June, 2019: Gearing Up for Camp
I really can't wait to get back into teaching again. Camps start on July 8, so just over a month to go! I've been ordering supplies like journals and pencils and am just champing on the bit to get going. I'm so excited that soon I'll be able to share my real work with the world again, documenting our shared experiences, and learning in the natural world. Enrollment is still currently available for all five weeks of camp (July 8-12, July 15-19, July 22-26, July 29-August 2, and August 5-9), so if you know of anyone looking for a low-priced, natural option feel free to spread the word.
Strephon and our friend from KOFY made a little introductory video:
I was honored to have my work published in a peer reviewed journal recently. It's in print in "Young Children," the journal of the National Association for the Education of Young Children and online on their "Voices of Practitioners" website. Here's a link to the article, "From Fear to Freedom: Risk and Learning in a Forest School:"
https://www.naeyc.org/resources/pubs/yc/may2019/forest-school
Opening up my school in Richmond has been an interesting process. I moved to Berkeley in 1988 to help reopen 924 Gilman and have been living and/or working there ever since. Now I realize I need to connect with my own community (and local parents, who are now much younger than me!) just five miles north. One cool thing I'm doing to that end is having a table at the Richmond Healthy Village Festival on Saturday, June 29, 2019. It's from 10:00-2:00 at the Community Green Space at Harbour Way & Macdonald Avenue. I'll be there to talk about Outside School, meet neighbors, and have a downtown natural history bingo game for the kids (or kids at heart).
I finally joined up with the youth of today and started an instagram account. I'm on there as @outside_school. I'm learning!
I am still very much in need of finding K-12 students for the school year. I've become an "enrichment vendor" for an online public charter schools. That means that in addition to their free homeschool education families can also get some money back on Outside School tuition. The school is:
I'm always looking to join up with other homeschools in a similar way as well as with local tutors who can fill the bill to help complement the outdoor education I provide and ensure California educational compliance (necessary for grades 1-12 only). It's a dynamic process and a team effort, all part of the organic way in which I choose to teach.
Thank you for being a part of my life!!!
Sincerely,
Heather