Cypress Cottage Farm - A Nature Based Homeschool Program

The past few months have been a busy time in our farm as our “chicken” coop turned into a “poultry” coop. We have added ducks, a very sweet pet turkey, and quail to our flock.

Starting January 12th, we will offer a 12 week session on permaculture gardening. Concepts covered include understanding soil, water usage, multi-use plants, the roles of animals in the garden, food forests, and much more. The children will build a sheet mulch garden bed, grow vegetables from seed, build a worm box (vermiculture), and design/build an herb spiral garden bed. As always, this class is designed for ages 5-11.

Cypress Cottage Farm is pleased to offer a drop off program on Fridays we call "Farm Fridays". For ages 5-11, this program involves some learning and extended large group play, and takes place outside on our little farm in GGE. Children arrive at 11 am, attend a class (subject focus varies), eat lunch together, then have the freedom to explore and play on our two acres. We finish the day with a hands on activity related to the morning class and the children are picked up at 4 pm.

Our current focus is Ancient History. We use a curriculum called History Quest, which combines reading aloud to the children, map and timeline exploration, coloring sheets, and crafts. For more information: https://www.pandiapress.com/product/history-quest-early-times/.

Besides the history we will also be doing simple garden explorations. We'll be loosely following this book for garden activity ideas: https://www.theschoolgardencurriculum.com/.

The tuition is $25/day. Please contact us if you have any questions. If you are interested, come to the Open House this Saturday between 10:00am and 12:00pm and check us out!

This is the nature journal Farm Fridays kids will use. It’s beautiful and simple. We will spend time on HOW to observe nature, then each child will go out, observe and collect samples, then we will complete the pages together (with help for beginning writers). Part of the process is sharing what we observed and learning from each other. The journal and a set of colored pencils are included with the $10 registration fee.

Our yard includes many vegetable garden beds and a three year old food forest.

Our pasture - an acre of rugged land complete with mulch piles and lots of fantastic rotting logs. This is the ultimate adventure space.

Our critters - goats, chickens, horse

Play houses - one from the store and one built by kids

We have a variety of swings, swing set, trampolines, hammock for the kids to play on.

Our outdoor classroom - learning in the shade of banana trees

Cypress Cottage Farm currently offers Farm Fridays for kids ages 5-11. Farm Fridays is a drop off program from 11am to 4pm every Friday. Currently we are focusing on making things: paper mache sculptures, paper, candles, soap, bird feeders. Each week will also include communal lunch, free play and nature journaling. Free play is an important part of our program, as extended play time enables kids to work on their social skills, conflict resolution, leadership, communication, risk taking, as well as their physical strength and coordination. (And they have a blast!)
SCHEDULE
11:00 Class session - in-depth craft
12:00 Lunch
12:30 Free play in nature
3:00 Nature Journaling
4:00 Dismissal

Tuition: $25/day with $20 registration fee (covers nature journal and craft materials)

I created this page in December 2020, when I started this program. Since then, I have not needed to advertise and have not added to this page, instead posting on a closed group just for enrolled families. This program has shifted from a classical curriculum to a Montessori curriculum, and some of the program options have changed. If you are interested in this program, please do reach out to me via Facebook message and I would be happy to provide you with more information, or welcome you over for a tour.