Organic farms are ideal for farm kindergartens, and the Montessori School Nature Kindergarten in Germany is a kindergarten based on organic farms.
Here, 25 children between the ages of 2 and 6 can breathe the mountain nature every day.
The daily teaching at this kindergarten starts every morning with a completely outdoor location. Sometimes on the farm, sometimes in the meadows and fields of the farm, and sometimes in the forest on the edge of the farm. At the same time, the kindergarten will come to the farm's organic restaurant for lunch, and they will stay at the farm for a relaxing break during the lunch break.
In fact, the farm kindergarten was developed from the forest kindergarten in Germany. For the first 15 years, Forest Kindergarten was initiated by parents. As one pondered its future, nearby farms stepped in. As the community needed more daycare places, the farm manager proposed to develop suitable areas within the farm as daycare places. This also enables the kindergarten to offer organic lunches, as well as lunch break rooms and facilities.
Many pregnant parents also come to the farm and want to continue spending time in the forest and outdoors.
The Organic Farm Kindergarten is a perfect fit for these needs.
At the Organic Farm Kindergarten, the seasons determine the daily curriculum of the kindergarten.
They will be involved in the day-to-day running of the farm with the farm farmers, and then they can directly discuss the topic of organic farming and prepare the children for education.
Since what children start out with is the day-to-day operations of the farms, such as harvesting grain or raising livestock, many of the topics come directly from the day-to-day planting work on these farms. By seeing and experiencing it all firsthand, children can learn more directly.
The advantage of this is that there is no artificial creation of learning situations in this organic farm kindergarten, and all learning areas are real.
Children in kindergarten can really get in touch with animals and learn about where our food comes from.
Their daily sessions consisted of visiting the chickens, watching the chickens go about their lives, and then the children were given the eggs.
In the summer, children can pick their own grapes on the farm and make dry-baked cakes from the grapes they have picked themselves. Even the children are involved in harvesting the grains and then grinding them into flour from their own grains.
And these are the experiences that other kindergartens and even today's children rarely have such experiences.
Traditional organic farms are often very specialized in agriculture or animal husbandry. And this machine farm kindergarten, the focus is on a school farm, so it pays more attention to education, and is extremely versatile, providing a place for children to learn.
Organic farming is in line with the idea of sustainable food production that education wants to convey to children. And among them, one of the most important educational principles is to value nature.
Whether in the forest or in the meadow, we are just passers-by. We don't leave any garbage there and we don't destroy the habitat of the animals.
In organic farming, humans work in a constant cycle with nature and the earth.
Children experience organic farming and animal husbandry that is suitable for this, and they internalize and pass on these experiences. That's the reason for the existence of this machine farm kindergarten.
In this kindergarten, their daily schedule for the day goes like this:
In the morning, gather at the bottom of the farm, and then the teacher and children walk together to the destination of the day. This can be one of the farms or surrounding forests and meadows. On the way, the teacher will give the children space to explore their surroundings. When they arrive at their destination, they hold morning groups to discuss daily life with the children and eat breakfast. For the little ones, the morning activities end at 11:30 a.m. and for the older kids, the morning ends at 12:30 p.m.
All the children who stayed until the afternoon went to the farm together. Their lunch comes from the farm. They would stay on the farm all afternoon until 4 p.m. Most of the time, children are in the yard exploring, reading books, or doing crafts. There is always some special work to be done on the farm, such as sheep shearing or hay cutting, and this is when the teacher is involved with the children.
Starting an organic farm kindergarten like this is tough, first you have to find an organic farm that you want to participate in, and then you have to work with educators or schools, and then the community has to be involved and the space that needs it is there. Many authorities are not aware of the concept of farm kindergartens; They see farms as a danger to children**. This can take up to two years if a lot of persuasion is required.
Of course, it may be difficult to implement the organic farm kindergarten for the time being, but now Pinsenhuo focuses on the field of organic agriculture, and has reached in-depth planting and breeding cooperation with a number of organic farms, and organizes and plans organic study tours and other activities all year round, with rice planting festivals in spring, camping seasons in summer, harvest festivals in autumn, and strawberry festivals in winter. There are also various organic experience tours such as "Agronomy Experience", "Colorful Safari", and "Relaxing Healing".
Nature, there are surprises happening all year round. Children can get close to the land here, harvest natural wilderness, and feel the power of nature.
This is the seasonal version of the organic farm kindergarten created by the company, and perhaps one day, the normalized organic farm kindergarten can also be realized!