Mindfully Educated

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Avon, MN
Mindfully Educated

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10/08/2026

Can you count how many kids are in the leaf pile?

10/05/2026

If there is anywhere on earth that is permanently in the fall season, please direct me there. 🍁

We walked into the woods this morning to find the forest floor completely covered in leaves, every shade of yellow, orange, brown, and gold.

For the Dragonflies, that means one thing: Leafdom season.

Leafdoms have become one of those traditions that return every fall. The kids build kingdoms out of leaves, connect them with roads, create boundaries, gather resources, and turn the forest floor into its own world.

Today there was a debate over whether they were Macedonians under the rule of “J the Great,” or whether they were constructing the Great Wall of China. Eventually, they settled on being hunter-gatherers, working together to build a massive leaf stash and defend it from the local bear.

We also tried something new with our morning task boxes. Instead of everyone working at once, I called students up individually to work on a new skill with me. During our morning meeting, the group voted that this is officially their preferred way to do task boxes.

Later, we gave the Oak Ridge Nature School Bumblebees a tour of our outdoor classroom before moving into vocabulary and math.

Most of our group has spent years in these woods now, and there is something really enjoyable about watching the traditions repeat while new students experience them for the first time.

🐦‍⬛ The blackbird army passing overhead.
🍁 The Leafdoms appearing on the forest floor.
🪵 The woods changing color almost overnight.
🎃 And soon enough, our annual pumpkin smash.

09/30/2026

Fall is in the air here and we are loving every minute of it.

This morning, G led the morning meeting all on his own and did a fantastic job covering all of our topics including the date, temp, high/low, and rules of the woods.

Our hands-on vocabulary groups split up today for different activities that both unexpectedly ended exactly the same way, with mushroom discoveries and lots of learning about the different kinds found in the woods. I was very excited to find my first fly agaric! (I've been looking for years)

Our math included lots of physical movement and large number click counting, from leaf covered work tables to trees along the orange line.

Welcome to fall 🍂

09/28/2026

Today brought vocabulary building, estimation activities, and an unexpected ant investigation.

Each time we meet, the environment changes just enough to keep things engaging and fresh while still feeling familiar and predictable.
Everything out here has the potential to become part of the learning.
Our “Exploding Mouse Tree” is a perfect example. The name has its own story, but the tree keeps giving us new reasons to return to it. We’ve examined mushrooms growing from it, followed centipedes through the decaying wood, and today we discovered an entire ant colony inside and spent much of our free time examining them and watching how they live.

That is one of the many things I value most about our outdoor programs at Oak Ridge Nature School.

09/23/2026

We spent nearly an hour working on estimation, counting, measurement, and navigation using nothing more than our woods, landmarks, click counters, and a walk to Fern Valley.

Students estimated how many steps it would take to reach different stopping points, walked and counted to verify, and compared their predictions with the actual totals. We stopped near the corn field to estimate and count piles of corn cobs before making the final challenge: remembering how many steps it took to reach Fern Valley and checking our total on the walk back.

09/22/2026

Edit: temporary opening has been filled!

Do you have a 1st-2nd grade homeschooling child who would benefit from joining our program for the remainder of this fall semester?

One of our students will be enjoying some travel and adventure this fall so we have a temporary Wednesday only spot in our Mindfully Educated Outdoor Enrichment Program. The session ends November 18.

Please reach out to join us in the woods!

09/21/2026

Today’s learning was a good example of how academic standards can be met outside of a traditional classroom.

We practiced grade-level skills in vocabulary, reading, writing, number sense, skip counting, patterns, addition, and mathematical reasoning, all while working outdoors with hands-on materials and real movement.

We also had a natural science observation and discussion of moss, mushrooms, and decomposing wood after J* found a very interesting treasure. J× used this opportunity to share the story of the Exploding Mouse Tree with the group.

Different setting, same strong academic goals.

09/16/2026

Our learning at Mindfully Educated is extending beyond our time in the woods.

Parents are starting to share little connections they are noticing at home, and we are seeing the same thing here in the confidence of the group.

This is why we do what we do. 🤎

09/09/2026

Today was our first full day with Ms. Sarah, and it was exciting to finally put our new small-group structure into action.

After our morning task boxes and free play, vocabulary split immediately into two groups. I worked with the older students while Ms. Sarah worked with our youngest three, focusing more closely on letter sounds, sounding out three-letter words, reading, and understanding what they were seeing on the page.

Then we came back together for our Build It Vocabulary Cards. Everyone found their word, built it with sticks, and acted it out.

After a little more free time and snack, we moved into Wild Math.

We started together with click counters and a multi-sided die. Each child took a turn throwing the die into the air, then everyone walked and clicked that number of steps while keeping a running total. We made it somewhere around 222-224 steps before moving into small groups.

Our youngest students are still learning to coordinate one step with one click, so their totals varied more, but that is exactly the kind of skill we can now slow down and work on more intentionally in small group activities.

Then the groups separated.

Our oldest students rolled four 20-frame dice, found the total, and represented their numbers in standard form, numerical expanded form, and written expanded form.

Our middle group also used four dice, but paired their totals and compared them using greater than, less than, and equal to.

Ms. Sarah’s youngest group worked with large dominoes, counting each side, combining the quantities, and turning them into addition problems.

Everyone also worked with perimeter, more dice counting, and recording before we ended math with one of my favorite Oak Ridge Nature School activities: What does one minute feel like?

Each child took a turn sitting silently while I ran a stopwatch. Their job was to raise their hand when they believed one minute had passed.

Our estimates ranged from about 8 seconds to 1 minute 13 seconds, with most landing somewhere in the 40-second range. It's such a simple way to make time feel concrete and measurable.

We finished with lunch, backyard recess, and breezy hammock reading.

It was a really good first day of seeing what becomes possible when we can divide the group more intentionally and give each skill level the attention it needs.

09/03/2026

We wrapped up Week 5 today with a little review and a noticeable increase in challenge.

Our morning task boxes included several new boxes that pushed the kids just beyond their current skill level. Every student working at Level 1 and above tried one of the new challenges, and every one of them needed at least a little help along the way.

That was exactly what I had hoped for.

There were a few really fun moments where you could see the shift from, “Wait, I don’t know how to do this,” to genuine excitement when something clicked or they realized they could do something we have been building toward.

We also had a quick visit from our new teacher, Ms. Sarah, who stopped by to meet the kids, see the space in action, and get a feel for our routine before she officially joins us next Wednesday.

Vocabulary was done a little backwards today. We started by building our vocabulary words first, then moved into our binders, which just happened to be a review sheet. Perfect timing.

After that, we tried a new storytelling activity.

Each child secretly drew two completely different pictures on a whiteboard. No showing. No explaining.

I shuffled the boards and handed them back out at random.

The challenge was to look at someone else’s drawings and create a story explaining what you thought was happening. Then the original artist got to reveal what the pictures actually represented.

Once the planned activity ended, someone mentioned a memory about a little brother almost burning up a Snap Circuits set by messing with the batteries until they got hot.

That was apparently all it took. Suddenly everyone had a story they needed to tell, so I backed off, lunch came out, and the kids took over the storytelling activity themselves.

Wild Math brought us back to hundreds charts.

Grades 1-3 paired up, rolled anywhere from 3 to 6 dice, and experimented with different ways to combine the numbers. The goal was to mark off as many totals as possible on their hundreds charts, almost like mathematical bingo.

Our kindergarten crew kept things appropriately rugged. They each claimed a section of a fallen tree, grabbed some chalk, and worked on writing their numbers from 1-25, using our big measurement board as a reference when needed.

We finished with backyard recess, then headed back to the woods for hammock reading before pickup.

A good end to Week 5: harder work, lots of talking, plenty of math, and just enough room for the kids to take the lesson somewhere I hadn’t planned.

Address

Avon, MN
56310

Website

http://www.mindfullyeducated.com/

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