Forest schooling

I will forever be grateful for the times that we are able to get out of the house and go into nature for our day of schooling... The girls see it as a day "off" and probably nothing more than a fun field trip but what they don't realize is that they are always learning... and sometimes never so much as they do when they are able to be surrounded by nature...

We are part of a number of homeschool groups in our area, all offering something a bit different from the other. This particular group is more geared towards Tacoma/Seattle and rarely go in that direction but jump at the chance to go to anything in Olympia so the tour of a local mushroom farm was right up our alley! :)

Christian was GREAT with the kids and very patient with their questions or stories. I think in the end, he was very impressed with our group of kids and their knowledge of mushrooms too! I always love to just stand back and listen to homeschool kids talking and asking questions. Now, I'm not discrediting kids who are public schooled but there is just something about a group of homeschooled kids that tends to be amazing... This group of kids ranged from toddlers to probably 6th grade or so, and yet they were all learning side by side... standing out in the rainy woods of Washington state no less, and yet they all got along, were respectful and for the most part, all very interested in what what being said.

They started by sanitizing the table and all the little hands, then covering the table with straw and then adding the mushroom spores and mixing it up...

Next, the kids got to pack their own bags for having a mushroom growing kit to take home!

 

They filled the bags tightly with straw and then tied them up tight to suck the air out.

 When they were done, we got to tour the tents/greenhouses where they grow the mushrooms... the kids thought it was really cool (Ok so us adults did too!)

A definite hit of the tour was the Lions Mane mushroom! Isn't that just the coolest thing??? So, of course we had to get a kit to grow some of those at home!! The girls were just bubbly at the thought of having those at home. Some of the moms there said that they have cooked with them and that they are so yummy and have the consistancy of crab meat!! We can't wait to try it!!

I remember as a kid thinking that it must be so cool to be done with school and to know everything... little did I know just how much there is still to learn in this world!!! We are never done learning and I'm just so thankful that my girls don't have to dread school... most days they don't even realize we've done school, they just know that they love to learn... and isn't that what life is supposed to be about?