Our Learning
Philosophy
OUR MISSION
Heartwood Nature School is committed to serving families who wish to bestow the healing and learning experiences of nature to their children. Through a deep connection to nature and all its processes and struggles, children thrive and learn not only to love nature but to truly care for it.
It is our belief that you cannot truly love something you don’t have a relationship with, and it is our goal to nurture each child’s relationship with nature. Combined with organic, intellectual learning and the cultivation of a moral compass that includes learning how to become allies in the worldwide struggle for equality and justice, children will emerge from this experience with a strong character, a curious and creative mind, and a generous heart.
We have a nature-based, emergent curriculum.
Our curriculum is based on nature itself, found both in the beauty that surrounds us at Maple Crest Farm and in the children themselves. Children are born curious. It is what lights a fire inside them and drives their development. Our teachers see profound capabilities in a child and in their innate desire for learning. Observing these capabilities and desires and capitalizing on a child’s organic interests is our first step when forming our learning plans.
Though we consider our learning emergent and organic, we also strive to adhere to state learning standards so that children who emerge from our programming do not experience significant hiccups upon entering a more traditional school. With that in mind, we also believe that an experienced teacher can gently guide children to follow this curriculum while keeping a very natural flow.
We value play.
We all know that play is how children learn. We’ve witnessed it. We see it in ourselves. There are countless studies that prove it. All the experts say it should be the primary focus of early childhood learning. And yet local preschools are teaching letters and letter sounds. Three-year-olds are expected to color within the lines. Four-year-olds are doing worksheets. As a society, we are removing play and replacing it with teacher-directed learning that is not relevant to or necessary for young children. We treat our work as a revolution and we are fighting passionately to protect childhood, to promote play, and give children the space they deserve to exercise this basic human right.
What about the weather?
Mark Twain said that if you don’t like the weather in New England, just wait a minute. The weather here can be hot and buggy, rainy and muddy, or brutally cold. We are committed to experiencing the outdoors no matter the weather. When children and teachers are geared and dressed properly, time in nature can be supremely enjoyable. Proper gear is a must and we are here to answer questions and recommend what works best for your family and your budget.
Our heated 24’ Yurt is there for us should we need it in truly inclement weather. We may spend a little bit of each day inside the Yurt, but our goal is to get the kids comfortable with being outside as much as possible. There will be days, however, that it is simply not safe to be in the woods. High winds, sub-zero temperatures, and a persistent threat of thunderstorms would lead us to cancel school for the day in order to keep everyone safe.
WHAT’S AT OUR HEART
CONNECTION TO NATURE
CULTIVATING KINDNESS
GIFT OF AGENCY
HONORING CHILDHOOD
LOVE OF EARTH
CONNECTION TO NATURE
Research shows that children as young as three can identify major corporate logos, but cannot name tree or plant species. Studies in Britain in the early 2000s showed that children ages 4-11 were able to identify far more Pokémon characters than they were able to identify birds and common wild animals. Elsewhere, we’ve heard statistics say that most children spend less time outdoors each day than prisoners.
What does this all mean? It means that we, as a people, are incredibly disconnected from the natural world. We spend more time within the comfort of four walls than we do the way nature intended, among the sights and sounds of the world around us.
Research shows that rates of anxiety, depression, and other emotional and behavioral irregularities have grown alongside wider cultural shifts: social media dependency, device addiction, and pandemic-driven isolation, to name a few. One central theme of modern American life is that we aren’t outdoors enough. Tracking animals, feeling the sun on our backs and the wind in our hair, spending time among trees and plants, foraging, and listening for the signs nature sends us are all literally in our DNA. These ancient practices have been relegated to time on manufactured playgrounds and manicured parks. We have edited out opportunities to connect with the wild earth, a practice whose benefits are too numerous to list.
For more on this, consider reading:
The Nature Fix by Florence Williams
The Comfort Crisis by Michael Easter
Last Child in the Woods by Richard Louv
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We often forget that we are nature. Nature is not something separate from us. So when we say that we have lost our connection to nature, we have lost our connection to ourselves.
— ANDY GOLDSWORTHY
CULTIVATING KINDNESS
We are social creatures who are meant to connect with others, but the driving force in our DNA is survival, which sometimes means kicking the other guy out of the way so we can eat. Watch two toddlers play together and you’ll see this on display. They are literally not meant to share; they don’t yet know how or why to do it.
Kindness has to be cultivated. It has to be modeled, spoken about, and treasured. This is done at a community level and at a personal level in all of our interactions with children and in times of conflict that we help guide children through on a daily basis. This kindness includes speaking to children respectfully and validating their feelings. Helping children feel seen and heard is vital to our relationship with them, and their relationship to themselves.
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Practice kindness all day to everybody and you will realize you’re already in heaven now.
— JACK KEROUAC
HONORING CHILDHOOD
In the United States, we have conducted an assault on the childhood we remember. Children suffer through an onslaught of devices and a culture telling them they’re necessary, a school day that values production and standards above all else with little time for developmentally appropriate play, a meager 20-30 minutes of recess, and overly scheduled days filled with structured activities and little time for valuable boredom. Academics and testing have become the number-one priority, creating classrooms that teach to the test, children who cannot think independently, and teachers who are left frustrated and helpless.
Kindergarten has become the new first grade and if you watch commercials and pay attention to mainstream advice parents are given, 3 year olds are supposed to know all their numbers, letters, and letter sounds. We are not honoring childhood, and that is a major problem.
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Sometimes the best learning occurs when it isn’t called learning.
— LISA MURPHY
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A child’s mind is not a container to be filled but rather a fire to be kindled.
— DORTHEA BRANDE
GIFT OF AGENCY
We are social creatures who are meant to connect with others, but the driving force in our DNA is survival, which sometimes means kicking the other guy out of the way so we can eat. Watch two toddlers play together and you’ll see this on display. They are literally not meant to share; they don’t yet know how or why to do it.
Kindness has to be cultivated. It has to be modeled, spoken about, and treasured. This is done at a community level and at a personal level in all of our interactions with children and in times of conflict that we help guide children through on a daily basis. This kindness includes speaking to children respectfully and validating their feelings. Helping children feel seen and heard is vital to our relationship with them, and their relationship to themselves.
Agency is defined as the capacity of individuals to act independently and to make their own free choices. In our work with children, it’s vital that we begin to give them the tools they need to be successful and that we are always treating them with respect, and as the capable beings they are.
Here’s a situation to consider: it was a cool morning but it’s getting warm out now. You see a child in pants and a long sleeve shirt whose face is sweaty. What do you do?
A: Say, “Let’s take your shirt off,” and begin removing the shirt.
OR
B: Say, “I see that you still have your long sleeve shirt on. It’s starting to feel really warm out here and I notice that you look hot. Would you be more comfortable without it?”
Which feels right to you? Which would you appreciate? Can you imagine saying the first choice to a co-worker or friend?
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Respecting a child teaches them that even the smallest, most powerless, most vulnerable person is worthy of respect. And that is a lesson our world desperately needs to learn.
— L.R. KNOST
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A person is a person, no matter how small.
— DR. SEUSS
LOVE OF EARTH
We have drawn an invisible line between us and nature, forgetting the fact that we are a part of this amazing, wild Earth. A large part of our purpose is to rekindle that relationship that often comes so naturally for children. We don’t know the names of the plants and animals around us.
We don’t understand their interconnectedness and how slight changes in the forest ecosystem affect the larger picture. Through play and modeling, we help the children cultivate environmental literacy, a valued relationship with the Earth, and a passion for protecting it. If we’re doing our job right, their parents are also affected.
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Passion is lifted from the earth itself by the muddy hands of the young; it travels along grass-stained sleeves to the heart. If we are going to save environmentalism and the environment, we must also save an endangered indicator species: the child in nature.
— RICHARD LOUV
LAST CHILD IN THE WOODS
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Knowing that you love the earth changes you, activates you to defend and protect and celebrate. But when you feel that the earth loves you in return, that feeling transforms the relationship from a one-way street to a sacred bond.
— ROBIN WALL KIMMERER
BRAIDING SWEETGRASS
