Janelle and Dean Slavick live in Concord, Ohio with their daughter Makella and son Jake. Makella just left for her freshman year of college. Before she left, Makella told Janelle, “Mom, I had a magical childhood!”

What brought about such an expression of joy and gratitude? The story begins years earlier. Janelle studied education at Bowling Green State University. During her studies, she discovered one single paragraph about Montessori education. That paragraph directed the course of her life. Janelle says, “It grabbed my heart!” She decided then that when she had kids of her own, she would take them to a Montessori school.

And indeed she has. Furthermore, while her kids were in school, Janelle also returned to education for a master’s degree so she could teach Montessori. Makella and Jake attended the Hershey Montessori School. The Montessori program emphasizes hands-on developmentally appropriate learning. It is based on the work of Maria Montessori, the first female physician in Italy. Maria Montessori studied how children learn and developed a comprehensive and child-centered approach to education. The Association Montessori International describes Erdkinder (German for Land-Children):

Dr. Montessori recommended that the adolescent should spend a period of time in the country away from the environment of the family. This would provide an opportunity to study civilisation through its origin in agriculture. She suggested they should live in a hostel which they would learn to manage and open a shop where sale of produce would bring in the fundamental mechanics of society, production and exchange on which economic life is based.

They do just that at the Huntsburg campus. Children 12-15 years old connect with the land and grow their own food organically. The school strives to be self-sufficient. They eat what they grow and sell at a local market as well–all part of the learning experience. They even collect maple syrup. The children run the household including managing preparation of three meals a day for about 50 people. Children learn math through measuring food in the meals they prepare and following instructions or geometry through managing the fields. They learn economics through sales. They even did an archeological dig to uncover an old homestead on the property. This is land-based curriculum. Teach through the experience of the land.

Organic food. Organic processes for education. It all makes sense to Janelle, “Our children are living messages we send to a time and a place we will never see. With their ‘children of the Earth’ foundation and their organic experiences and choices, my children can take this message of being care-takers of the Earth with them to that time and place.”

Janelle and Dean continue the holistic approach at home with their own small orchard growing apricots, apples, and plums. People in the neighborhood take strolls down their street or ride bicycles around. Everyone knows they are welcome to take some fruit. They aren’t sprayed with pesticides. You can eat them straight from the trees. Sounds magical to me too.

*As part of our I’m Organic Stories Project, 5% of your purchase from Sept. 6-30th will be donated to Hershey Montessori School.