Colibri Gardens
Organic Farm
Homeschool
on the farm!
Education rooted in connection, community, and place.
What makes our program unique?
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We are a real, working farm! That means our days are always filled with excitement, and what we do each day is dictated by the season, and what particular magic is happening on the farm today.
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Our programs are nurturing, hands-on, and skills based with the foundational principles of deep connection to place and the belief that all children desire to learn and do best in a positive environment surrounded by real world experiences.
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Our programs are based on the philosophy that all people young and old thrive on connection to place, relationships with animals, and days filled with excitement.
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Our programs all happen on our family homestead and farm, where we raise goats and cows for milk, sheep, cattle, pigs and chickens for meat, our gorgeous flock of laying hens for eggs, and have a large garden and orchard.
Each day of programming is unique as the seasons change and the needs of the animals, orchard, and gardens change, so our programs are by nature intensely place-based, educational, and always filled with excitement, joy, and fun!
Our days are built around time spent with the animals, exploration in the woods, planting and harvesting in the garden, and of course, food! Kids in our programs develop a keen sense of how food is grown and raised and how animals and humans are connected to the land. With hands-on care of the animals your children will develop deep relationships with our livestock which will foster the love and responsibility our ancestors felt with the animal world.
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Our gardens and orchards provide us with both wonderful food and with a unique educational experience. We will harvest corn and learn how to make masa and cornmeal, shell sunflowers and roast the seeds, and learn about the importance of healthy soil for our planet and our food!
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We are so lucky to have a farm in the Columbia River Scenic Gorge where we are surrounded by forests. The forest is our teacher too, and we will spend lots of time hiking the woods, harvesting plants, and becoming familiar with the birds, plants, and animals of the forest. We will also learn valuable skills including mapping, wilcrafting, and shelter building.
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Endless joy, connection, and excitement awaits! We look forward to you becoming part of our farm family and experiencing the wonders of farming and homesteading with us.
What happens on the farm?
Did you ever wonder what it was really like to be Laura Ingalls and Almanzo Wilder from Little House on the Prairie? On our working 40 acre farm we can wander back in time and learn many of the skills that were commonplace years ago while having the adventures that were the daily activities of farm kids of the past and present! The more time your kids spend on the farm, the more adventures they will have, skills they will learn, and connections they will make.
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Here is a list of activities you can expect in our programs.
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-Farm Animals! We will spend a lot of time with goats, sheep, cattle, pigs, and chickens! Our time with the animals will not only delight, but will foster confidence, self-reliance and problem solving in a supportive environment.
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-Milking! Learning how to milk goats and cattle was an important skill in the early homesteading days. Today, this skill is still valuable and teaches kids how to safely and properly handle milk as well as a deep value and respect for our food and the work involved in creating it!
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-Homesteading kitchen skills! It's all about food here on the farm! Making cheese, butter, ice cream and more with our delicious milk; making jams, compotes, cakes and more from our wild berries and orchard fruits; growing all sorts of food in the garden and learning how to properly grow, harvest, and store food; making cornmeal and masa from our field corn, shelling beans. In short, the farm is all about building a set of skills to create your own organic meals and ingredients from food harvested on our farm.
-Woods play. We lover spending time in the woods on our farm-building forts, playing in the creek, and having good old-fashioned adventures, all the while building a connection to this wonderful place we call home.
-Learning about native plants. We will learn about the edible and not so edible plants in the Northwest Coast forests. Seasonal gathering of berries and edible plants will allow us to make tea, berry concoctions and art.
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-Learning about the birds and animals in the forests, fields, and streams. Our 40 acres has it all, and provides the perfect place to learn about the creatures that live in the ponds and streams, fly over the fields, and wander through the forest. We will focus on bird identification, animal tracks, and the wonderous community that makes up the wild forest.
-Farm art and crafts! People traditionally used the bounty of the farm and forest to make all sorts of arts and crafts, both useful and nourishing to the mind and soul. Wool from our sheep, llamas and alpacas can be felted and spun; wood from the forest can be crafted into bows and arrows; berries and roots can be used as paint and dye; flowers can be turned into wreaths.
-Archery! Learning how to safely and properly use a bow, and gaining skills on our archery range.
-Hide tanning, soap making, construction and more! Our older students in our year long "Farmer's Apprentice Program will dive deeper into learning skills and crafts that require a deeper commitment to skill building on the farm. And once the hide is tanned?….the sky is the limit….making shoes, bags, clothes???!!!
-Map making. Back in the good old days people knew how to read maps!!!! We will undertake a mapping of the farm, learn how to use a compass, and explore the topography of our little wonderland through mapmaking.
