This past weekend we hosted a “Bridge Ceremony” which marks a transition for forest preschoolers who have spent the entire 2022-2023 school-year at Lime Hollow. Some will continue with the program in future summer and school-year sessions, while others have aged out and will continue at new schools.

Maryfaith Decker Miller, Lime Hollow’s Forest Preschool director, delivered the following remarks… 

Every day in the forest we practice gratitude, for the sun, for the rain, for the snowstorm, for the chance to be together and experience nature together. I have deep gratitude for all of you. Thank you for dressing your children so carefully so that they can enjoy ALL of our varied seasons. For cleaning the mud, sticks, rocks and pine cones out of their lunchboxes, your vehicles, your washing machine, the sink trap…we know it isn’t easy. And thank you for your trust in, and support of, forest schooling. 

I’m grateful that you were brave and trusted us in this program - to care for, protect, and learn with your precious children. We feel the weight of that responsibility; it drives us to uphold the most mindful safety protocols and facilitate the most excellent learning experience we can deliver. We have trusted in each other, and trusted in the power of being outdoors to keep our community safe and healthy. I’m grateful that Mother Earth continues to provide us everything we need. 

Much of the success of this program goes to the strength of the nature center, Rachel and Ilya in the Visitor’s Center, Matt and Caleb at Buildings and Grounds, Anthony who builds our education programs and is a good friend and good council. Peter who stewards the land. And especially, our gifted teachers who truly love your children: Olivia , Hilary, Danielle, Emily, Caleb, Mackenzie, Heidi, Natasha, Julie, Anna, Joei 

I know I speak for all of us in saying that we’ve enjoyed your children so much this year. It was a joy to come to the forest and facilitate play-based learning. The healing balm of nature is always available to us, and no matter where you roam, you will always return to find a home here at Lime Hollow.

It’s also important that you know that while your children were exploring and playing this year, they also hit the same New York State Early Learning Standards that children in indoor learning settings did. This was our third full year using the Storypark app, which has data analytics embedded in it that helped us see exactly which learning standards we covered. You might have noticed that every story we sent home on the app also had ‘learning tags’ attached. When I read the data, I see the following:

The learning standard we covered most this year was “CURIOSITY AND INITIATIVE: Exhibits curiosity, interest, and willingness to learn new things and have new experiences.” I can’t think of a better educational goal for a child beginning their academic career. This is followed closely by “CREATIVITY AND IMAGINATION: Approaches tasks and problems with creativity, imagination and/or willingness to try new experiences.” Third was “PLAY AND ENGAGEMENT IN LEARNING: Actively engages in play as a means of exploration and learning.” We believe that play is the most valuable learning activity that children can engage in. Next on the list, and extremely important, for these developmental years is Social and Emotional Awareness, a critical skill and one commonly centered by kindergarten teachers as important for academic readiness.  

But what about those academics? They show up next: mathematical thinking, engineering, pre-literacy skills, life sciences, art making, music and drama. 

What I see in the data is that when children are well supported with social and emotional scaffolding in play-based education, their learning supports curiosity and initiative and academics naturally follow next. 

Over the course of the year- through sunshine, rain, and snowstorms - what we experienced with the children is that the learning is rich, experiential, and empowering to the learner.

Thank you for an incredible year.