Last week, Jersey spent four days at Nature’s Classroom with her school. It was her first year doing that, and she loved it. They got to spend four full days living in the forest, sleeping in camp dorms and exploring the forest. Every day the lessons were something new and her school days looked completely different than normal.

Arriving home on Thursday night, she had only good things to say about it.

Except… she also arrived home super exhausted—unusually exhausted. I knew she’d probably be tired, but when she brought up the fact that she wanted to nap before dance, I KNEW she was tired. 

She loves going to her dance classes. But when she got home Thursday night, she had a nap to recharge before dance class. And when she woke up, she asked, should I skip dance tonight? She NEVER suggests that. Ever. That confirmed to me just how tired she was. We did rally and get her to dance class in the end though.

When I asked her why she was so tired, she didn’t have a real answer. She said they didn’t go to bed particularly late, and they got up at 7 which is around her usual time.

That got me thinking about how different the outdoor classroom is from their everyday. I think this difference can initially be exhausting to the kids. Jersey was tired from being “on,” absorbing so much – and doing things differently. As exhausted as Jersey was, I think that change of environment is so good for them.

They’re becoming exposed to a different style of learning.

In fact, I feel we humans learn more outside of the classroom.

Learning should not be exclusive to traditional classrooms where a teacher teaches AT us for hours – and then we go home to do homework at our kitchen counter. There are so many other, more engaged ways to learn. There are many benefits to getting our kids out of the classroom – and out into the world, into the “wild.”

This also makes me think about one of my best friends from high school. Her name is Nikki, and over the last decade, she has started helping families embrace opportunities for childhood education beyond the classroom through her “Wilder Child” programs. She lives on a farm in Michigan now, and I’m really proud of how she has led this “rewilding” movement. (The truth is I’m so grateful for her being in my life and opening my eyes to so many things that I wouldn’t have seen before. For instance, her mom actually became my Doula for Madden. There’s a lot more I could share about all the ways I have been inspired by her, so I’ll dedicate another entire post to it later).

Essentially, what my friend has been onto for a while is something so many of us seem to be just catching up on. She’s always leaned into nature as her classroom, and she’s raising her children in that way.

Not only does getting outside of the classroom expose kids to new environments, but it also invites more creativity and imagination. The not looking at your watch to change subjects at a certain time. The wandering, getting lost, and honestly, being bored. All these things children in the city don’t focus on.

All of that “newness” is what wore Jersey out last week. She was going through a growth spurt, in a way. In various ways, she probably learned more in that week than in months in a classroom. Now, her brain was just doing a lot of growing and cataloging of it all.

I’m grateful for the Montessori program for taking them on these Nature’s Classroom experiences – and for the overall encouragement of maintaining an “out of the box” perspective, at school and beyond. 

I’m also reminded that as a parent when she comes home exhausted, it’s important to sometimes just be gentle – and to just try to understand how much growth is happening beneath the surface each time our little humans are exposed to new situations.

We’re on the same team as our kids. I’ve said that before, but it’s worth repeating.

We can work with them to support their learning rather than against them. Rather than assuming she was just tired from staying up late with friends at camp, I try to keep it in perspective. Most of the time, these kids are just doing their best to manage all that they are taking in as growing humans in this life. They just need our support while doing that.

Instead of adding to all the pressure they are already feeling as they grow, why not try to do everything we can to support how they feel as they experience this growth? How they manage this growth now – at school AND outside the classroom – is preparation for how they are going to manage even more learning opportunities in the real world as they continue to “grow up.”

I think sometimes parents forget that bigger picture, though.