St. Louis Farm School

08/30/2019

Hi, all! This is a reminder that St. Louis Farm School has expanded our offerings and evolved into The Children's Community to include both indoor and outdoor learning experiences. Follow The Children's Community's page and keep up with our journey!

We so enjoyed welcoming many families on our recent tour days! We can't wait to begin our inaugural school year on Tuesday, September 3rd in our inviting new indoor learning space, nestled on a 10-acre hobby farm among organic gardens, our adventure playground, wild pastures, and forests & trails. We offer rolling admissions and will be welcoming new families to our community throughout the year. Please contact us at [email protected] for more information!

02/05/2019

Hi, all! St. Louis Farm School is now The Children's Community: A Microschool. Come visit us over at www.facebook.com/thechildrenscommunitystl and see what we've been up to!

The Children's Community is a liberation-centered, mixed-age, agile learning community practicing connection, consent, & autonomy. Young people 5-18+ unschooling together on a farm & in the forest. STL’s first ALC!

09/19/2018

St. Louis Farm School is evolving! We are close to realizing our dream of transitioning into a microschool. Our name will be evolving, too - stay tuned for updates from The Children’s Community: A Microschool as our founding group of children and adults create our space and begin working together.

While our name is changing, our beliefs about learning are not. Children and their ideas will continue to be at the center of our work together. We will continue to emphasize free play, both indoors and out, and are in the process of adding an indoor learning space as well as a longer day to accommodate more possibilities together. We will not use a curriculum, textbooks, or grades (either academic or age-based). Rather, the children and their ideas, questions, and voices will form the heart of what and how we learn. Our unique indoor learning experience will allow for children to pursue their passions and curiosities in a mixed-age setting, and to be seen and honored as individuals. They will have the opportunity to explore meaningful literacy and mathematics invitations relevant to their self-directed projects and respectful of their individual development. Children will naturally explore a wide range of content in the context of exploring their own wonderings.

The Children’s Community embraces and practices the following key components of a progressive, democratic education:

A mixed-age environment

A child-centered, project-based approach to learning, in which adults act as facilitators and learning mentors

Shared decision-making and trust among participating children and adults

An emphasis on open-ended experiences, both outdoor and indoor, in which process is valued over product

A foundation of trust and belief in children's individual voices and experiences as the basis of creating a just and equitable learning community

We welcome your questions as we make this transition, and we look forward to providing updates along the way!

08/21/2018

A roundup of the past few weeks of adventure: lots of flowers (those sunflowers this year!), lots of play (Forest of the Forgotten continued to evolve and branch off into various research projects), and plenty of negotiation and communication ("Hey, guys, what do you think if we move the mud kitchen over a little so we can make a 'Healer's Square' where we make our potions and stuff?" "Will you come with me to get leaves and some ash for the medicine I'm making?")
And, as always, mud. Lots.

08/21/2018

Current status.

08/07/2018

We are back after a technology-induced absence from this page that prevented us from sharing photos of our weekly play and work and learning. Here are a few gems from today's awesomely messy, rainy time together. Many more pics from the last couple of weeks to follow, along with other Farm School updates!

07/09/2018

Summer is a time of abundance and activity at Farm School and we have been scarce with our updates and photos! The garden is teeming with life: flowers, vegetables, fruit, pollinators, and other excellent critters. The full group was able to resume their creative play at our last meeting, and the children's Forest of the Forgotten game continues to evolve. We overheard talk of map-making, an invented currency, and a fort-like structure in the works. One of the children is developing plans for making a cob oven (not for heating food, mind you - ‘melting metal’). Others are working on an elaborate fairy house. We enjoyed snacking on our homegrown radishes with butter and salt (really - try it) and look forward to eating more fresh produce together at our next meeting.

06/21/2018

We had a mini-break on Tuesday at Farm School, due to a combination of traveling families, a touch of summer sickness, and the excessive heat advisory. We used our quiet day to pull radishes and the mini-est of carrots, admire the first egg from a sweet new chicken, and coordinate generous donations from farm-friendly folks around town. We can't wait to use some new picket fencing to designate space for all sorts of fun.

06/13/2018

We had a smaller group than usual today, and used our relaxed time to to pull many (many!) weeds in the garden. We planted some popping corn, cantaloupe, cucumbers, strawberries, and okra. During free play we polished our tree-climbing skills, checked on our feathered friends, and, as always, uncovered a few natural treasures. We will enjoy radishes and salad with our full group next week. 🐛🦋

06/06/2018

Overheard today at Farm School:
'Hey! Group! I have a great idea! Let's harvest more radishes, and some lettuce, and make a SALAD!'..

'What do you think of my idea?'
Everyone: 'Yes! That's a great idea!' And then a morning of planning, list-making, journaling, more planning, and discussing commenced. Next week: a salad, and some radishes with butter and salt on the side.
We weeded and put more seeds in the ground today, watered and fed the poultry menagerie, continued Forest of the Forgotten, and explored the 'castle' created by a newly felled tree. As always, we found a few other treasures along our way.

05/29/2018

Farm School was filled with life today. We found a tiny monarch caterpillar in our Monarch Waystation this morning and later caught a glimpse of a deer racing through the meadow. Several kids chose to help with duck chores and others weeded the garden. During a refreshing rain that lasted for over an hour, the kids chased butterflies and moths in the meadow, studied crickets and ladybugs on the hill, and worked on costumes for their unique game.
‘Forest of the Forgotten’ has another character, an insect specialist who houses insects and barters them for other goods. This game is so unique and collaborative! They worked together on creating costumes and discussed how to make natural dyes to add color to them next week.
Sunflowers were transplanted to our Three Brothers bed and we enjoyed a frittata made with duck eggs and radish greens.

05/22/2018

Free play today evolved into a rich, detailed game the kids titled 'Forest of the Forgotten,' which included a blacksmith, a healer, a weapons seller, and several bakers. They created goods to barter, and have grand plans for continuing their play next week (including a detailed list of materials requested). A small group negotiated how to collaboratively thin radishes (the negotiating took easily twice as long as the thinning). A few others chose to participate in the duck/goose chores. We noticed an abundance of beautiful fungi that emerged after all of our rain. Next week, more weeding, more planting. More 'Forest of the Forgotten.'