Our IOS community is so amazing.  We've had incredible things going on.  In mid September we had four goat kids born. Sadly we lost one of our does, Pumpkin, after her delivery. Maybelline stood guard over the Pumpkin's little ones when it became clear that Pumpkin wasn't doing well and couldn't care for them.  She is a great nanny.   

We had our first work day of the school year and under the direction of one of our talented parents, Willie, our shop was transformed into an art workshop.  

Parents and students weeded, moved a mountain of mulch, painted, trimmed, hauled and hoed.  It is impressive to see what we can do when we work together.

And finally, our families enjoyed a blissful two days at the lake, camping, canoeing, kayaking and cooking last weekend.  

One of the amazing things about IOS is that right from the beginning in kindergarten, students have a voice and a vote.  In this clip two kindergarten students discuss an agenda item about how in group tag games they get tagged right away as soon as they are unfrozen.  They are very passionate about this.  It turns out that a previous ruling from a HIVE meeting has been forgotten that gave them a 5 second spacer to get away.  No one was abiding by this ruling.  It was a good reminder.
It is very interesting on Fridays when the age groups are completely mixed all day for Peace Circle, electives, nature literacy, community stewardship, snack, lunch, and HIVE.  The children learn so much from each other in collaboration,  reinforcing each other's ideas, and adding to them.  At HIVE, often amazing solutions arise to address chronic issues.  For example, almost every week someone puts "toilets" on the agenda.  The problem being that sometimes people don't flush.  The many creative invented spellings of toilet is a study in itself.  This week after acknowledging that this is still a problem, discussion ensued.  One student suggested keeping a tally of how many times an unflushed toilet is encountered on the chalkboard outside and then collecting data on whether this is improving, with a goal of zero tally marks.  We were all excited by the idea.  At the very least, it is something beyond just mentioning the problem every week without any action to attempt.   Here are a few pictures from recent Friday electives.

It is error only, and not truth, that shrinks from inquiry. Thomas Paine, one of the founding fathers of our country.  

At the Inside Outside School, we feature one of the seven "Dimensions of Human Greatness," each week.  This week we worked with INQUIRY.  It is a perfect time in the semester to be asking additional questions,  focusing on what is of foremost importance to us in our study of the forces of nature as we are moving forward toward our EXPO where we will present our independent and small group studies to peers, parents and grandparents.  
We have a very special school meeting called "Peace Circle," every Friday morning to begin our elective day.  This morning we heard the story of John James Audubon.  At the age of 18 he was living in Pennsylvania where his father had sent him during the Napoleonic Wars. The young naturalist was curious about the Pewee Flycatchers that had built a nest in a limestone cave near their farmhouse. He moved his unschooling classroom into the cave, becoming a familiar feature to the pewees.  John's inquiry: Where do these birds disappear to in winter? Will the same ones come back to this cave in the spring?
Some great thinkers, like Aristotle, had claimed  that small birds disappearing in winter, hibernated under water until spring.  Some scientists of his day believed that the birds flew to the moon for winter.  John was skeptical! John decided to put little bands around the feet of the offspring of the pewees.  He was the first person (a teenager) to band birds in North America.   From the seeds of John's passionate curiosity, eventually the Audubon Society grew with its mission "to conserve and restore natural ecosystems, focusing on birds, other wildlife, and their habitats for the benefit of humanity and the earth's biological diversity."
John James drew birds all the time, but he would burn his drawings every year on his birthday, hoping to improve his drawing over the course of the next year...human greatness in the making.
The story of John James Audubon was such a perfect way for us to illustrate inquiry.   After the story, we opened the doors to our theater. Meditating, we became so quiet we could hear bird songs from outside.  Guess what?  We heard "fee bee," the call of the Pewee Flycathcher's cousin, the Eastern Phoebe.  This is one of the ways in which our woodland campus mysteriously synchronizes the beauty and magic of nature with our learning.  Perhaps it was the call of the phoebe early this morning that reminded me about this book in our school library.
 I have come to the study of ornithology a bit later in my life, but our ornithology elective teacher this semester is a 12 year old boy, Sebastian Casarez.  Sebastian is a member of both the Travis and Williamson County Audubon Societies.  He began his inquiry at a very young age and has become a local bird expert. He will be honored next week by the Westcave Outdoor Discovery Center at the 8th annual Celebration of Children in Nature of Austin Collaborative's award dinner, (along with Inside Outside School's most excellent environmental educator, Rachel Brice.)

Perhaps some of our students have stumbled upon something that will become a lifelong study for them already.  One thing we know is that there will be new horizons in science, art, music, and mathematics for them to approach. Only false pride would cause us to think there are not additional errors in our understanding of the vast mysteries to clear up.  Our important job as educators is to keep the love of learning alive.  It is all too easy to close down an open mind.

Our yearlong theme is "May the Forces Be With You."  Weather is one of the first investigations that several classes are beginning with.  We are noticing the lack of rain, but since we are putting a new roof on the building, we are okay if the rain holds off another week.  It is still hot and dry, but always a few degrees cooler in the woods where we gather in the afternoon for Nature Literacy.

We are also offering Multiple Intelligence classes, (art, natural science, library and music) in addition to our Friday electives.  This semester we have survival, helping hands, shop, theater, sewing, cooking, upcycling art, ornithology, mythology, science fair, apothecary and Lego robotics.  All of that is happening as well as the important core classwork and the ongoing integration of the Seven Dimensions of Human Greatness.  This week our dimension is interaction, so it is a perfect time for me to reach out to update you, our beautiful blog readers.  Enjoy!

Thank you, Susannah Martin for writing this beautiful recipe for a curious child!

We had turnips and radishes from "below"...

and rosemary, mint, mung bean sprouts, peas, pea greens and pea flowers, mixed greens, chard, and nopales as well as items from cooking, craft and apothecary classes... pumpkin blondies,  whole wheat bread rolls, peppermint patties, peppermint play-doh, Christmas tree ornaments and goldenrod tincture.

We also finished up semester electives like survival skills,

and theater (with mystery dinner theater.)

This has been an amazing semester for our joy-filled community.  We had our first Woodland Faire in November and our second school campout in December.  At the end of each day, we "harvest" our favorite moments of the day.  My favorite thing to harvest this semester was introducing nature journaling to the kindergarten.  Our favorite spot has been the farmyard. Happy Holidays!

CSA and Farmer's Market Stand at IOS this year!
A CSA is a community supported agricultural endeavor.  This year we are stepping into new territory as we introduce two new projects to our school family as part of our yearlong theme, "What's For Dinner."  We plan to start small with weekly produce baskets for perhaps 5 to 7 subscribing families.  The students will be integrating the development and application of math, reading, writing, observation and exploration tools as we take this new step together.  Students will work at the school's farmer's market a few times this school year and volunteer at the Pflugerville farmer's market and community gardens.   Our students will learn a variety of skills through these projects, including marketing strategies, customer service, budgeting, finance, recipe development, and self-confidence, but best of all, they will be having fun outside in the magic world of nature.  You will be hearing more about this as we take our next steps.