Source: Warren County Sentinel
Thursday, July 30, 2009
Allie Mingo, 14 year old and rising 9th grade student at Mountain Laurel Montessori Farm School, smiles as she sells her hand made photo cards at the Front Royal Farmer’s Market on Thursday, July 23rd. Sales from the card and from the meat and vegetables, go back into the Farm School’s microeconomy to pay for plants for the garden and food for the animals.
At the Farm School, students run both the farm and school alongside their teachers.
The Farm School is one of the vendors at the new Farmer’s Market, held each Thursday 4 to 8 and Saturday 9 to 1 behind the gazebo in downtown Front Royal. At Mountain Laurel Montessori Farm School, students in grades 7-9 run the farm alongside their teachers.
The curriculum is project-based and hands-on, based on the needs of the farm. The students study biology, for example, by learning about the sheep as they also learn about how to care for them. Studying topics such as cell structure and the nitrogen cycle take on new excitement when they are applied to a real life situation.
The students at the Montessori Farm School raise pigs, sheep, chickens, and bees and have a large market garden. They sell their pork, eggs, and produce at the market, and put the proceeds back into the Farm School’s microeconomy to pay for feed, hay, and tools. The students manage the microeconomy and cooperatively make decisions about how to spend the money. And, there is room for invention.
Allie has an interest in photography. She decided this year to make her photos of the farm: pigs, chickens, landscapes, into photo cards to be sold as part of the microeconomy. First she sold them at school functions. Then, Herb Melrath, owner of Front Royal’s Daily Grind, offered to sell them at his store. The cards have been so popular that Allie now sells the cards at 3 local businesses: The Daily Grind, Hands to Create, and Delilah’s. All of the proceeds from the cards still go back into the Farm School’s microconomy.
By acting on her idea, this local youth is gaining experience in running a small business: from inspiration and design, to production, marketing, and accounting. You can also see Allie’s cards, along with the produce from the Farm School garden, pork sausage from their pigs, and eggs from their chickens every Thursday at the Front Royal Farmer’s Market.
Mountain Laurel Montessori Farm School students and faculty honored the 25th anniversary of the Federal holiday honoring Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. by helping in their community. They visited senior citizens in two Front Royal nursing homes. Together, the adolescents and seniors made collages, played games, and spent time telling stories about their lives. We hope to make this a regular event throughout the year.
