Reflecting and Restructuring

As a brand new micro-school that wasn’t even an idea at this time last year, we intentionally labeled this year a pilot year. We had grand ideas this summer but we knew they were just ideas - to get them into place we’d need to be ready to re-examine, shift, analyze, and determine what works best for our learners. Sometimes our best grand plans don’t work out in practice and we realized that could be the case going into this year. Our adult perspectives and our learners’ needs don’t always match up equally and as adults, we knew needed to be able to shift.

One aspect of our initial program that we realized we needed to change was our dual Roots and Branches program. Initially, the Roots program was a three-day-a-week program focused on academics. Branches were 2 days of outdoor learning program at the end of the week. This summer we thought this would be ideal - three days to focus on those more concrete skills and then two days to be free to explore nature learning in a more Forest School style.

Unfortunately, the reality of this didn’t quite match our expectations. Cramming a week’s worth of academics into three days proved to be uncomfortable for all of us - especially our learners. This led to exhausted learners by the time Branches came around, which suddenly felt disconnected from what we were doing at the beginning of the week. Although we loved the idea of the intentional focus between the two programs, we realized we needed to shift.

Tuesday/Thursday winter sowing projects

In January, we revised our schedule. Now we have a four-day-a-week Roots program, but most of the academic work is in the morning. Our afternoons are open to those outdoor learning experiences. Our learners are being guided through a garden project on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons, where they have been winter sowing, working on plant experiments, and creating their garden plans. Because we no longer have the programs split up, we now find the learners working on their Branches projects throughout the week. These projects feel more purposeful and integrated into our broader curriculum.

Integrated Art and Cooking Projects on Fridays

On Fridays, our learners have a more relaxed day where they can go on field trips around our town as well as participate in extension activities related to what we are studying during the week. They have been cooking - bringing together the history work they are doing by looking at spices from the Silk Road and using them to flavor vegetables they could grow in the gardening projects. They participate in drama activities and skits that correspond to what we’ve read or studied throughout the week and create art that allows them to reflect on their learning. 

Clay Creations, Spontaneous Stick Ball Bames (with an actual stick as a bat), and Games and Puzzles

Maybe more importantly, the new schedule allows for more mixed-age, group free-play. Instead of cramming every moment of the Roots program with academic learning, our learners can get their work done and then go out and play - either creating a new game or starting an imaginary play scheme. We’ve seen what we are studying in school come out in their play schemes. They’ve had time to explore the property, craft pottery from the red clay in the ground, and discover a bird’s nest. They can check on their winter sowing projects and spend time chatting up the cows across the street. 

While it feels like we added an extra day of academics, we actually freed up our learners to have a looser schedule where their day can better reflect their natural rhythms. It’s been beautiful to watch them flourish with our new schedule. Once again, a reminder to us adults that instead of forcing our kids to do what we think is best, we can create more successful plans by learning from the kids themselves.