MLK Jr. Day 2011:"Everybody can be great because anybody can serve"

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.


"Everybody can be great... because anybody can serve. You don't have to have a college degree to serve. You don't have to make your subject and verb agree to serve. You only need a heart full of grace. A soul generated by love". 
-Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.


For more information on Martin Luther King Jr. Day and community service, visit the Corporation for National and Community Service: http://mlkday.gov/

We All Pitch In To Make the Playground Safer

Mountain Laurel Montessori Farm School students joined in with parents and teachers this fall to make the playground safer for our youngest students. Together we moved and spread 9,000 pounds of rubber mulch to our playground at the Front Royal campus. Our Toddler (ages 16 months to 3 years) and Primary (ages 3-6) students use the playground every day and will be much happier now.

 It was wonderful to see the faces of our youngest students watching with fascination as the "big kids" worked, and to have an opportunity for our adolescent students to give back to the campus that nurtured them from the time they were toddlers and on through elementary.

One of the unique aspects of Mountain Laurel Montessori is the strong community that nurtures children through the whole continuum of childhood, from birth through 9th grade.

A True Community

This morning at Mountain Laurel Montessori Farm school 15 children and youth (current students, incoming students, graduates, and siblings), 2 parents, and 2 staff members gathered for community work.  Community work is a weekly event - students, siblings, parents, staff members, and neighbors gather voluntarily, taking time out of their summer vacations, to work together at the Farm School.

While we worked very hard moving our chickens to fresh pasture, weeding the garden, mowing paths, turning the compost, and cleaning the beekeeping equipment, it was truly joyful work because we worked together as a community.

Building community is hard work and a long term process.  It takes dedication by all included.  Joyful days like today remind us what good work it is.

Spring Lambs Born

Spring lambing time is here!  The students were able to witness the birth of twin lambs at school last week.  They watched in wrapt silence for over an hour while one of the ewes delivered. 

It was an amazing experience to watch both the process of the birth, and the reactions of the students. The moment elicited great compassion from the students for the ewes they have cared for so diligently, and for the new lambs.

The students had prepared for lambing through their studies in the Sheep Occupation Project.  They studied the anatomy of the sheep, the nutritional needs of sheep and lambs, and prepared for the lambs by building housing and providing food and water. 

So many science and history lessons have grown spontaneously from caring for the pregnant sheep and new lambs. For example, we had an impromptu genetics lesson in the barn as we tried to determine the genotype of the black ewe and ram who produced two black lambs and one white one.

Not to miss out on the attention, here one of the pregnant ewes takes time for a conversation with a student.