Growing

Ranks, and the long game

A model, not a promiseRanks are earned, never given, and no child is expected to chase them. Plenty of children never think about them at all.
1🐌Banana SlugThe Noticerfirst sit spot · journal entry
2🐦Stellar's JayThe CallerID a bird call · find animal sign
3🐿️Douglas SquirrelThe Chattererhear an alarm call and say who made it · cross the meadow without setting one off
4🦊Red FoxThe Stalkersilent stalk · 3 tracks identified
5🦅OspreyThe Diverdebris shelter · fire coal achieved
6🐻Black BearThe ProviderID 5 plants · lead a plant walk for Seeds
7🦉Great Horned OwlThe Watcher5 sit spots · 5 plants by sight
8🐋OrcaThe Elderfull season · mentoring
🌱Seedages 4 to 7sensory-first, wonder, close supervision
🌿Sproutages 8 to 9naming things, small responsibilities, nature journal
🌾Saplingages 10 to 12skill-building, mentoring, works toward named skills
🌲Treeages 13 to 14near-peer leadership, runs activity segments

For the older ones

Houses

Every child here does all of it. Everyone builds, everyone tracks, everyone works the garden. A house is not a track and it takes nothing away: it is the part an older student has been drawn to, and where we encourage them to go further than the rest of us bother to.

🌳

Cedar

Building and making

Shelter, wood, cordage, tools and repair. The house for a child who wants to leave something behind that holds together.

  • shelter that stays dry
  • working wood by hand
  • cordage and lashing
  • fire as a working tool
  • repair, and making do
🌲

Fir

Awareness and tracking

Reading sign, moving quietly, and knowing what is around you before you see it. The house for a child who notices.

  • bird language
  • tracks and sign
  • moving unseen
  • navigation without a phone
  • the sit spot, kept over a season
🍁

Maple

Plants, garden and the seasons

What grows here, when it grows, and what a year on this land actually does. The house for a child who wants to know the names of things.

  • plant identification
  • the garden through a year
  • seasonal change and phenology
  • natural dye when the season allows
  • drawing what you see
🍄

Alder

Fungi, decay and the wet corners

Mushrooms, rot, the creek edge and the things most people walk straight past. Alder is the tree that grows where the ground is broken and feeds what comes after it. The house for a child whose interests do not sit neatly in the others.

  • fungi by sight and habit
  • decay and what lives in it
  • the water's edge
  • soil, and what makes it
  • following one odd question a long way