Walking in Wellness

Our mission for Walking in Wellness is to provide a peaceful, nature-based, and interactive learning environment that empowers youth to walk in wellness as they become critical thinkers, mindful of themselves and the world around them, and responsible citizens. Both personal and environmental wellness are taught through a carefully crafted curriculum while we take on reviving old-fashioned skills.

Our curriculum is focused on developing skills for personal and environmental wellness through mindfulness activities, outdoor immersion, and reviving old-fashioned skills. The daily rhythm will consist of a morning circle (songs, stretches/exercise, weather observation), snack, mindfulness lesson, farm chores, hiking, play, lunch, read-aloud, skill development, hike back, and afternoon reflection. Victoria is certified to teach Mindfulness through Mindful Schools and pulls some lessons from their curriculum but curates many lessons to relate the farm learning objective of the day.

The 2024-2025 school year offers classes on Tuesday and Friday! Learners can attend either day or sign up for both days! We operate 9-2:30 with an optional 1pm pick-up for our youngest learners.

School runs August-May with a long winter break & a spring break the week before Easter. 

Each semester is broken up into two 8-week long unit studies that revive a different old-fashioned skill. You can sign up for a semester program (2 studies) or participate throughout the school year!

The 2024-2025 school year is open to 3-11 year olds (based on age September 1, 2024). There will be a 1:6 teacher to child ratio with the younger group and 1:8 teacher to child ratio with the older group. We will be expanding the age range as the program grows!

Seedlings - $835/semester (16 sessions 9-2:30). Discount code available to young learners being picked up at 1pm.

Sapplings - $795/semester (16 sessions 9-2:30)

No additional fees!

While personal & environmental wellness will always be at the heart of Walking in Wellness, each set of sessions will also focus on reviving an old-fashioned skill!

Medicine Making: August-September 2024

Wellness toolbox…first aid kit…call it what you will! This set of sessions is focused on creating healing remedies with wild-grown and harvested herbs. We will make plantain salve, mullein*/garlic oil, and pain potion (tincture with dandelion root*, mullein leaf*, peppermint leaf, turmeric root). Each student will also learn the benefits of activated charcoal and add that to their toolbox.

*ingredients that grow wild on the property, all other ingredients will be grown in our garden

Come back August 2025 to add calednula salve, mullein* tincture, elderberry syrup, and digestive bitters to your toolbox!

Harvest & Sharing the Bounty: October-November 2024

Fall is harvest time! We will harvest and learn how to cure sweet potatoes, harvest and ferment carrots, harvest ginger and prepare it for winter, plant garlic for spring, and more. Throughout the weeks, we will prepare to make a big vat of butternut squash sweet potato soup with all ingredients down to each spice (other than salt, pepper, and coconut oil) from the garden. This entails curing, washing, peeling, chopping, and freezing everything to be ready for coming together feast day! We will also be learning the process of making sourdough bread to pair with the soup. In our final week (the Friday before Thanksgiving), we hope to either share this meal with a senior living center in Anderson or a group of families with foster children.

Zero Waste Living: February-March 2025

In our winter months, we slow down to make and mend. We will take on a special sewing project and teach them the skills to go home and mend items in need of love. Younger students will use cotton binca fabric and blunt needles to get accustomed to sewing. We will make toothpaste and each child will go home with a Brush With Bamboo toothbrush. Our hope is the visual reminder of a new toothbrush will help them integrate their mindfulness skills into the everyday activity of brushing their teeth. Each child will make a collection of Waldorf-inspired block crayons by sorting broken crayons by color and melting them down in a mold over the fire (parents- we would love it if you started collecting any broken crayons!). We will talk about food waste, the importance of composting, the enormous amount of landfill waste created in modern society, and everyday ways to reduce our waste.

Raising Chickens! April-May 2025

Let’s raise chickens! Throughout the weeks, the children will participate in raising the chicks, from observing incubation and hatching to being coop-ready! We will learn the anatomy of the egg and chicken, different breeds of chickens and categorizing them by their purpose, the chicken life cycle, the reciprocal nature of chickens and the garden, learn about growing and fermenting feed, regenerative agriculture, nose to tail approach, chicken behavior (pecking order, communication, dirt baths), testing eggs for freshness, assessing health, and more!