Hanging out with the wolves

Our celebrations
learning about wolves in Colorado Springs Real Red Riding Hoods forest school

We are very excited to have opened our Winter season at the school on December 10th. And we kicked things off with a very special event — a meet and greet with the wolves preceded by a mini-unit on wolves at the school where children learned about this majestic animal. The meet and greet was arranged through Colorado Wolf Adventures — is a licensed business conducting wolf walks at the Garden of the Gods. Their wolf walks are an unforgettable experience and we highly recommend them for educational group activities or special hikes!

learning about wolves in Colorado Springs Real Red Riding Hoods forest school

After we got to spend about 20-30 minutes of intimate time with these majestic animals (thank you Peggy of Colorado Wolf Adventures ❤️) we headed over to some picnic tables for hot chocolate with cookies and some follow-up learning and craft activities.

Here, in this blog post — Learning About Wolves — you can read about our learning activities, games and crafts that we did as a part of our learning about wolves week with kids ages 3-9 years old.

And now onto the photos from that memorable day with the wolves.

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Beautiful autumn inspired books for children

Books
Gerda muller books

Hello forest school families and friends, it’s been a while since I managed to find time to add a post to our blog. The things at the school have been incredibly busy. In addition to the usual daily whirlwind of things we also got baby chickens and so the pressure is on to finish that chicken coop! We set up and planted a large flower garden which we need to water daily by hand since we don’t have an automated system in place yet. We also created 2 large strawberry beds and planted few more berry bushes (also all watered by hand with a bucket as it is too far from the spigot 😅). And we had our Summer Farewell party last Friday at the school which was most magical. I hope I get a chance to share some really beautiful photos with you soon!

Children autumn inspired books

But as we said our farewells to this wonderful summer and set our eyes and hearts towards the change of season I wanted to share with you some very beautiful autumn inspired books. The original post about these books is on my personal blog about sustainable living where you can see many more photos and read about why we love these books.

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Beautiful nature-inspired craft with baking soda playdough

Crafts
DIY baking soda playdough

Can you believe it is already middle of August? This summer flew by way too fast! Are you excited about fall approaching or are you like me and wish the summer never ended? 🙂

So here is a very simple and beautiful craft you can make with your children using a couple of very basic ingredients and any nature finds you have handy. I love making these medallions, which could be hung on a string individually in child’s room or hung on a piece of driftwood into a sort of mobile.

In fall you can make same versions with beautiful autumn leaves and comes winter they would make beautiful Christmas tree decorations.

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Shortsightedness is linked to the lack of outdoor time

Benefits of outdoor play
Colorado Springs Outdoor Program for kids, Forest school, Nature kindergarten

When we decided to open a school in Colorado Springs, the forest school format was our natural choice as we see tremendous benefits for children in free play in a natural outdoor setting. Some of these benefits are more obvious than others. So I decided to start a series of posts on our blog about why spending time outdoors for children is so critical and not just for their general physical development, but for their mental development as well as mental health.

In the first post in this series I wanted to share with you some studies which focused on the connection between shortsightedness (officially referred to as “myopia”) and a lack of the time spent outdoors.

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Join our hiking group
for 6-11 year olds!

A day at the school
Children's outdoor hiking group ages 6-11 years old Colorado Springs

We are very excited to launch our Young Explorers hiking program for children ages 6-11 years old on Mondays and Tuesdays. The program is 2 hours and takes place every Monday and Tuesday from 2:00pm to 4:30pm. Children get to practice putting up a tent, learning’s basic outdoor skills such as identifying plants and animal tracks. And they get to do lot and lot of hiking on the beautiful trails of Palmer Lake!

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Organic home-made
play dough, part 2

Crafts
organic play dough DIY recipe

Last week we had a post about the benefits of making play dough with children from scratch and sharing with you just how much they enjoy the process. In this post we want to share the actual recipe we use most commonly at the school, and what we use to color and decorate it naturally. This recipe uses only organic ingredients that are safe for touch as well as taste (although it really doesn’t taste very nice).

Remember that the beauty of this process is that you can fix anything about it — from color saturation to the consistency of the dough itself. And also remember that children will enjoy experimenting either way, whether or not you feel like everything is working out as you planned!

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Slackline in the school yard

Outdoor fun
Colorado Springs outdoor kids program forest school daycare

We wanted to quickly share with you a few pictures from the latest addition to the school’s outdoor space — the slackline! It’s been an absolute hit with kids of all ages. From the youngest to the oldest they just can’t keep away from it.

We highly recommend adding one to your home or daycare center. They are inexpensive and easy to set up. You can choose the height off the ground that you would like the ropes to be, as well as the length. It takes up less space than a trampoline, but can be just as much fun and challenging for balance. All you need is 2 strong trees or poles. We got ours at the Magic Cabin online store.

We also have some lovely videos on our Instagram account. You can find them pinned in Highlights, under School Premises.

organic play dough DIY recipe
organic play dough DIY recipe

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Organic home-made
play dough, part 1

Crafts
organic home-made play dough

All in all it is an activity that gives a child a whole variety of skills to practice and sensations to experience.

Last week we had a lot of rainy chilly days here in Colorado. We still had our daily nature walks with the children at the school, but also got to spend a good share of time in the cabin warming up, being cozy and having fun learning things. We read books about eagles and the children had fun imagining being eagles and flying around catching fish. We played hide and seek, which turned into a game of an owl searching for little mice. And the children also built beautiful towers with wooden blocks. But the biggest hit of all was making our own play dough! Everyone loved it from the youngest kids to the oldest ones. Boys and girls were all engrossed into the creative process that is a bit of chemistry, a bit of cooking and a whole lot of artistry on their part!

So before we share the recipe and what we use to get different beautiful colors naturally or to decorate our creations we wanted to share what makes making the play-dough with children such a great activity that benefits and invokes many of their skills and sensations.

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We are officially open!

A day at the school
Colorado Springs day care forest school

We are very excited to share with you all that as of today we are officially open!

We had our first group of little explorers and even though the weather was cold, windy and a bit grim the kids still went outside twice over the course of 4 hours at the school and did some good playing and lots and lots of running.

We will do a full reveal of the cabin and the playground area soon, but for now we wanted to share with you a few of the things we have set up for kids to enjoy.

We hope to see you and your little ones there soon. Come in and get a tour any time. You can schedule a tour over on this page.

Colorado Springs day care forest school Colorado Springs day care forest school
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The benefit of Forest Schools

A day at the school
Forest school Waldorf Montessori Colorado springs

We think for all of us living in the beautiful Colorado the therapeutic value of outdoors is a self-evident truth. Even a short hike or a picnic in the mountains leaves us feeling rested and relaxed and rejuvenated.

Our children, who aren’t yet tied to their offices, computers, work desks and cars, have no reason to spend their days in any environment other than the beautiful outdoors that is so nourishing.

Yet in today’s urban societies children are found spending more and more time indoors. Most daycare centers are located in the city limits and offer small enclosed playgrounds that are mostly bare of any vegetation and living things. Cities are built in such a way that children have very little freedom to explore the world outside their home or school or parent’s car out of concerns for their safety.

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