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Elder Children
Description
Our 2-day per week Elder Children Folk Farm class offers an outdoor education setting for children ages 6-9 years old. Focused on project-based, experiential, emergent learning, this group dives deep into child-led topics held by elementary educators on Mondays and Tuesdays from 9:00am - 2:00pm.
At Folk Farm School students have the space to find healthy channels for impulse control and deeply develop intrinsic motivation for learning and exploring the world. The nature immersion of an outdoor classroom supports a more relaxed learning environment, and as a result, critical thinking becomes more accessible. Encouraging an understanding of leadership, students are given freedom to co-create activities and solve problems independently. Our opening and closing council at the beginning and end of each day offer moments of reflection that provide students the opportunity to strengthen their voice in the community, experience their worthiness of taking up space, and in turn, the opportunity to listen with love and attentive care.
Providing and practicing primitive skills, cultivating relationships with our inner and outer landscapes, and learning about sustainable innovation aids in building confidence, resiliency, intuition, and is the foundation for cultural regeneration.
Families register for both Monday and Tuesday only.
The Elder Child program is hosted by Yellow Barn Farm.
The first step in our registration process is booking a call with Folk Farm School's Director, Jessica Walters.
Got more questions?
Visit our FAQs page or, if easier, please
contact us at education@dar.eco
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Pricing
August-May
FAQs
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Our student to teacher ratio for the Elder Child program is 1 to 5.
Educators are expected to hold a sacred container of safety around the freedom we offer in a child-led nature based program. This means we trust the children to hold their respect for self, others and environment first, allowing their capabilities to shine and helping them develop self confidence and efficacy. This looks like always keeping children in line of site and paying close attention to each student to ensure safety boundaries are held. Every teacher has a first aid kit and student emergency information accessible at all times. All staff maintain CPR, Basic Life Support, and Preventing Child Sexual Assault certifications.
Whenever harm is caused, and usually accidentally, we ask the children to move through our check in. This looks like the friend who caused the harm saying “are you ok?” to the friend that feels harmed. If the friend receiving those words replies, “yes I’m ok” then the moment can be over and moved through. If the friend replies “I’m not ok”, then the expectation is that the other friend will ask “what can I do to help?” Varying degrees of scaffolding can be used here, and students are guided to bring suggestions in themselves “is there anything I can do? Can I help you rebuild what I broke? Do you need space?” Usually children ask for space after a situation where they feel wronged. If the conflict was accidental, we are sure to enhance the dialogue as necessary to communicate the impact of our actions when not in a space of noticing, and the impact of our reactions when not in a space of wondering.
