Welcome the stranger. Share your excess love, joy, and comfort with friends, family and strangers. Smile. Stop and help if you can. In a world where greed and corruption are becoming normalized, demonstrate what real faith and hope does: it transforms individuals, families, and entire societies. Don’t allow the storm of negativity and fear drown your light. You were made to help someone else. Look for chances to perform anonymous acts of kindness. Bring back the values that make being human fun again. There is no act of kindness that is too small to matter.
Let this revolution begin today in each of our hearts.
There once was a village that had high walls around it and a moat to protect it. The people were safe and happy. Every morning, they lowered the drawbridge so folks could come and go, and each evening, they raised it up. There was a little girl named Georgia. She was the smallest and sweetest and kindest of all of the children in the village. Often, she was allowed to cross the drawbridge and play in the wide meadows outside the village walls.
One day, while Georgia was playing in the meadow, she saw a shadow cross the field. When she looked up, she saw it was a big bird flying high in the sky and its shadow was zooming across the grassy field. She laughed and chased after the shadow, spreading her arms and pretending she was flying, too. When it was time to go home, her parents would call her and she would come running. She knew they wanted to keep her safe and she listened the first time. They did not have to call her twice.
One day, she saw a large shadow souring across the meadow. She looked up, laughing. She thought it was another large bird flying overhead, and she spread her arms like wings and began to pretend to fly across the meadow, chasing the shadow.
Suddenly, an enormous roar shattered the peaceful quiet. Little Georgia saw that it was not a bird, but a dragon! Her parents were watching and saw that dragon and heard that fierce roar and they called Georgia. They did not have to call her twice. She came running right away, for she always listened.
The villagers closed the drawbridge and everyone peeked from their windows and from the top of the tall wall that surrounded the village. The dragon landed in the meadow and stomped its terrible feet and roared its terrible roar and bellowed smoke with every fierce roar. The villagers were terrified!
The children were afraid, too, but they wanted to do something. So the oldest child said, “Let’s throw rocks and sticks at that dragon and chase it away!” The children all agreed and began to gather rocks and sharp sticks to throw at the dragon.
Georgia did not like that idea and said, “Don’t do that, be kind!” But the other children did not listen. They gathered rocks and sticks and went to the top of the wall that protected the village and began throwing stones and sticks and shouting, “Go away, dragon!” Soon, the dragon let out a huge, fierce roar and flew off to the top of a nearby mountain. The children cheered, feeling triumphant.
But Georgia felt sad for the dragon. Something must be wrong, for the dragon roared and shrieked all night long. Smoke billowed from the top of the mountain as the dragon continued roaring, keeping the villagers awake and filling them with fear.
Georgia knew that she was small, but she felt strong and capable and kind. She knew she must find out why the dragon was making such a lot of noise. So, she found one of the royal steeds and quietly snuck out of the village through a back gate. As she rode through the woods toward the meadow where she liked to play, she sang a song:
Through the forest and the meadow on a mighty steed,
The wind is blowing, the night bird is calling,
Faster than a deer in flight, riding bravely through the night,
Galloping, galloping, galloping, galloping….
When she reached the meadow, the earliest rays of the sunrise were just peeking down at her, and the dragon saw her and flew down to the meadow. It landed in front of Georgia and stomped it fierce feet and roared its fierce roar and flapped its fierce wings and blew smoke all around. The noise woke the villagers and they were all gathered at the tops of the wall and in the windows and anywhere they could see what was happening. They saw Georgia and were afraid for her safety.
Georgia was scared, but she remembered that she was strong, capable and kind. She climbed down off the steed and, coughing from the smoke, shouted, “Dragon! Why are you roaring so fiercely? What is the matter?”
The dragon stopped roaring and looked down at the small child and said, “I have a terrible pain in my foot! I’ve been asking for help, but instead of help, stones and sticks were thrown at me. It hurts so much!” And with that, it let out another bellow of smoke and roared louder than ever. Georgia covered her ears.
When the dragon stopped roaring for a second, she said, “Please let me look at your foot. Maybe I can help. But, please, dragon, please don’t hurt me.” The dragon bent its head down and gently licked Georgia’s hand to show that it would not hurt her. The villagers were astonished as she walked up to the huge beast’s front claws and saw a large splinter wedged into its foot. She grabbed hold of the splinter with both hands, for it was as long as an arrow, and she pulled with all her strength. The splinter came out and the dragon let out its loudest and fiercest roar yet.
Then, the dragon began to cry. Tears of relief came pouring out into the meadow all around Georgia. They were like diamonds and shined and reflected the sunlight in every direction. The dragon lowered its head toward Georgia and gave her another gentle lick on her hand and said, “Thank you.”
The people in the village were amazed to see the dragon being so gentle with Georgia, but, boy, were they surprised when she climbed on its back and it took off to the sky, flying higher and higher into the air! The dragon soared around just as Georgia had always imagined. When the dragon landed in front of the village walls, they lowered the drawbridge and the children all ran out.
“I want a ride!” They shouted. “No! Me first!” Some of them said. “No, I get to go next!” Others argued. But Georgia stopped them and said, “Let the youngest children go first. The oldest children can wait their turn.” And so they did take turns and the dragon gave them all rides. After that, they were no longer afraid of the dragon, who often came by to visit with Georgia and the children to play in the meadows outside the village walls.
Credits: The song Georgia sings is a song I learned from Lee, who learned it from Maggie Kelley, who, I believe, wrote it. I often play this on my flute (fife) while we are hiking. The story is inspired by several legends and stories about St. Michael (also known as an angel), and St. George, as well as the fable of the mouse and the lion. Lee helped me write this and we wanted to encourage children to be brave, strong, capable, and, most of all, kind.
I love how visual many of the lessons can be. Of course, we do hands on, experiential stuff to reinforce, but introducing ideas needs to be simple, straightforward and fun. So, I drew some images for our simple machines lessons. Ms. Lee liked them and we decided to have t-shirts made to give to the kids for their Winter Solstice gift. I made a little zine as a companion so that they could look at the pictures or color them if they want.
What an exciting gift I received the other day! A former parent and benefactor has left us a set of building toys! Materials like these write their own lesson plans! Gross motor skills and fine motor skills developing along with open ended, hands-on engineering. It’s all here.
BTW, join us for our upcoming Open House (update: this event is over).
I am unfamiliar with this set of building toys, and I wouldn’t normally go out and purchase something like this, but when it (almost literally) lands in your lap, you embrace it!
Some of the students were very interested and we looked at the book together to pick out a project. I began by assigning each student who wanted to be involved a certain number of parts. They had to search for and count the correct number of specific parts. This is challenging. Some of the parts are color coded, but just because it is green doesn’t mean it is the right part. They had to distinguish the number of joints it had and I helped with that when necessary.
After we had all of the required parts sorted, I would assign specific tasks until we began to get some semblance of the desired product. I helped when needed, but always waited until they had given it a solid try. Connecting the individual clips was tricky, and I had to slide or rotate the tubes sometimes to line them up properly, but, they got pretty good at doing it on their own.
We had a lot of fun, and I wasn’t surprised at how quickly they lost interest in it once it was completed. The fact is, following directions and all the cognitive skills necessary to locate the parts was a lesson on its own. The gross and fine motor skills required for pushing the tubes into the joints and then the clips to hold them together takes a lot of concerted effort on the children’s part.
I will continue to make myself present for running requested projects, but I hope to see more freeform and spontaneous building as the kids explore self-guided experiments. Following a pre-conceived project is good practice for understanding the principals of the materials, but, in the long run, I hope to see them build new and innovative things. Now that they understand the mechanics of how the pieces fit together and are aware of the potential, I hope their imaginations run wild!
I am so proud of the work Lee and I have done to create our outdoor early education program! Our program is small, but we anticipate openings in our micro-school for next year, and now is the time to consider where your child will go to preschool next fall. Join us for our Open House on October 12, 2024 and learn all about the work we do and see our space. RSVP with your preschool child’s age to LittleSchoolhouseintheWoods@gmail.com
Little Schoolhouse in the Woods has a vision of early childhood education that is focused on the whole child: social/emotional, physical and academic. While we consider play based approaches to be the best way to learn, our informal academic approach is grounded in student led lessons. We do all of this based in nature and in a natural environment. Our eclectic pedagogical approach is inspired by hands on and open ended philosophies incorporating whatever works best for our current group of students.
Our two acre property neighbors Mt. Airy Forest with acres of hiking trails: we get outside and play a lot! We focus on the seasons and we experience Mother Nature in all kinds of weather. The kids have a blast and learn a lot while we do our best to gently guide them toward healthy relationships with their peers and each other.
As we approach winter solstice, it is comforting to be reminded that the forest will repopulate with leaves and flowers in a few months. Here are three trees we see in Mt. Airy Forest that I have designed for T-shirts and hoodies as a fundraiser for the nonprofit outdoor early education programs at Little Schoolhouse in the Woods. Spending time in nature should be part of every ideal childhood, and we work hard to make the outdoors accessible and enjoyable for young children. If you’re interested in purchasing a T-shirt or hoodie with one of these designs (or all three…), here is a link to our online store.
Which one do you like best? Is there a tree that I should have included that you don’t see? Let me know in the comments, I’ll bet I can include it in the next fundraiser. These designs are hand drawn by yours truly, and I am excited to share them with you. If you like them, please share our fundraiser on your social media.
Parents, teachers and students are discovering the benefits of outdoor education. Early childhood is an especially important time to introduce the wonders of nature in developmentally appropriate manners. Student led learning and play based approaches are shown to be highly effective teaching strategies. Join me as I explore strategies and curriculum for teaching children in outdoors.
A fundamental aspect of play based education is a focus on the creative impulse. Stories and music are a vital part of being human, and engaging the imagination is an often underrated, yet crucial part of childhood. In that creative spirit, I will share some of my personal creative writings and artwork here.
You can follow Lee Hamzy, my wonderful wife and co-founder of Little Schoolhouse in the Woods on Facebook!
