This fall has been full of beautiful weather, allowing for much of our time together to be spent outside. The students have all claimed a raised bed garden box and built garden stakes with their names to mark each one. Together, they have maintained the various berry bushes, pulled weeds, and collected seeds from the plants around the schoolhouse (Thank you, Yoder Greenhouse!).
This week we moved our garden supplies (Thank you, Berlin Seeds!) into a new garden shed (Thank you, Ivan Keim and Kenneth Keim!) and planted our orchard trees (Thank you, Howard and Ruth Nussbaum and Yoder Greenhouse!)
In addition to Science and Nature Studies, History and Geography, Music, and Art, the students are all working their way through Kody Hanner’s Homestead Science Curriculum. Our October focus is on raising various kinds of Poultry for different purposes.
One of our next projects is to build a compost bin to contain our materials as we work to turn yard and food scraps into nutrient dense soil for our garden boxes. We will sow cover crops and winter lettuce using low tunnels this fall in addition to sprouting seeds indoors- for chickens and for a snack for ourselves.
Our days are packed with hands-on learning and time for exploration and discovery!
