Loose Leaf Notes

-The following first appeared in The Floyd Press (an expanded version) on April 29, 2021.

The rain didn’t deter attendees – most of which were children – to Saturday’s rain-or-shine Earth Day event at The Little River Outdoor School. The school’s lead teacher Isabella Porter said she’s noticed kids don’t mind the weather as much as adults do.

“I really can’t think of one kid who didn’t want to come because of the rain,” said Porter, who added that the staff and students at Little River School don’t refer to rain as “bad weather.”

“Rain means more worms (which the kids love to study up close)” she joked, but added that they do call off school if the weather is dangerous and retreat to a shelter if dangerous weather starts while school is in session.

Founded in 2020 by Amanda Lawson and Porter, the school is a licensed outdoor elementary school (also known as a forest school) for children ages 5 to 12. Located on 30 acres about 10 miles north of town on Bethlehem Church Road, the property consists of forests, hills, streams, a fishing pond, and is home to horses, bunnies and chickens.

“The forest is the classroom.  We do everything-age appropriate that other schools do, only we do it outside,” Lawson explained to a prospective parent who came to learn more about the school. Both Lawson and Porter have extensive experience in early childhood education and both moved to Floyd from Washington State, where it rains a lot.

“We were looking for better weather,” Lawson said about bringing her family to Floyd.  “We’ve been here a full year, and so we’ve seen all the seasons.” Saturday’s rain is about what they have 9 months of the year in Washington, she said.  Weather was a big motivator for the move to Floyd, but the family was also drawn to the beauty of the county.

“We’ve really been enjoying it here,” said Lawson, whose two young daughters were busy making seed balls (also known as playing in the mud) with the other children.

Under rain sails in the “Coyote Forest” (named by the children) they rolled a muddy soil-based mixture filled with zinnia and wildflower seeds into balls.  When dried, the balls can be thrown wherever the children choose and, hopefully, they will germinate, creating food for pollinating bees, Porter explained. “If they don’t germinate we can talk about why,” she said.

According to the school’s webpage (littleriverschool.com), studies have shown the benefits of outdoor schools for children, which include higher levels of concentration and confidence, more exercise and improved health. The school’s hands-on nature-based approach provides opportunities for experiential learning and problem solving and allows children to learn at their own pace with a great degree of individualized attention.

The Little River Outdoor School is part of a world-wide forest school movement, but outdoor schools have been around for nearly a century.  Early forest schools in the U.S. were similar to the farm-centered 4-H educational programs and focused on teaching conservation and care for forest life.  One in ten preschools in Denmark is held outdoors, the website reports.

Currently the school is taking enrollments and plans to open on June 7^th.  Last year, the school was in session throughout the summer until Thanksgiving. Classes are held from 9:30 am to 3:00 pm Monday through Thursday with a winter break from Thanksgiving to January 31^st.

Porter explained that school begins at the fire pit circle where she and the children discuss their goals for the day.  “Most of the time the goal is to get to the creek where they find salamanders, turtles, snakes and bugs,” Lawson added.   Colleen Redman