How to Plan an Earthschooling Educational Excursion: Part Two All photos copyright Kristie Burns On our recent educational excursion (see part one here) we visited many wildlife preserves. One of the preserves, the Lee County Manatee Park, had a great website with a lot of “downloadable” educational documents. These documents were your typical “coloring sheet”, […]
Wildlife Education
How to Plan an Earthschooling Educational Excursion
Part One: Choosing a Location All Photos Copyright Kristie Burns When we first started Earthschooling we chose the name “Earthschooling” because we wanted to emphasize that education does not just happen at home. In fact, one of our favorite ways to learn has always been to be outdoors or to take what I call “Earthschooling […]
Nature Walks in The Upper Grades
Nature walks are a much talked about feature of early childhood programs in Waldorf inspired schools. They are also an important part of the educational day for children. However, nature walks can and should continue into the upper grades and even high school. This essay by my student Sunii, illustrates one way in which nature […]
Winter Snack for Wildlife Guests
While the kids were out sledding yesterday I thought I would prepare them a surprise. I popped popcorn, sliced up some oranges and some apples, put some dried cranberries in a bowl and cut up bread into squares and put out a knife with a big jar of peanut butter. Then I started to string […]
How Do You Know if You Are Qualified to Homeschool?
Monday Meditation After 19 years of taking nature walks with my children, self and friends I felt like I was a bit of an expert. I had learned how to forage and find herbs and had even taken two years of tracking classes so I could see animal signs. We experienced nature walks amazing ways! […]
Wildlife Rescue and Education
Springtime is here and at the wildlife center we have baby opossums! They are so adorable! The even better news is that all of our baby animals come from captive breeding facilities (these facilities are set up around the country to support a diverse population of wild animals in captivity and prevent extinction of a […]
Kristie Burns Teaches Wildlife Education
A class I taught about skunks at a local library was featured in the Des Moines Register. You can see some photos HERE. The caption reads: Lisa Fernandez/The Register Kristie Burns, of Red Rock Wildlife Education Center, talks about Flower the skunk during a furry friends program at the Franklin Library inside the Merle Hay […]
Taking Care of Baby Bear
If you are a parent or have been a parent or caregiver I am sure you can understand my excitement when I find that I can do something enriching for myself that I love that ALSO enriches my children! My ongoing work at The Red Rock Wildlife Education Center has been such a wonderful experience […]
Sweet Sue and Snuggly Thumper
A new arrival at the wildlife center left Sofi and I wondering what to do. We didn’t have any information about skunks in our Earthschooling curriculum! We had studied mammals and animals in general and we had touched on information about skunks. We had also read a number of fables and fairytales that had a […]
Integrating Volunteering with Homeschooling
There are so many organizations and people needing your help. How can you possibly fit volunteering into an already full schedule of homeschooling, running a house and perhaps even work or running a business? One effective way is to integrate it instead of “fitting” it. Volunteering can provide many educational opportunities beyond the cultural and […]
A Jellyfish Story & Lesson
In the true spirit of Earthschooling Sofi and I spontaneously decided to “hit the road” on Sunday and go to Minneapolis to visit the aquarium. We had the most amazing time! We happened to end up there at a very odd time so when they gave the “behind the scenes” tour Sofi and I were […]