How We Started a Nature School

I’m starting to think that I’ll be opening several of my posts here with “I could never explain this in DMs, but now I can!”

Because when we first started our nature school & shared about it, I had a huge influx of messages asking me to explain how we started it — and many asked me to help them start one, too.

I found this kind of funny (but if I’m honest, super overwhelming) because we were literally a week into it when I got most of these messages! Like, hold on, let us DO this for awhile before you look to us as experts! So that was my reply to most: just that, we are still learning & don’t feel comfortable teaching this just yet.

Starting the school was actually one of the scariest things I’ve ever done. It was a lot of pressure, moving from having a completely online business to having something IN REAL LIFE. Where people actually show up to your house. I had to put on actual clothes, makeup, and then go outside and smile and talk to people before 10am, which is not something I had been used to at all.

This may sound super silly to those who don’t get it, but I mean we are homebodies. We live out in the woods, we homeschool, work from home, and it’s just us in our own little world. I’m not saying that’s the best thing, but it’s how it has been, so it was definitely an adjustment. That isolation, though, is pretty much the main reason we started the nature school. We wanted more community, even though it’s hard to adjust to. We felt that creating something that would attract likeminded families would be the best way to bring that community to us - to help find it or curate it here locally. And it really was!

After a successful first year of the nature school (we break for winter) I can say that we have a handful of new friends that we didn’t have before, and our boys made friends that I’m confident they’re going to grow up with. Seeing that blossom over the past year, from us being totally isolated, has been an incredible blessing. And I think that’s the exact life transformation that a lot people wanting to start a nature school are after (because it sure isn’t about the money, lol).

This is the basic sentiment I hope families take away from this. Because a message or comment I’ve gotten from moms for years, even before the nature school was: “how do I find mom friends who think like me?” or “where do you find a homeschool group or like-minded friends near you?”

It’s kind of commonly understood that motherhood can be lonely. But add homeschooling on top of that and it can feel very lonely. But just like the saying goes: “to have a village, you have to first be the village.” Well to throw out another variation of that: “if you don’t have a community, maybe you’re supposed to START the community!”

Seriously. We lived here for 3+ years as homeschool co-ops popped up and then fizzled out around us. Either no one kept up with them or they were 100% indoors, basically re-creating school (and not our style). I can’t even count how many times I said something like “I wish there was a nature school near here!” before it hit me that God was calling us to just MAKE IT.

It hit Nick and I at the exact same time, actually. I don’t remember the conversation or the day specifically, but we were looking at the chapel (that we had long since planned to convert into a nice home for ourselves) and we just looked at each other and were like: “let’s just turn this into a school.”

It felt right, immediately.

Which was so strange because even now I sit in our too-small-for-my-liking home, with no immediate plans to build something else, and I feel at peace. Like God had different plans for that building, and he’s taken away my anxiety about moving to a new space. I don’t feel like we are in our permanent home right now, by any means, but I don’t feel the rush to move out of it, as much as I once did.

The school, creating something for our community, was more important than having a bigger home.

It’s so funny how God rewards us for listening to his ideas and tabling our own. Maybe funny isn’t the right word, but beautiful.

So maybe your’re reading this and you feel this pull to start a nature school or a co-op in your area, but you’re afraid to. Maybe you’re in your own little pattern of holding onto YOUR plans instead of taking the leap to listen to the Bigger Plan. Because gosh, do we all have plans. Even comfort itself can be a “plan.”

We plan to have a clear schedule.

We plan to stay comfortable.

We plan to stay out of the spotlight.

We plan to not start a new business and have to research and put ourselves out there and be seen and recognized and possibly judged and possibly fail.

These are all pretty good-sounding plans if you ask me! I had the same ones. None of the process of starting this nature school was comfortable.

It was just. . . right, and that reward was worth it.

Not even so much for me, but for my kids––OH MY GOSH the boys! Hudson, our oldest, has transformed into the most social, outgoing, kind, funny, friendly little butterfly. And I didn’t know any of those things about him until he was in this position: being a leader and a host at the nature school. It’s given him a purpose, something to look forward to, and in many ways, a larger reality to anchor himself to. It’s just been incredible.

We’ve had SO much positive feedback about how much it has become a part of these family’s routines, and how they miss it on days we don’t have it. The kids have gotten super close, and I know they’re able to do activities, use tools, and have adventures that they may not otherwise get to at home.

There’s something about seeing that impact on your children, seeing them develop these friendships, that makes the discomfort not so bad. And it’s honestly the worst at the very beginning, but it DOES get better, once you’re in a rhythm.

Can’t find a community near you? Start one. I’ll tell you everything I know, and hopefully it will help you feel a little more confident in taking the leap. I’ll mention this again later, but if you’re a paid subscriber and want to have a Zoom meeting on this topic specifically, let me know in the Chat section!