Ozark Mountain Farm & Forest School

So exciting Darin is taking his art to the public! He has spent years perfecting his grow methods, from all natural ocean sourced fertilizers from resposnible and sustainable sources to meticulously researched and trialed substrates and potting mixes - his organically grown microgreens are definitely the most nutrition packed and thoughtfully and carefully grown I have come across. Makes me feel like I'm sprinkling a whole food multi vitamin on whatever tasty dish I add them to. An easy, fun and delicious way to get your and your kiddos veggies in.

https://www.instagram.com/p/C902_nsNYl5/?igsh=ajltYWFkcmY0Nzg0

Fresh, local, tasty, and nutritious. #microgreens #eatyourgreens #healthyeating #localfarm #superfoods #locallygrown #farmfresh #localharvest #cleaneating #healthyhabits #fayettevilleAR ##fayettevillefoodie #eatlocalfayetteville #fayettevillechef

Lots of great resources here! Stop Gaza Genocide: Ceasefire now! Public Toolkit

* STOP GAZA GENOCIDE: Ceasefire Now! (Public Toolkit)

https://www.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=864946318333721&id=100044550814427&post_id=100044550814427_864946318333721&mibextid=I6gGtw

Hello families and friends of OMFFS!

It saddens me to announce that Ozark Mountain Farm and Forest School will be on hiatus this school year and until further notice.

Despite my best efforts to continue on the OMFFS name and mission of outdoor and environmental early childhood education to the families of Fayetteville this Fall 2022/23 school year - it has been decided that in the rush to transition our program over to a new owner and director, the high standards I have always held for my program were just not being met. It is extremely important to me that the quality of the program I have spent the past five years pouring my heart into remains intact and upheld and that any program associated with the OMFFS name does the same. Any school operating under the name Ozark Mountain Farm and Forest School or the like this 2022/23 school year is not affiliated with this Ozark Mountain Farm and Forest School, llc.

As said, Instead of a transfer of directorship, OMFFS will instead be taking a hiatus until further notice. Ill be taking some time out to pursue bringing agricultural and outdoor programming to more schools in NWA this year, one of which will be Clear Spring School in Eureka Springs! Though this all is so exciting for me, it of course was also a very difficult decision to make, especially when it came to deciding I needed to step away from running this incredible school this year that has become such a beautiful community for so many families. I feel as if my energy and attention had to be divided between two programs, the quality of both would suffer. So I chose to take a chance on a new project, in an effort to support and spread the important idea that getting our kids outside is more important than ever not only to the health and well being of our children, but to the future health and well being of our planet. Thank you all for believing in the forest school and outdoor learning mission and for blessing me with the gift of helping to nurture and educate your most precious children these past four years. Wishing you all peace, love and lots of outside time wherever your kiddo's learning and growth may take them this school year and beyond! I hope to be back working and learning alongside your kiddos again someday soon and look forward to the day OMFFS is back in action in Fayetteville!

We had a wonderful first week of camp! Working around the storming, we managed to have loads of fun and learn some things in the process! We had two farm days and two forest/hike days. Day One: We saw each stage of the chicken and duck life cycle, up close and personal from collecting fresh eggs from our full grown hens, to candling eggs in the incubation process and caring for our chicks and young pullets.. Day Two: We made dandelion art, foraged for wild edibles and made some sorrel lemonade with our findings and drank it with our dandelion straws! Day Three: We made butter, learned to milk our goats, made cheese and some old fashioned milk paint and painted our crafts with our milk paint. Day Four: Our catch and Release Creek Critter Day was a great success, we learned some local fish Identification, caught us a couple to get a closer look in our viewing tank and made some Gyotaku Fish prints (none of our caught fish were used for this purpose ;) we released them after we got a good look and a few pets in) So excited for our second session starting this Monday! Our camps filled up pretty quickly this year, but be on the look out for some workshops happening this summer if you missed our camps!

A sneak peak at our Creek Critters - Catch and Release day we will be holding for our Summer Camp this year! Kids get an up close and personal look as we learn about the native Ozark species of our waterways. Hands on learning and fun for ages 3-12! Spots for camp are almost full! Click the link below and find the registration link and links with more information on the second page of the flyer! Act fast, spots are limited!

https://www.canva.com/design/DAE_TCB7oqE/BdjLAFC9bj64h6f8iI4oRg/view?utm_content=DAE_TCB7oqE&utm_campaign=designshare&utm_medium=link2&utm_source=sharebutton

Get ready for this weekend's total lunar eclipse!

Safe to view with the naked eye, it will reach totality between 11:29 pm EDT (May 15) and 12:53 am EDT (May 16).

The shadow will first appear at 10:27 pm, and maximum eclipse will be 12:11 am.

Set an alarm and consider waking the kids!

For more celestial events this year:
https://getthekidsoutside.com/celestial-events-in-2022/
and other kids' outdoor activities to do after dark:
https://getthekidsoutside.com/kids-outdoor-activities-in-the-dark/

After such a fun camp last summer, OMFFS has decided to host it's 2nd annual kid's summer camp! This year we will have farm days at the OMFFS teaching farm and hike days in the local forests of NWA! Some of our camp day themes on the farm this year will be Chickens and Ducks - Lifecycles and Goats and Gardening - Yogurt Making and Butter Churning with Homegrown Garden Herbs. Our camp day themes in the forest will include Bees and Blossoms - Wildflowers and Wild Edibles and River and Creek Critters - Catch and Release. Hands on learning and fun for ages 3-12! Click the link below and find the registration link and links with more information on the second page of the flyer! Act fast, spots are limited!

https://www.canva.com/design/DAE_TCB7oqE/BdjLAFC9bj64h6f8iI4oRg/view?utm_content=DAE_TCB7oqE&utm_campaign=designshare&utm_medium=link2&utm_source=sharebutton

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A question I get a lot from parents interested, or even participating in our play based program is "Will my child be behind when we transition to traditional school?" Janet Lansbury writes about this question in great detail in this article. The research is out and becoming more widely available. Young children do their best learning when allowed to teach themselves!

"As Magda Ge**er said, 'Do less, enjoy more' and 'Be careful what you teach. It may interfere with what they're learning..."

"So letting go of that as part of our job, that we have to teach children all these things and make sure they're up to task... There are several studies showing that knowing letters and numbers and how to read at a very young age might give a child an edge in the very first year or two of school, but then it all evens out. But if we give our child this edge of being able to reason and experiment and understand probabilities and be critical thinkers and engage for long periods, retain what they've learned because it's going in deeply... That's an edge that unfortunately, with other children it doesn't even out. That is a lifelong edge that we can give children.

Be Careful What You Teach (It Might Interfere with What They Are Learning) - Janet Lansbury In this podcast: Janet responds to a question from a caregiver who says the family she works for is interested in teaching their son ABCs and other lessons. The child is sometimes disinterested and refuses to participate, and she wonders: “Is there a respectful approach to teaching children?” Ja...

It's important to remember that we don't always need to entertain children. ❤

"We are a society afraid of boredom. We are addicted to entertainment and the stimulation of certain neuro centers in the brain. We are losing the ability to just be.

When we deny our children their God-given right to boredom, we are restricting their development.

Do you remember the hours you spent in boredom as a child? We would daydream in the waiting room, stare at the dust motes dancing in the sunlight, invent new games, draw, read, create, research. We were building important neuro pathways. Did we whine to our parents that we were bored? Of course! But we quickly learned that this would only lead to chores or being forced outside regardless of temperature or weather.

When we had a question, there was no Google. We had to ask another person, look it up in a book, or, gasp, ruminate on it until we found the answer within our own brains. We developed common sense and logic, because we were experiencing the world firsthand and engaging our problem solving.

So, don’t be afraid of boredom! Every generation before this one has had to learn to live with it. And they have benefited because of it.

Give your children the gift of boredom." - Homeschooling with the Classics

Celebrating the coming of spring with a warm sunny day on the River!