Farmer's Helpers at Chip-in Farm
  • Home
    • About Us
    • Contact
    • Calendar
  • Kid's Classes
    • Toddlers
    • Preschoolers
    • Grades K-5
    • Parents' Night Off
    • Summer Programs
  • Birthday Parties
  • Goat Yoga
    • Goat Yoga for Adults
    • Goat Yoga for Kids
    • Traveling Goat Yoga
    • Goat Yoga FAQ's
  • Traveling Farmyard
  • Farm Visits
  • Little Farmers Program for Preschoolers

Little Farmers Program

Ages 2.5-5
Mondays and/or Wednesdays 9-12 in the Fall, Winter, & Spring. Registration is through the Bedford Recreation Department
email chipinfarmclasses@gmail.com with questions
Register Online
Now enrolling for the Little Farmers Summer Program! Options to sign up day-by-day or for an entire session!
​Click here for additional information and to register
Mondays

Fall Session 1: Sept 10 - Oct 1
Fall Session 2: Oct 15 - Nov 5
Fall Session 3: Nov 19 - Dec 10

Winter Session 1: March 4 - March 25

Spring Session 1: April 1 - April 22
Spring Session 2: April 29 - May 20

Wednesdays

Fall Session 1: Sept 5 - Sept 26
Fall Session 2: Oct 3 - Oct 24
Fall Session 3: Oct 31 - Nov 28

Winter Session 1: March 6 - March 27

Spring Session 1: April 3 - April 24
Spring Session 2: May 1 - May 22

Little Farmers is a full-sensory farm and nature program for your child! At Chip-in Farm, we aim to connect children to the outdoors and their community through outdoor play and meaningful farm work. Children will help us care for the animals each day before we explore the surrounding fields and forest. We will spend the majority of each day outside and in the barn no matter the weather for a first-hand experience of the shifting seasons and natural changes throughout the year. This means that we will be outside in the sun, the rain, and maybe even the snow! This hands-on farm and nature experience will gift your child a deeper connection to the natural world while developing resilience, self confidence, and independence. This drop-off program is for children ages 2.5-5
Spring registration begins in March.

Each Session (4 weeks)
​$192

Options to sign up Mondays and/or Wednesdays
Register Online
Or call the Bedford Recreation Department at (781) 275 1392

Why Farm & Nature-based Learning?


“I sincerely believe that for the child, and for the parent seeking to guide him, it is not half so important to know as to feel. If facts are the seeds that later produce knowledge and wisdom, then the emotions and the impressions of the senses are the fertile soil in which the seeds must grow. The years of early childhood are the time to prepare the soil. 
    -Rachel Carson (1965)
Benefit for children
Connecting to ourselves, each other, and the outdoors

The farm and surrounding nature are a complete sensory experience for children. We often spend time trying to manipulate and build the ideal environment for a child’s early learning, yet that learning environment is already readily available in the outdoors. Outdoor play develops creativity, confidence, and realistic risk evaluation while allowing for complete sensory immersion and physical movement. While outdoors we also are able to experience changing seasons and natural rhythms first-hand which helps to build a child’s sense of place in their environment and builds their ability to understand larger scale systems thinking. 

  • Connection - Children connect to the outdoors, each other, and themselves, building a more connected community.
  • Creativity - Children play more creatively in the outdoors, where objects and materials don’t yet have prescribed uses and meanings. A stick is not just a stick!
  • Confidence - Provides the space and challenges for children to build confidence in their abilities.
  • Cognition - Being outside in nature helps build focus, problem solving and planning skills, and begins to establish a sense of cause and effect. Farm work helps teach the benefit of working for an end goal and planning for a desired outcome. 
  • Integrated sensory experience - Learning while moving, learning while doing! Children need a chance to move, to feel, to smell, to taste, to see, and to hear (all at once!) as they learn. 
  • Teaches Systems and Cycles - Experience first hand how the world is interconnected, and the changes that take place throughout the day, the season, and each year.

Read more about the benefits of nature-based education for children:
http://naturalstart.org/resources/benefits-connecting-children-nature​


Benefit for nature
Connecting to our environment

In building a connection to our natural world at a young age and developing a sense of place within the child, we ensure a lifelong relationship with nature. In an ever changing world where we often view nature as “other” or separate from us, nature-based early childhood education helps us to rewild and reconnect. Children who have felt the connection to nature from an early age are more likely to make decisions later in life that lead to a healthier planet

Read more about the benefits of nature-based education for nature and our environment:
A Literature Review of Connectedness to Nature and its Potential for Environmental Management



Benefit of a farm learning site
Connecting to our food

As adults, we often have a disconnect from our food and where it comes from. Oftentimes it comes from far away with the nutritious value compromised in order to get to us. Sometimes we don’t understand where it comes from at all, or what it took to get it to us. Allowing our kids to experience a farm and learn through real, hands-on farm work helps to better connect them to their food and understand the importance of healthy farm systems at an early age. An early farm and food connection can set the stage for healthier food choices, leading to better health and learning. 

The CDC states that healthy eating and exercise can lead to better learning, focus, and memory. On the farm, we work hard to grow good food!

Read more about the benefits of farm-based education for health: http://www.farmtoschool.org/Resources/BenefitsFactSheet.pdf

Read more about the effect of healthy eating and movement on academic achievement:
https://www.cdc.gov/healthyyouth/health_and_academics/pdf/health-academic-achievement.pdf

Little Farmers Staff


Sandra Couvee
​"Farmer Sandy"

Picture
Sandy has been connecting kids to Chip-in Farm for over 15 years. She knows that the farm offers a unique full-sensory experience, which makes it the perfect classroom for kids! Sandy has a Massachusetts EEC infant/toddler and preschool certification and has worked as a preschool teacher. Her favorite farm animals are the cows!

Julia Latady
​"Farmer Julia"

Picture
Julia is excited to be back at Chip-in Farm, a place she absolutely loved visiting as a kid! She is passionate about getting kids outside and connected to the farm, nature, and their community. Julia is completing a certificate in Nature-based Early Childhood Education at Antioch New England. Her favorite farm animals are the goats!

Teaching Style


Our primary focus is on laying the foundation of connectedness to ourselves, each other, and the outdoors through full-sensory experiences to prepare for later academic learning. ​The farm and nature are our classroom and often act as an additional teacher. The farm and environment have quite a bit to teach us about beneficial risk taking, self-confidence, and cooperation!

Child Led

Picture
We observe each child’s interests and shape our learning to the interests of individuals and the group. Children are given time and space for free play each day.

Seasonally Inspired

Picture
Teacher-directed activities are seasonally inspired. We often find that the children's interests and seasonal changes create unexpected and delightful detours along the way! 

Role of the Teacher

Picture
Our most important job is to make space for each child to build a connection to themselves, each other, and the outdoors. And of course to join in on the fun!
Documentation of Learning
We will be exploring different methods of documenting your child’s learning throughout each session. We take photographs to share with parents, but we will also be encouraging the children to produce their own documentation through drawings, group artwork, lasting farm projects, and collected quotes.
Picture

We are looking forward to making mud pies, creating mouse houses, caring for the animals, and building our farm community - we can’t wait to explore the farm and surrounding environment with your child!

~ Farmer Julia & Farmer Sandy


​

Farmer's Helpers, LLC
​Bedford MA
Copyright © 2018
Proudly powered by Weebly
  • Home
    • About Us
    • Contact
    • Calendar
  • Kid's Classes
    • Toddlers
    • Preschoolers
    • Grades K-5
    • Parents' Night Off
    • Summer Programs
  • Birthday Parties
  • Goat Yoga
    • Goat Yoga for Adults
    • Goat Yoga for Kids
    • Traveling Goat Yoga
    • Goat Yoga FAQ's
  • Traveling Farmyard
  • Farm Visits
  • Little Farmers Program for Preschoolers