skills later on.
So what should children be able to do by age 12, or the time they leave elementary school? They should be able to read a chapter book, write a story and a compelling essay; know how to add, subtract, divide and multiply numbers; detect patterns in complex phenomena; use evidence to support an opinion; be part of a group of people who are not their family; and engage in an exchange of ideas in conversation. If all elementary school students mastered these abilities, they would be prepared to learn almost anything in high school and college.
Imagine, for instance, a third-grade classroom that was free of the laundry list of goals currently harnessing our teachers and students, and that was devoted instead to just a few narrowly defined and deeply focused goals.
In this classroom, children would spend two hours each day hearing stories read aloud, reading aloud themselves, telling stories to one another and reading on their own. After all, the first step to literacy is simply being immersed, through conversation and storytelling, in a reading environment; the second is to read a lot and often. A school day where every child is given ample opportunities to read and discuss books would give teachers more time to help those students who need more instruction in order to become good readers.
Children would also spend an hour a day writing things that have actual meaning to them — stories, newspaper articles, captions for cartoons, letters to one another. People write best when they use writing to think and to communicate, rather than to get a good grade.
In our theoretical classroom, children would also spend a short period of time each day practicing computation — adding, subtracting, multiplying and dividing. Once children are proficient in those basics they would be free to turn to other activities that are equally essential for math and science: devising original experiments, observing the natural world and counting things, whether they be words, events or people. These are all activities children naturally love, if given a chance to do them in a genuine way.
What they shouldn’t do is spend tedious hours learning isolated mathematical formulas or memorizing sheets of science facts that are unlikely to matter much in the long run. Scientists know that children learn best by putting experiences together in new ways. They construct knowledge; they don’t swallow it.
Along the way, teachers should spend time each day having sustained conversations with small groups of children. Such conversations give children a chance to support their views with evidence, change their minds and use questions as a way to learn more.
During the school day, there should be extended time for play. Research has shown unequivocally that children learn best when they are interested in the material or activity they are learning. Play — from building contraptions to enacting stories to inventing games — can allow children to satisfy their curiosity about the things that interest them in their own way. It can also help them acquire higher-order thinking skills, like generating testable hypotheses, imagining situations from someone else’s perspective and thinking of alternate solutions.
A classroom like this would provide lots of time for children to learn to collaborate with one another, a skill easily as important as math or reading. It takes time and guidance to learn how to get along, to listen to one another and to cooperate. These skills cannot be picked up casually at the corners of the day.
The reforms suggested by the administration on Monday have the potential to help liberate our schools. But they can only do so much. Our success depends on embracing a curriculum focused on essential skills like reading, writing, computation, pattern detection, conversation and collaboration — a curriculum designed to raise children, rather than test scores.
Susan Engel is a senior lecturer in psychology and the director of the teaching program at Williams College.
Friday, March 12, 2010
Fly the coop and find your new wings....
Log Cabin Summer Camp
In Hartland
July 26th-30th
Ages 7-10
9:00 am -4:30 pm
Camp fee: $ 55.00 per day
snack and lunch included
Activities
Native American Crafts, bow drill fire starter, bows and arrows, lumberjack camp: outdoor cooking fires, forest crafts, barn chores (sheep care, chickens and eggs,) felting pictures and sculpting small animals, baking, gardening, swimming, hiking, knitting, water color painting, story telling, puppets,
tinkering and more.
Call Linda Johanson at 802 436-2834 for details
NATURE IS OUR GREATEST TEACHER
Parents have been asking us if there were any summer camp plans for 2010.
To meet the needs of three different age groups in meaningful outdoor activities we have designed three camps this summer.
After a wonderful Winter Log Cabin Camp experience in February we have heard from folks who want to come back for more. We have organized a new Little Bear Log Cabin Camp for Native American Indian crafts, a Cob Oven Building workshop and farm camp and a wonderful inspiring back packing adventure for young people planned this summer.
In Hartland
July 26th-30th
Ages 7-10
9:00 am -4:30 pm
Camp fee: $ 55.00 per day
snack and lunch included
Activities
Native American Crafts, bow drill fire starter, bows and arrows, lumberjack camp: outdoor cooking fires, forest crafts, barn chores (sheep care, chickens and eggs,) felting pictures and sculpting small animals, baking, gardening, swimming, hiking, knitting, water color painting, story telling, puppets,
tinkering and more.
Call Linda Johanson at 802 436-2834 for details
NATURE IS OUR GREATEST TEACHER
Parents have been asking us if there were any summer camp plans for 2010.
To meet the needs of three different age groups in meaningful outdoor activities we have designed three camps this summer.
After a wonderful Winter Log Cabin Camp experience in February we have heard from folks who want to come back for more. We have organized a new Little Bear Log Cabin Camp for Native American Indian crafts, a Cob Oven Building workshop and farm camp and a wonderful inspiring back packing adventure for young people planned this summer.
From July 26th-30th - Little Bear Log Cabin Camp in Hartland is a day camp from 9 am -4:00 p.m. for 6-10 year olds. The themes are - playing with earth, air, fire and water. We will work with Native American crafts and cook food outside over a fire in the woods. Learn how to make fire with a hand made bow drill, make your own bow and arrows, build a life size teepee and cook food over the camp fire every day.
From August 2nd- August 6th we will run a fun sculpting cob building workshop in Hartland for all ages- parents too- We will build a back yard mud oven for pizza baking and cooking according to Kiko Denzer's well-researched method and book.
We are planning a trip to the White Mountains for older children and beginning backpackers who would like to experience the White Mountains through the AMC High Hut system. The Carter Notch Hut is nestled among towering walls of granite in a remote corner of the Whites. It has two pristine lakes to swim in, two small bunk houses, a wood burning stove, a full kitchen to make food, water and very nice outhouses! We will meet in Hartland to check gear and food, hike in on Tuesday and out on Friday for a total of three nights with a day to harvest and prepare our food for the trip. We can provide gear for those who don't have a back pack that fits properly.
If you are interested in any of these summer adventures you can call Linda Johanson at 802 436-2834 to learn more and to register. There is room for a limited number of participants so we will be glad to hear from you before May 15th. Feel free to share these flyers with friends who also might be interested!
Linda and Doug
802- 436 2834
Friday, February 19, 2010
Friday is Big Wind Day
We danced a circle dance in the snow and chanted for a Big Fire to warm our hands.
Our last day of camp was full- everyone came, even more than had signed up, and there was plenty to do. The children had so many projects they wanted to finish- from an Indian princess headband embroidered with a feather, a purse with a dolphin rolling in blue waves, several new dolls, two new quivers, new arrows, several needle felted pictures, cookies, a tea party, a bonnet, new bows, target practice, a beaded necklace, shoes for a doll and a green gnome.
We began the day outside, loading a quarter cord of wood for the hungry wood stove on this windy cold day. That was done so quickly with four people helping to load and stack. As Nicoya, Silas and Sofia came we grabbed our hammers to help Doug cut cedar boards and pound nails on the sheep barn. The sheep needed hay and water so feed hay was loaded up in the hay rack. We worked for a couple of hours in the cold winds and then needed to warm up. The first mid morning fire was made in a fire bowl in the house of peace made of reeds down in the garden. We heated up some apple cider and ate a heavy load of nutella, lemon curd, peanut butter and fruit on rye crisp bread and rice bread.
After snack we headed up the the forest camp to make a cooking fire and practice with the new arrows Doug was making for everyone. The lunch fire was hot enough to bake potatoes, boil potatoes, cook sausages, bacon and polenta in the embers. It was very windy and gusty and every moment the fire was cooking required alertness and attention from the grown-ups. A few of the campers needed many reminders to not play with the cooking fire for safety reasons.
The afternoon play included fairy houses, target practice in the woods and sewing projects in the log cabin once fingers were too cold to work outside. It was fun to come inside to the glowing wood stove and bake, make new dolls and quivers with leather straps. The felt pictures and bonnets were done very quickly, and it was fun to see how easy it is to transform the wool of the sheep to a carded, felted picture or garment.
The closing of camp brought many gifts- bread and fruit shared, bows and arrows went home, cookies and headbands. This unique crew of children showed care and kindness towards each other all week as they lived in their imaginative worlds of play and freedom in the woods and log cabin farm camp .
We began the day outside, loading a quarter cord of wood for the hungry wood stove on this windy cold day. That was done so quickly with four people helping to load and stack. As Nicoya, Silas and Sofia came we grabbed our hammers to help Doug cut cedar boards and pound nails on the sheep barn. The sheep needed hay and water so feed hay was loaded up in the hay rack. We worked for a couple of hours in the cold winds and then needed to warm up. The first mid morning fire was made in a fire bowl in the house of peace made of reeds down in the garden. We heated up some apple cider and ate a heavy load of nutella, lemon curd, peanut butter and fruit on rye crisp bread and rice bread.
After snack we headed up the the forest camp to make a cooking fire and practice with the new arrows Doug was making for everyone. The lunch fire was hot enough to bake potatoes, boil potatoes, cook sausages, bacon and polenta in the embers. It was very windy and gusty and every moment the fire was cooking required alertness and attention from the grown-ups. A few of the campers needed many reminders to not play with the cooking fire for safety reasons.
The afternoon play included fairy houses, target practice in the woods and sewing projects in the log cabin once fingers were too cold to work outside. It was fun to come inside to the glowing wood stove and bake, make new dolls and quivers with leather straps. The felt pictures and bonnets were done very quickly, and it was fun to see how easy it is to transform the wool of the sheep to a carded, felted picture or garment.
The closing of camp brought many gifts- bread and fruit shared, bows and arrows went home, cookies and headbands. This unique crew of children showed care and kindness towards each other all week as they lived in their imaginative worlds of play and freedom in the woods and log cabin farm camp .
The animals, trees, wind, snow and fire are our teachers and with them we learn how to be at peace with ourselves and with each other.
Thursday, February 18, 2010
Thursday is Cross Country Ski Day
The Sound of Chickadees Sweetens the Blue Air.
Sunshine, blue skies and new snow. Perfect conditions for an adventure out into the local woods and trails of Hartland.
We started camp with sewing projects indoors. The children worked on an arrow quiver with leather straps, two dolls, an embroidered pencil case and a bow drill to start fires. Silas joined Doug outside to nail on siding and soon it was time to hit the trails.
In a few minutes we were on the trails and up our first hill testing out the conditions. Soft but not too sticky with plenty of sun and warm temperatures. We took a long break against a fat rock and had dried fruit,oranges,trail mix and water. The trail continued out west and we had fun with the short hills and open terrain.
Back at home for a late lunch we cooked up sausages, chili, pasta with pesto,grilled cheese sandwiches and apple cider. In the afternoon the bow drill research continued, arrow making, and building projects outside. The younger students baked scones, muffins, a cherry pie, sewed dolls and played gold diggers in the thawing stream. The day ended with a candle-lit tea party for parents at pick up to taste the baked goods and celebrate Silas' xc ski debut.A wonderful day!
Sunshine, blue skies and new snow. Perfect conditions for an adventure out into the local woods and trails of Hartland.
We started camp with sewing projects indoors. The children worked on an arrow quiver with leather straps, two dolls, an embroidered pencil case and a bow drill to start fires. Silas joined Doug outside to nail on siding and soon it was time to hit the trails.
In a few minutes we were on the trails and up our first hill testing out the conditions. Soft but not too sticky with plenty of sun and warm temperatures. We took a long break against a fat rock and had dried fruit,oranges,trail mix and water. The trail continued out west and we had fun with the short hills and open terrain.
Back at home for a late lunch we cooked up sausages, chili, pasta with pesto,grilled cheese sandwiches and apple cider. In the afternoon the bow drill research continued, arrow making, and building projects outside. The younger students baked scones, muffins, a cherry pie, sewed dolls and played gold diggers in the thawing stream. The day ended with a candle-lit tea party for parents at pick up to taste the baked goods and celebrate Silas' xc ski debut.A wonderful day!
Wednesday is Bow and Arow Day
" The thing about you is, that your bow is really, really big. But your arrow is very short. "
- spoken at camp today
On Wednesday, February 17th, Log Cabin camp was full with some excellent bow and arrow making apprentices. We began the day outside in the glorious sunshine after a big snow. The crew started measuring, hand sawing and nailing cedar boards onto the sheep barn.
- spoken at camp today
On Wednesday, February 17th, Log Cabin camp was full with some excellent bow and arrow making apprentices. We began the day outside in the glorious sunshine after a big snow. The crew started measuring, hand sawing and nailing cedar boards onto the sheep barn.
The younger campers worked hard and then began practicing " violins " on a new snow stage, singing in harmony and performing musicals for the young carpenters. At 11:00 we needed a break so the crew headed up to the forest camp to build a big cooking fire for the day. The children heated mulled cider over the fire in a heavy cast iron pot hung over a sapling on a sapling frame we dug into the ground. After a long and hard-earned snack with loads of fruit, crisp bread and hazelnut nutella, we started to cook lunch over the fire. The lumberjacks gobbled up many, many servings of smoky farm chili, baked beans, fresh farm fried eggs, bacon, pasta and cheese all served in a bowl. After the big cook out we worked on arrows, bow making, quivers and made targets of hay and wood for practice once the bows were strung and arrows were carved.
Time flew up in the woods and soon it was time for barn chores. 18 eggs to collect and clean, sheep to feed, hens and sheep to water and close up for the night.
The girls made a peace garden of reeds down in the flat meadow and asked for visitors to enter " only with kind thoughts in their mind".
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
Making Merry on A Snowy Day at Camp
Tuesday, February 16th
Second Day of Log Cabin Camp
Second Day of Log Cabin Camp
Today was Tepee Day. We started inside by the wood stove as a low pressure rolled steadily in, bringing a great snowstorm and a fresh new snow cover around the farm and our steep dirt roads. The small girls were keen or sewing and embroidering new projects. Nicoya brought a collection of beads to share. Sofia sewed a dolphin dashing through blue waves on her treasure bag. Celia made a beautiful necklace. John cut out and stitched a green felted gnome and Grace needle felted a picture of a sunflower sprouting. Her picture was mounted on a cedar board by the end of the day.
As the big snowflakes began to fall slowly from cloudy skies we put on our outdoor gear and went out. We fed the sheep and did barn chores and then went up to the woods to build a big fire and work on the ice block project at camp.
For lunch we had our campfire baked potatoes with cheese, fruit, vegetarian burritos and tacos. Everyone had great appetites for the potatoes, beans, cheese and salsa.
The big project of the day was to cut down four 20 foot tall saplings and erect a tepee meeting house for living in near the fire. The tepee has two big canvas tarps which we wrapped around the poles once it was up. It was hard work for the young campers to cut those tall trees. There was also lots of brush and trail clearing, wood gathering, camp clearing and lumber jack work kept everyone busy as the snow fell.
We ended the quiet, snowy day with a four-blessing way talk inside the tepee to thank the good spirits of the east, and the beginnings of the day. the north to thank for the challenges and hard things that had happened, the south for the joyful things, the west for the learnings that brought us all peace for a good ending of the day.
Up at camp the Jesseman kids climbed trees and tried to melt into the forest scene to avoid going back home. They were joyously surprised to hear the news that they were coming back for an extra day of camp tomorrow!
It was hard for the parents to get back for pick-up with heavy snow on unplowed slick roads. Two families chose to walk in to the cabin from cars left down the hill.
I think the sheep were glad to have a day off from pounding but we will have to make up for it on Wednesday with renewed force!
Monday, February 15, 2010
Winter Camp
February Log Cabin Camp
" Wow, I wish this day would never end!"
" This is so much fun!"
"I love camp."
" And we can do it again tomorrow?"
" I can't wait until tomorrow!"
"Can't we just stay here?"
"Do we have to go home? "
"I hate school. School is boring."
"I wish this were our school."
"I wish we could do this every day."
"I am so glad there is a February break so we could do this instead."
"This is better than recess! "
"I love working!"
" Look at this darling little egg! "
Log Cabin Camp has six children aged 6-12 signed up from 8 am to 4:00 pm Monday- Friday.
The children are on break from school and needed a place to be so their parents could go to work or catch up on work that needed to be done at home.
What does the camp look like?
It is red, green and white, with barns. Green roofs, red logs and white snow.
The camp is located in Hartland, Vermont at an elevation of 950 feet. There is about half a foot of snow on the ground today. The camp facilities include a forest camp, a two story log cabin, a barn, a sheep shed, chicken shed and a moderate sledding hill. The log cabin is heated only with wood and has no back-up furnace or central heating. The sheep are Merino- Colombian crossbreeds and are expecting lambs in April. The 26 chickens are laying 18 eggs a day and they have an outside fenced in yard where they eat kitchen scraps and get sunshine, fresh air and exercise.
A day At Camp
The first young farmers who came to camp were so excited they woke up at 3 am and asked if it was time to go to camp. They managed to fall asleep but were ready to go again before sunrise and they arrived so early that long walks up and down Rice road enjoying the tall maple trees and morning dawn were needed to pass the time before camp was ready.
They arrived half an hour early and enjoyed the proud display of the farm's two coppery-golden Buff Orpington roosters on the gates to the chicken yard.
The crew came in, stowed their sheepskin slippers in a row, put knitted wool hats in one basket, gloves in another and snow pants in a third, jackets got hung up on brass hooks on the dark stained log cabin walls of the glassy blue painted mudroom.
Soon two farm-campers arrived, so we began our opening greetings seated around an oval pine table with a pot of special tea. In a glass teapot the children watched how a magical blossom unfurled its leaves in slow motion as cascades of boiling water transformed a hard nut0-like tea ball into a work of art. We drank the jasmine tea and talked about the day and what we hoped to do.
I explained that real work was waiting for all of us and that we would be working like grown ups with tools to finish the sheathing on our new gambrel-roofed sheep barn for our two school sheep, Addy and Eve. We talked about what cedar trees are and why cedar makes a good building material. We had a good discussion that included first through fifth graders about where cedar grows, what its wood and properties are like, how to recognize ( identify) the tree and how it is used as a building material in times present and past. We also covered topics like tongue and grooved boards vs. ship lap and how to build to keep water out and walls dry.
The children were eager to collect eggs, feed the sheep and do farm chores, so we went over how the barn chores work. Before going out we ate a nice snack of two cups of tea, nutella on crisp bread and plenty of fruit. I said that we would be working hard and needed all our energy to stay warm all day so it was important we drank and ate enough when we were inside.
The big chore of getting dressed to work outside all morning then began. We stowed our warm slippers, found gloves, hats, snow pants, and jackets. Lastly big barn boots and off to the sheep shed. The sheep needed good hay in their manger and bedding hay so we learned how to distinguish between hay that has been rained on and hay that is dry, nutritionally good and sun dried.
The young farmers brought in flakes of hay, opened bales, stuffed the hay racks full, opened the sheep to their yard and fluffed out flakes of bedding hay to make the big sheep barn even more cozy and soft for the young ewes to lamb in come springtime. The comments about " this is the best camp ever " began to bubble up with the barn chores and kept erupting spontaneously all day as we transitioned to each new activity.
The sheep enjoyed their fresh green sweet smelling breakfast and stood calmly chewing at their stuffed hay rack to we could move on to the task of feeding the hens kitchen scraps and left over fruit peels from breakfast snacks. The campers had a personal relationship to many of the chickens, as they learned to catch and hold the same visiting pullets last fall during school farming block.
Math, Measurement, Skills
The time to build began. Everyone was equipped with a handsaw, hammer and rubber work gloves.
We rolled out black tar paper, measured it and cut it with a utility knife. Everyone took turns stapling the tar paper onto the plywood walls with a hammer stapler. Boys who just want to pitch themselves against the gravitational forces of the earth need this activity to feel something validating, something vital. This tool is a noisy, violent and satisfying way of securing sheathing to a flat surface in seconds. With this tool in hand, the chidren demonstrated that if you are only three feet tall and six years old you can do justice to this job and have parity with a grizzled 6'2' 220 pound construction worker.
The children measured, marked and cut cedar planks with hand saws and nailed them up for about three hours without a break. We flew threw the morning without the usual recess, snack and need for distraction as the work was so satisfying and demanding. The sheep were a bit confused about the commotion but the work got done and everyone kept the talk down to a minimum" like real carpenters" who don't say much but who work with their hands, not their mouth."
Singing, Poetry and Speech
At 11:30 I asked the little ones if they wanted to go up into the woods and they did- many hopeful ideas about fairy houses had been brewing for some time, I could tell. I started a fire up in the woods on the snow and the world changed. We had a center point, a place to bring focus and creativity, research and questions, excitement and wonder.The possibilities of a fire are endless. The trees around us creaked in the north wind and sang to us- son the children were singing back to the trees songs they made up about the wind. I talked to the trees when their creaking and wind sounds were surprising asking them what they knew, saw and felt. The children answered back for them.
The children said " It is a windy day." The fire changes directions when the wind blew so the children asked for less wind and noticed that winds grew still. Being up in the forest changed everything. The woods were alive with poetic activity, ideas, sounds, songs of delight the children just began singing out of the blue.
John studied the forest carefully- each stick and branch - searching for arrow wood and bow wood. as many a boy as done through the centuries of this world. He wanted to make arrows, bows and quivers.
Doug made a bow drill to create fire. To do this he worked with 12 year old Grace and asked her what she knew about Pi, and how the long the circumference of the circle would be as they needed to cut a strip of leather for the drill. They worked on a perfect measurement to make a drill that could make fire out of a greek formula, which was part of her learning this year.
I read a story to the whole mixed age group to find their centerpoint of spiritual interest in nature. I chose the story of Black Elk's Vision as told by Blue Spotted Horse medicine man. We sat around the sacred fire to make the circle which belonged to the story and to Grace's work with Pi. to make fire.
Two little girls began to sew Indian princess headbands after lunch. They were quiet, focused and introspective after so much work.
Lunch had started with dried mango, followed by organic green salads with maple caramelized walnuts, warmed goat cheese and pears. Then toasted and grilled Vermont cheese sandwiches, Nutella on Swedish crisp bread and fresh fruit.
Physics, Chemistry and Math
After lunch, back in the woods, the children decided more work needed to be done to discover the melting point of something they called the key whixch looks like an iron eye bolt. We all became blacksmiths, and a new game was invented to heat up iron in the beds of coals and embers and cool it in ice to make water and ash. This new research topic took up all the time to the end of the day at 4:30 pm.
By the end of the day the sheep were glad to have their evening meal from the trusty and enthusiastic young farmers. The hard working young scientists who had been keeping the sacred fires burning with hand- sawn logs all afternoon became farmers yet again! They gathered 18 lovely brown eggs in a basket and exclaimed with delight when one was as small as a Robin's egg!
The neighbor lady came down for her weekly dozen and was glad to have her eggs ready to go.
The day ended with sadness that it seemed to fly by too fast- and joy that in a few hours it would start all over again! Even more so on Tuesday!!
Friday, December 25, 2009
Sustainable Schools: A Whole Earth Approach
Learning by Doing- Everything!
When a child or a young person is given a concrete task, along with the tools, time and space to enter into a process of learning and discovering how to fulfill it, a creative dialogue begins to flow. This is the basis for practical intelligence. During this work, the student masters essential problem solving and creative skills for life.
Here are three small examples:
A teacher in Washington State did not like the ugly metal desks in his third grade classroom. His teaching style was to foster more creative and collaborative relationships so he wanted two students to sit together at work tables. He taught his students how to write proposals to the Board and local business owners for building materials. Soon his class had built handsome 14 wooden tables for two students each which they sat at all year, designed and built by 8 year- olds.
I read about his project when I started teaching third grade in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. We had beautiful tables for two, but our chairs did not reach them. We designed and built benches for the tables and used them all year. The tables were a great size for baking, sawing, gluing, cutting cloth and many other projects, including making our own books. The pine benches we made were financed by selling eggs. The chickens and their school built hen house were financed by selling vegetables grown from our school gardens.
Our class was in charge of ringing the recess bell. Our chore chart is a wheel with 16 spokes for all the tasks we have to do each day, including the bell ringing. Not everyone has a watch. We were studying the history of time, so we decided to use a watch every few days and mark the correct time with a stick in the ground with a watch and ring the bell on the shadow line made by our sundial. Not an exact science, but time in our school is sometimes relative- clocks also seem to vary from room to room! The result was a practical application of a new learning experience.
Can we create a new way of learning in schools that fosters independence, initiative and sustainability? I imagine a field where the classrooms are waiting to be built out of the principles of love, compassion and courage that all children are born with as their gift to the world. It is a classroom they are expecting us to show up in so we can learn our life lessons....
When a child or a young person is given a concrete task, along with the tools, time and space to enter into a process of learning and discovering how to fulfill it, a creative dialogue begins to flow. This is the basis for practical intelligence. During this work, the student masters essential problem solving and creative skills for life.
Here are three small examples:
A teacher in Washington State did not like the ugly metal desks in his third grade classroom. His teaching style was to foster more creative and collaborative relationships so he wanted two students to sit together at work tables. He taught his students how to write proposals to the Board and local business owners for building materials. Soon his class had built handsome 14 wooden tables for two students each which they sat at all year, designed and built by 8 year- olds.
I read about his project when I started teaching third grade in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. We had beautiful tables for two, but our chairs did not reach them. We designed and built benches for the tables and used them all year. The tables were a great size for baking, sawing, gluing, cutting cloth and many other projects, including making our own books. The pine benches we made were financed by selling eggs. The chickens and their school built hen house were financed by selling vegetables grown from our school gardens.
Our class was in charge of ringing the recess bell. Our chore chart is a wheel with 16 spokes for all the tasks we have to do each day, including the bell ringing. Not everyone has a watch. We were studying the history of time, so we decided to use a watch every few days and mark the correct time with a stick in the ground with a watch and ring the bell on the shadow line made by our sundial. Not an exact science, but time in our school is sometimes relative- clocks also seem to vary from room to room! The result was a practical application of a new learning experience.
Can we create a new way of learning in schools that fosters independence, initiative and sustainability? I imagine a field where the classrooms are waiting to be built out of the principles of love, compassion and courage that all children are born with as their gift to the world. It is a classroom they are expecting us to show up in so we can learn our life lessons....
Monday, November 30, 2009
From garden kindergarten to forest kindergarten
For Forest Kindergartners, Class Is Back to Nature, Rain or Shine
Nathaniel Brooks for The New York Times
Pupils ages 3 ½ to 6 at the Waldorf School of Saratoga Springs, N.Y., in a flooded woodland behind their schoolhouse. Three hours each day are spent outdoors. More Photos >
By LIZ LEYDEN
Published: November 29, 2009
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. — Fat, cold droplets splashed from the sky as the students struggled into their uniforms: rain pants, boots, mittens and hats. Once buttoned and bundled, they scattered toward favorite spaces: a crab apple tree made for climbing, a cluster of bushes forming a secret nook under a willow tree, a sandbox growing muddier by the minute.
Skip to next paragraph
Multimedia
Slide Show
Forest Kindergarten
Enlarge This Image
Nathaniel Brooks for The New York Times
Story time. The “classroom” is state parkland called the Hemlock Trail and an empty farmhouse. More Photos »
They planted garlic bulbs, discovered a worm. The rain continued to fall. It was 8:30 a.m. on a recent Wednesday, and the Waldorf School’s “forest kindergarten” was officially in session.
Schools around the country have been planting gardens and planning ever more elaborate field trips in hopes of reconnecting children with nature. The forest kindergarten at the Waldorf School of Saratoga Springs is one of a handful in the United States that are taking that concept to another level: its 23 pupils, ages 3 ½ to 6, spend three hours each day outside regardless of the weather. This in a place where winter is marked by snowdrifts and temperatures that regularly dip below freezing.
The new forest kindergarten, which opened here in September, is an extreme version of the outdoor learning taught at more than 100 Waldorf schools, all but a handful of them private, scattered throughout the United States. They are based on the teachings of the Austrian philosopher Rudolf Steiner and emphasize the arts and the natural world, with no formal academic curriculum until first grade.
“I loved the idea of her being outside every day,” said Kim Lytle, whose 3-year-old, aptly named Forest, is the youngest in the class. “If you have the proper gear, I think it’s a really healthy thing to experience the elements and brave the world — and not just on a sunny day.”
The children’s “classroom” is 325 acres of state parkland known as the Hemlock Trail, and a long-empty farmhouse, which the state has licensed Waldorf to use for the year. The school also has regular indoor classes at its main building.
On this day in the fledgling program, whose tuition is about $7,000, the rain did not taper off, yet the kindergartners remained outside until lunch. Circle time — songs and dancing — took place in the center of a field, behind a farmhouse, followed by a snack of apples and pineapple chunks at picnic tables. The children cut bittersweet vine to make wreaths, splashed in puddles, and, in the sandbox, did some imaginary cooking.
“We’re making something that’s cheesy,” said one girl.
“It’s cookies,” said a boy.
Max Perez, nearly 5, carried a bucket to the swampy edges of the field and scooped up some water. He and the others mixed the sand into gobs of glorious mud. After an hour, Max paused, peering out from his wet hat, and asked, “Is it raining today?”
In some ways, the program is not unlike other kindergartens. Signs declaring a peanut-free zone are taped throughout the farmhouse. There are bruised feelings and scuffles and potty jokes. But the biggest challenge is one not found in traditional classrooms: ticks, lots of them.
Though virtually unknown in the United States, forest kindergartens are increasingly common in Scandinavia and other European countries like Germany and Austria.
Sigrid D’Aleo and Carly Lynn, two Waldorf teachers, proposed adding one in Saratoga Springs because, over the years, they had seen students at their best when outdoors.
“Their large motor skills developed, they worked out their social issues in a better way, they had more imaginative play,” Ms. D’Aleo said. “Children’s senses are so overtaxed in these modern times, so here, it is very healthy for them.”
Richard Louv, author of “Last Child in the Woods,” a book arguing that children have suffered from diminished time outside, said he had heard similar things from educators around the country.
“It helps us use all our senses at the same time,” he said. “It seems to be the optimum state of learning, when everything is coming at us in lots of different ways.”
Alane Chinian, regional director of the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation, said of the Waldorf school’s use of the Hemlock Trail: “We are delighted to have them there. It expands our mission and furthers the park’s goals of providing nature education to children.”
Here in Saratoga Springs, the children crossed into the forest at midmorning, greeted by the rich smell of earth and leaves. A fallen branch had created an arch to climb through as if they were entering a hidden place straight out of a storybook.
Trails had been worn through the thickets. An old stone wall ran through the center of the trees toward huge tepees the children had built from sticks and vines.
Everywhere, there were things to discover. A branch balanced on a split tree trunk became a seesaw. A teacher sawed thick stumps into logs the children used to bridge bogs. A pit became a monster house, complete with boys standing in the rain shouting warnings: “You don’t want to come over here! You’ll get smushed!”
Piper Whalen, 5, turned toward her own treasure: an enormous fallen tree. She climbed on and lifted her arms. “I’m riding a roller coaster,” she said. “Come on and ride with me.”
The raindrops continued to fall until, finally, it poured, hard enough to splash though the canopy of trees. The children were delighted.
“It’s wet!” exclaimed one.
“My hair is getting a drink of water!” another said.
Piper began to laugh. She stuck out her tongue and turned her face toward the sky.
Nathaniel Brooks for The New York Times
Pupils ages 3 ½ to 6 at the Waldorf School of Saratoga Springs, N.Y., in a flooded woodland behind their schoolhouse. Three hours each day are spent outdoors. More Photos >
By LIZ LEYDEN
Published: November 29, 2009
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. — Fat, cold droplets splashed from the sky as the students struggled into their uniforms: rain pants, boots, mittens and hats. Once buttoned and bundled, they scattered toward favorite spaces: a crab apple tree made for climbing, a cluster of bushes forming a secret nook under a willow tree, a sandbox growing muddier by the minute.
Skip to next paragraph
Multimedia
Slide Show
Forest Kindergarten
Enlarge This Image
Nathaniel Brooks for The New York Times
Story time. The “classroom” is state parkland called the Hemlock Trail and an empty farmhouse. More Photos »
They planted garlic bulbs, discovered a worm. The rain continued to fall. It was 8:30 a.m. on a recent Wednesday, and the Waldorf School’s “forest kindergarten” was officially in session.
Schools around the country have been planting gardens and planning ever more elaborate field trips in hopes of reconnecting children with nature. The forest kindergarten at the Waldorf School of Saratoga Springs is one of a handful in the United States that are taking that concept to another level: its 23 pupils, ages 3 ½ to 6, spend three hours each day outside regardless of the weather. This in a place where winter is marked by snowdrifts and temperatures that regularly dip below freezing.
The new forest kindergarten, which opened here in September, is an extreme version of the outdoor learning taught at more than 100 Waldorf schools, all but a handful of them private, scattered throughout the United States. They are based on the teachings of the Austrian philosopher Rudolf Steiner and emphasize the arts and the natural world, with no formal academic curriculum until first grade.
“I loved the idea of her being outside every day,” said Kim Lytle, whose 3-year-old, aptly named Forest, is the youngest in the class. “If you have the proper gear, I think it’s a really healthy thing to experience the elements and brave the world — and not just on a sunny day.”
The children’s “classroom” is 325 acres of state parkland known as the Hemlock Trail, and a long-empty farmhouse, which the state has licensed Waldorf to use for the year. The school also has regular indoor classes at its main building.
On this day in the fledgling program, whose tuition is about $7,000, the rain did not taper off, yet the kindergartners remained outside until lunch. Circle time — songs and dancing — took place in the center of a field, behind a farmhouse, followed by a snack of apples and pineapple chunks at picnic tables. The children cut bittersweet vine to make wreaths, splashed in puddles, and, in the sandbox, did some imaginary cooking.
“We’re making something that’s cheesy,” said one girl.
“It’s cookies,” said a boy.
Max Perez, nearly 5, carried a bucket to the swampy edges of the field and scooped up some water. He and the others mixed the sand into gobs of glorious mud. After an hour, Max paused, peering out from his wet hat, and asked, “Is it raining today?”
In some ways, the program is not unlike other kindergartens. Signs declaring a peanut-free zone are taped throughout the farmhouse. There are bruised feelings and scuffles and potty jokes. But the biggest challenge is one not found in traditional classrooms: ticks, lots of them.
Though virtually unknown in the United States, forest kindergartens are increasingly common in Scandinavia and other European countries like Germany and Austria.
Sigrid D’Aleo and Carly Lynn, two Waldorf teachers, proposed adding one in Saratoga Springs because, over the years, they had seen students at their best when outdoors.
“Their large motor skills developed, they worked out their social issues in a better way, they had more imaginative play,” Ms. D’Aleo said. “Children’s senses are so overtaxed in these modern times, so here, it is very healthy for them.”
Richard Louv, author of “Last Child in the Woods,” a book arguing that children have suffered from diminished time outside, said he had heard similar things from educators around the country.
“It helps us use all our senses at the same time,” he said. “It seems to be the optimum state of learning, when everything is coming at us in lots of different ways.”
Alane Chinian, regional director of the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation, said of the Waldorf school’s use of the Hemlock Trail: “We are delighted to have them there. It expands our mission and furthers the park’s goals of providing nature education to children.”
Here in Saratoga Springs, the children crossed into the forest at midmorning, greeted by the rich smell of earth and leaves. A fallen branch had created an arch to climb through as if they were entering a hidden place straight out of a storybook.
Trails had been worn through the thickets. An old stone wall ran through the center of the trees toward huge tepees the children had built from sticks and vines.
Everywhere, there were things to discover. A branch balanced on a split tree trunk became a seesaw. A teacher sawed thick stumps into logs the children used to bridge bogs. A pit became a monster house, complete with boys standing in the rain shouting warnings: “You don’t want to come over here! You’ll get smushed!”
Piper Whalen, 5, turned toward her own treasure: an enormous fallen tree. She climbed on and lifted her arms. “I’m riding a roller coaster,” she said. “Come on and ride with me.”
The raindrops continued to fall until, finally, it poured, hard enough to splash though the canopy of trees. The children were delighted.
“It’s wet!” exclaimed one.
“My hair is getting a drink of water!” another said.
Piper began to laugh. She stuck out her tongue and turned her face toward the sky.
Friday, November 20, 2009
Teaching without Walls
Vermont 2009. 
Mud oven, built by 16 children, 8-9 years old in 2 days. It withstands 950 degree heat and bakes 100 pizzas in 3 hours.
Mud oven, built by 16 children, 8-9 years old in 2 days. It withstands 950 degree heat and bakes 100 pizzas in 3 hours. Cost- almost nothing.
Let's talk of a system that transforms all the social organisms into a work of art, in which the entire process of work is included...something in which the principle of production and consumption takes on a form of quality. Its a gigantic project.
Joseph Beuys 1921-1986
I wish that man could live in homes as marvelous and beautiful as that of the snail and that he could build cities as endlessly rewarding as a forest.
-James Hubbell, sculptor, builder
The few moments when a child feels awake to the world, when she is learning and discovering that which quickens and enlivens the very core of her being for life, are connected to two powerful, different forces.One of these forces resides within the mystery of nature. The other lives and changes in the mystery of the human soul landscape.
To build a playground, a stage, a canvas, a poem where the human being can embark upon a fruitful quest for this discovery, we need the thoughts of Hubble and Beuys to establish two important principles.Our longing in this time of macro transformation - energy- money- waste- carbon- food- learning-working-transportation-consumer debt- the list goes on and on- is to start over and live with dignity and integrity. I would also add, with beauty. A new aesthetic has yet to be founded that re-casts the feared and regretted, rebelled and rejected notions of beauty which lived a life of suffering in our past eras.
Hubbel's life long work of sculpted buildings; homes, businesses and schools, works out a new aesthetic seeded in Gaudi's organic patterning of water, earth and plant movements. Beuys used staged urban events to point out the need for extreme social change, an awakening to spirit in matter.
When children and other ordinary people get a chance to use their hands, feet and senses engaging in a deep mindful and playful dialogue with the four elements, new structures for life appear which can seed the intelligence the world is waiting for.
It is indeed a joyful, musical, playful, humorous day when we work with skilled craftsmen and women to create the shelters we need to learn, work,cook, eat, play and sleep in out of natural materials that even cost less than what we already use.
My father, a civil engineer who builds bridges, tells me these days there are two sources of strength when you build bridges. One is tensile strength. The other is compressive strength.
I like to think about this. I am a teacher and in a way I build bridges. From the mind to the heart and back again. Passion for learning is everything.
With tensile strength, we knead with our feet delicate golden wheat or barley straw in the mud so the adobe does not crack when it freezes.
In childhood, we learn to be flexible through endless disappointment. The golden straw of our childish hope that it will go better next time keeps us upright and lovable as children. Our tensile strength, our ability to adapt to the climate and mood changes of adults around us is endless.
The adult with a bit of luck gradually acquires or learns compressive strength. The world begins to bear down upon us and we withstand its pressure. The world will not crush us entirely, this is our small hope. Our resolve to push back, create balance, do better, do more, do well, do it somehow, is endless. Cracks appear and the golden tensile strength of our offspring or our glimpses of other's encourages us to keep going. The question of a bridge between these two sources of strength is a question of education. What does a perfect school look like? When does school begin? When does it end? In a life, in a day? A year? When is enough enough? When is it poison? What is it for? Is it worth it?
Can we re-work our notion of schools and after care, work and home to include a new way of living that asks more of the children, of us all? More time, more love of the earth, of each other, more discovery, more ways to learn how to do basic things like grow food, cook it, build and discover how things work from a new reliance on trial and error?
Imagine a revolution for after school care. What if the after school care programs were the most important part of the day instead of the garbage heap of quality learning time for children.?
Imagine children dealing with the reality of a fire to be built up, a cow that had to be milked, pizza dough kneaded and dinner cooked and ready for the tired parents who came to collect everyone at 6 pm?
Imagine children dealing with the reality of a fire to be built up, a cow that had to be milked, pizza dough kneaded and dinner cooked and ready for the tired parents who came to collect everyone at 6 pm?
Simple things with big impact on the senses and skills of a child can change how a child sleeps, how a child learns, how a child retains what she has learned for life. How she applies it to other situations in an intelligent and creative way.
In the end, a life is poetry. It is a dance, a song. A creation like the Finnish Kalevala song of creation. Only it is now the creation song of our new lives ready to be sown.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)