Farm Hands Childcare
Morning care for children ages 1 to 3 years old
at Town Farm
1 Ventures Field Road
Northampton
Monday through Friday, 8:00 am - 12:30 pm
6 children + 1 Lead Teacher + 1 Part-Time Assistant Teacher
At Farm Hands Morning Care for Children, we offer the time, space, and gentle guidance young ones need to do meaningful work and play in a caring, small farm community. Participants are invited to join a cooperative of children, grown-ups, and animals who are looking for ways to explain who we are and celebrating our findings together.
Our work on the farm - to care for the plants and animals that sustain us and to make good use of the harvest - lends itself naturally to the most pressing work of the 1 to 3-year-old set. As young ones begin to broaden their social awareness, a morning visit with the hens will inform a later conversation in the sand box about gentle touches for our human friends. At a time when fine motor skills are longing to catch up with innovative ideas, Farm Hands offers the inherent pleasure and personal agency that comes with making things by hand. We make cheese after we watch the farmers milk the goats. We collect eggs and grind wheat berries before baking a quiche. We harvest dill that some of us press carefully into our goat cheese rounds. Others, of course, prefer jumping, dancing, and pounding atop pillow cases to thresh the wheat before grinding!
Our mornings at Town Farm are play based with daily opportunities for work on the farm and in the kitchen as well. We follow a gentle routine and seasonal curriculum which is loosely focused on meeting human and animal needs on the farm. How do we take care of ourselves? How do we take care of our friends? How do we take care of the chickens, pigs, and goats? Food, shelter, and clothing and where it all comes from is the overarching theme, however the true curriculum will come from the children, as they grow, discover, and explore where curiosity takes them.
Farm Hands children will:
* make things from scratch
* share the task of meeting the needs of the group and of individuals
* celebrate our similarities and differences through story, song, and other artistic forms
* use safe, open-ended and raw materials that allow plenty of space for creative discovery
* find real work that meets real needs using real tools
* find comfort, connection, and grounding through an early understanding of farm life
Daily rhythms:
Arrival
Children arrive between 8 and 9:00 am.
Work and Play
Open-ended materials such as blocks, textiles, paints, and water are available alongside more directed activities like snack preparation, table setting, and room care.
Snack
A homemade, farm fresh snack is provided each morning.
Outside
We play and explore outside for at least an hour and usually more each day, year round.
Lunch
Children bring a healthy lunch from home.
Story and Song
We gather to celebrate and reflect upon our time together with stories and songs both published and original.
Goodbye
Lead Teacher:
Alya Stoffer Koloszyc M.S.
Alya has been working with farm hands of all sizes in classrooms, at camps, in city gardens, at farmers’ markets, and on farms since 1996. She has a Master’s Degree in Early Childhood Education from Bank Street College of Education and has taught and learned locally at Sunnyside and Gan Keshet Preschools as well as several kindergartens in New York City and Vermont. Presently, she co-directs The Farm Education Collaborative and makes her home and garden in Easthampton with her husband and two young sons.
Schedules/Rates: Families may choose a 3,4, or 5 day per week schedule. Tuition is $35/day for all 52 weeks of the year and may be paid in monthly installments which will be due on the 15th of each month. Farm Hands will close for major holidays, professional development days, and 4 weeks during the year.
Farm Hands is a program of The Farm Education Collaborative. The Farm Education Collaborative designs and delivers authentic agricultural experiences that nurture connections between families, farmers, and food in the Pioneer Valley.
For more information or an application, please contact Alya:
413.695.4645
alya@thefarmeducationcollaborative.org
