This past week at Silvermist has been filled with meaningful experiences, teamwork, creativity, and hands-on learning.
One of the most profound moments came when our children went to help a community member who had lost their horse. Together, we dug the grave, taking turns to loosen the soil and scoop it out.
More than just a practical task, this became a deep lesson in compassion—learning what it means to support a grieving friend—and in teamwork, as everyone contributed to the effort.
Back at school, our garden projects continued to bloom with discovery:
We built a worm farm, discussed what should go inside, and went hunting for worms.
We explored seeds by setting criteria, sorting them, and talking about how they spread. When we found a dried-out artichoke, we played with its seeds, noticing their potential to spread by wind, and then harvested some to germinate in a glass pot.
Other seeds are sprouting in egg cartons, so now we are experimenting with both methods.
Each day we check on our purple cauliflower, carefully picking off worms, and we’ve started learning to identify different weeds.
Our older students also took on the role of mentors for the Littlelies at the Little Farm School.
Together, they built small dams, problem-solved when the water leaked, and improved their designs. It was a wonderful example of learning through collaboration across ages.
Creativity and enterprise also featured strongly: A friend designed a beautiful label for jars of honey we were gifted. The honey will be sold to raise funds for more activities.
In literacy, we studied the features of nonfiction texts using our composting and worm farm library books. We practiced description writing by describing the bug hotels we built last week.
In workshop time, some students built sides for our compost bin, while others crafted bows and arrows or finished their bug hotels.
And of course, our arts and music brought joy and rhythm into the week: We had a wonderful drumming and marimba session with Zama from Drumstruck.
With Anita, we created art using beautiful African Shwe-Shwe fabric to stick as vases, then painted flowers to fill them.
Finally, we welcomed some new friends who joined us on trial days, and we look forward to more students visiting next week to see if Silvermist feels like their learning home.
It has been a week of compassion, teamwork, discovery, creativity, and rhythm. A week that showed us learning is not just something we do—it’s something we live.
At Silvermist, these experiences remind us that meaningful learning happens when hands, hearts, and minds are all engaged. Because when children connect deeply with what they are doing, they are not just learning facts—they are growing into thoughtful, capable, compassionate people.
