Teaching Forest Homeschool
Hi, I’m Rachel, and I’m a proud Forest Homeschool teacher at Reflection Riding! What is Forest Homeschool? It’s a twice-weekly educational program for homeschooled children that uses outdoor exploration and play to teach children about nature. Children who spend time outdoors are statistically proven to be healthier, happier, and more relaxed, which makes my job an absolute joy. Let me share some of my favorite moments with the Forest Homeschool students!
This was a fun morning! We talked about forest succession and the students drew illustrations of how they thought forests would look without decomposers. This student found a spider molt and carried it around with her all day to show her mom!
This picture is the morning class learning how to process seeds and plant them in our Native Plant Nursery. We got to harvest berries, squish the seeds out, rinse and sift the seeds, and plant them into seed flats. Later, we collected seeds on the trail and talked about seed dispersal.
On this day, the students were learning how to use binoculars and find birds. They found a woolly bear caterpillar and looked at it through their binoculars to try to get a super close-up view! Teaching outdoors is so amazing because of spontaneous moments like these; natural fascination really gets children engaged and present in their environment.
I love this picture because it was during free time. We had hiked out to our Monarch Waystation to learn how to monitor milkweed plants for disease, pests, and signs of Monarch caterpillars. We went to the bamboo forest for a snack and free time, giving them the day off from nature journaling (we usually tie the day’s lesson into a journal prompt). These kids didn’t have to be drawing in their nature journals but they just wanted to!
I saved the best for last! One of the students had made paint by grinding a soft rock into paste with water, and soon everybody was wearing face paint, including me and my co-teacher Haley. This silly, fun energy is why I love being a Forest Homeschool teacher: I get to watch kids get excited about the outdoors!
For more information about the Forest Homeschool program and how to sign your child up, click here.