Turn Back Time

11/07/2024

🍂 Because of an Acorn.. 🍂

Kinderkamp has spent the last week working with Acorns and this journey has brought some interesting emergent curriculum!

The acorn plays a massive role in the forests ecosystem. So we were really excited to start working with them and learning more!

We came up with a plan to make Acorn flour in a multistep process. With the flour, we are going to make homemade acorn flour Playdough!

First we collected Acorns (intentionally checking them thoroughly for damage or holes). Then we placed them in a dehumidifier so they would be easier to crack open! The children absolutely loved cracking them open to find the acorn meat.
We placed the acorn meat in water to get them ready for blending.

During our cracking process we noticed some of the acorns now had holes in them! Acorn Weevil Larvae were inside! We examined and investigated the Weevils and learned all about them.

Did you know that squirrels prefer the acorns with weevil larvae to those without! So fascinating! We decided to bring the weevil larvae down to the chicken coop. We fed it to our favorite chicken friend named Judy, and she absolutely loved her treat!

The children are super excited for the next step in our acorn flower process and they are loving how something so simple can turn into quite the adventure!

10/30/2024

🦴 Preschool is LOVING their bone exploration and investigation!

While utilizing a variety of tools such as magnifying glasses, rulers and paintbrushes they discussed what they noticed about bones and skeletons. They measured and compared the sizes, shapes and colors.
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This lesson is a great opportunity for students to build knowledge around the importance of bones and skeletons. As children work to distinguish fact and fiction, exploring bones up close helps diminish any fears that may arise as we see these items displayed in spooky ways!

10/28/2024

The most magical sight to see ~ huddled heads! 💫

Exploring, discovering and creating with nature is exactly what is happening every time we see huddled heads!

Such important play! Where community is naturally grown with new and old friends! 🍂🪲

10/23/2024

🏆 Our Annual Benefit Golf Tournament raised over $7500 for our Scholarship Fund!
Thank you to our Sponsors for making this possible!

🥇Gold Sponsors $750-$1,000
Fidelity Bank
Cornerstone Bank

🥈Silver Sponsors - $250-$500
Pepin Comanies (Pepin granite, Pepin car wash, Pepin storage, Pepin waste)
Country Bank
B&D Supply
Mel Chacharone
Danari, Fanno, Danari LLC
Reliable RN
NFI

🥉 Bronze Sponsors - $125
The RV Guys
Cournoyer Vegetable Farm
Safety Northeast Insurance Agency, Inc.
Aho Air
CC Lowell
Bruce Coffin CPA
Flex Con
The Grange

Looking to support Turn Back Time and our mission to help people recognize nature’s ability to teach and heal? Please make a donation today through our PayPal!

https://www.paypal.com/us/fundraiser/charity/2283520

10/22/2024

🌞 We are absolutely loving this week of warm weather!

Hiking through the woods with the leaves crunching under our feet and the warm sunshine on our back is something to be grateful for! 🍂

Being outdoors all day helps us bring our awareness to how our body is feeling with all of our clothes and gear. Sometimes we need to bundle up in the morning, but by the afternoon we are taking some layers off!

Today was definitely one of those days! ☀️

10/15/2024

🍏 Apples! 🍏

Here on the farm we have the most amazing apple tree. The children love to climb it and play with the apples. It really plays such a huge role in the children’s learning and development.

The daily climbing helps grow their gross motor skills as well as their confidence! The play in and around the tree is strengthening their social/emotional skills. The apples themselves introduce science, math and life skills, along with amazing sensory play! 💫

Every fall our Kinderkamp crew collects some of the apples and we bring them up to our yurt. We cut them in half and do apple prints to show the “Star” in the middle!

We continue our apple curriculum by making applesauce and apple chips! When making applesauce the children get the opportunity to use simple machines, like an apple corer! Learning the process of how to make something step by step by measuring allows them to get the full experience and take pride at the outcome!

Every taste resulted in a smile! 😀

10/08/2024

🐝 Homeschool 🐝

Our homeschool classes spent the first month of the school year focusing on animal welfare around the farm.
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Each week, they explored one animal in-depth through story time, discussion, investigation of the animal's behaviors and body parts, and needs, ranging from feeding to grooming.
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This work sets us up to care for the animals throughout the year, gives children real-world responsibilities, and offers the opportunity to make meaningful connections with each of the animals.
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This fall, they will follow a theme of garden exploration while focusing on the senses and changes over time. As the weather cools, their theme will shift to cooking and baking, touching on the processes of changes in matter and noticing senses of smell and taste.

Each day, the class has a welcome meeting for everyone to greet each other and hear a story related to the current theme, and then they break into small groups for a hands-on lesson. These lessons are rooted in seasonal changes and children's interests throughout the farm.
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After a lesson, the class heads into the woods for adventure time, where the children have full autonomy in their play and exploration. This time gives children the chance to practice collaboration and problem solving while teachers observe and help guide when needed.
The group ends each day with time to reflect through journaling. Each child's journal holds a unique collection of their observations in words, pictures, and even taped-in pieces of nature from around the farm that they found inspiring that day!
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Our homeschool program is full of incredible opportunities for children to have autonomy in play, connect with their environment and build their problem solving skills. Along with so much more!

10/07/2024

🌧️ Rain! Mud! Yay!

Farm school kids absolutely thrive during a rain day. We know that the right gear keeps us dry and focused on having fun!

The children always surprise us with just how resilient they are! 🌦️🌈

We also know that with rain comes all the cool mushroom and creatures 🍄🦎🐸

10/05/2024

⛳️ THANK YOU! Our Annual Benefit Golf Tournament raised over $7000 today!
🌳 This money goes directly to scholarships for our students, in order to provide opportunities for people to recognize nature’s ability to teach and heal.
💚 Thank you to all of our sponsors and golfers, we appreciate you!!

10/04/2024

🍃 The first month of Preschool has been nothing short of magical! ✨

Nature truly brings us together in so many different ways! We are so excited to see where the year takes us!

Our Preschoolers are busy building resilience, friendships and a deep connection with nature!

🍂 Autumn is approaching and we are excited to experience the changes here on the farm!

09/30/2024

Proprioceptive Play!🏃🏽‍♀️‍➡️

We see this type of play all day long here at farm school and we are always happy to see it! It's an important part of brain development and helps with coordination, posture, self-regulation, and focus!

Proprioception is a child's ability to understand where their body is in space and how to use the right amount of force. Lifting rocks, rolling down the hill, pushing & pulling and crawling on a log are perfect examples!

Proprioceptive activities are very important in child development and most times you will see it happen naturally within their play! 🛝

09/28/2024

Last call for golfers for next weekend! We really could use a few more teams. Share if you can 😊

09/25/2024

🐓Chickens!🐓

At turn back time one of our biggest curriculums is animal care. We love to teach the importance of caring and tending to animals to help them live a great life on the farm.

One of our favorite tasks is collecting the eggs. We pick them carefully, making sure not to crack them so they make it to our farm stand safely. Collecting eggs and being around the chickens teaches the children to have calm bodies, empathy and respect. It curates so many amazing life skills! 🐣

Every spring Miss Katie does a chicken breeding program. She collects fertilized eggs with a cross breeding of certain hens and roosters! Watching the chicks grow up and seeing the beautiful coloring from her cross breeding is so cool!

The children bond with the chickens, naming them and checking on them daily, it really is so sweet! We love our chicken coop and all the learning it harbors! 💛🐥

09/19/2024

THIS SATURDAY
🌧️ RAIN OR SHINE ☀️
✅We can’t wait to see you at Turn Back Time in Paxton for Forest Fest on Saturday September 21st from 1:00-6:00!
🎶 Live music from Thee Sonomatics
🧶 30+ Vendors
🥪 Food from Caribbean Press food truck
🧚🏼 Fairy House Competition
🌳 Forest Fun Run
🐴 Farm Animals
❗️ and more
Come explore our property with your whole family!
Register for free at
https://lp.constantcontactpages.com/ev/reg/m7tm22z

09/19/2024

Thank you so much to Klem’s and Cornerstone Bank for helping make our golf gift bags amazing this year!

https://lp.constantcontactpages.com/ev/reg/h5v8gap

09/16/2024

Golf in the tournament and win a chance to spend a weekend at the farm! Grand Prize for the raffle is a chance to spend some time at our Airbnb valued at over $850!!!

Turn Back Time’s mission is to help people recognize nature’s ability to teach and heal with a commitment to offering programs to underserved populations.