Kids can be kids at Mother Earth Kindergarten

By Cliff Newell

The Lake Oswego Review, Aug 9, 2007, Updated Oct 30, 2009

Cliff Newell / Lake Oswego Review

A couple of moms couldn’t resist getting an early preview of Mother Earth Kindergarten. In the foreground, Jasmin Popick shows the wonder of chickens to her son Yeshua. In back, from left are Sophia Luna, Madai Luna, Ember Bell and teacher Molly Rice. The school begins on Sept. 5.

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When a great idea finds a perfect place, you have Mother Earth Kindergarten at Tryon Life Community Farm.

Starting on Sept. 5, children ages 3, 4 and 5 will be coming to the bold experiment in sustainable living on S.W. Boones Ferry Road and beginning their formal education.

Maybe it’s formal, but it’s also free. As free as their imaginations will let them be in the great outdoors.

“I can’t believe this is happening,” said school director Marsha Johnson. “We have been hoping for something like this for so long.”

In fact, it was 15 years ago that Johnson and her associates from Shining Star, a Waldorf School-associated school with headquarters in Portland, first looked into the possibility of having an outdoor kindergarten.

“I first read about the idea 20 years ago,” Johnson said. “I thought, ‘Why not do it here?’ It doesn’t even snow. In Europe they’ve been having outdoor kindergartens for decades. In Germany they call them ‘wild kindergartens’ or Nokkens. The idea has been nestling in my head and heart for years.”

The idea did not work out in the early ‘90s, but a few weeks ago it did, when Johnson approached TLC Farm’s executive director Brenna Bell.

“It was a magic meeting,” Johnson said. “It was serendipity the way people came together at the right time. Even though they already had a lot of educational programs here, they accepted our proposal. I was sure people would come and join up.”

For Bell, having an outdoor kindergarten is a perfect complement for a place already bustling with education programs.

“These days children spend so much time indoors,” said Bell. “You want them to think outside the box, and the best place to do that is outside. Children bring such energy, creativity and curiosity, and the world is totally chock full of things for them to discover.

“They can learn with their senses and bodies much more. But they can’t do that inside a classroom.”

When Johnson and Bell say the school will be outdoors, they really mean it. The kids will walk a mile down the road, then go to school rain or shine. There will be a couple of buildings at the farm they can use if conditions get too stark, including the barn and the sauna. There will also be hot organic porridge to fill up the cold spots.

“It’s delicious,” promises Bell.

Johnson takes a historical view of the situation.

“It’s only been in the last couple hundred years that people have been indoors a lot,” she noted. “This will be the first outdoor kindergarten in the USA – that I know of.”

Molly Rice, with 12 years of preschool teaching experience, will be the head teacher for the kindergarten, and she is already brimming over with wide-eyed enthusiasm.

“Children will gain so much from having tall trees above their heads,” Rice said. “They will gain strength from the fresh forest, like we all do in a few days of camping. There is such clarity and strength.”

A typical school day at Mother Earth Kindergarten will include free playtime, adventure hikes, gardening, exploring in the forests, painting, and storytimes, plus visits with animals like goats and chickens. Rice hopes a bunny can soon join the crew.

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