Our Story

We are a group of parents with children enrolled in Marigold Preschool in Northeast Minneapolis. Our experience has enlightened us to the healing power of conscious, nature-based education. This is the story of what it looks like.

In the fall, children plant bulbs and seeds in raised garden beds, as they check every day for the daffodils and crocuses to make their appearances and signal that spring is on the way. They recite poems and verses and sing about the promise of springtime; what is stirring just beneath their feet. Spring arrives and the garden work begins! Tiny hands care for tiny, green sprouts in the soil. They sit in a line, eyes closed, as Miss Brenda tenderly raises a leaf to each of their noses.

The children can now identify plants by the smell of their leaves. In summer and early fall, the children run through the gardens gobbling strawberries and carrots on their way to make a house out of two sawhorses and a large piece of cloth. Therein, they become kittens or families, or bees harvesting honey. The children gather their treasures – peppers and pumpkins, carrots and radishes, strawberries, melons, and tomatoes. They scrub the veggies themselves and cook delicious, nourishing food with plants they tended and loved by hand. Everything grown is used and everything grown is shared.

As summer comes to a close, together, with their teachers, they put the garden to bed; tucking the earth in for a good winter’s sleep. October wanes and we capture the last spark of autumn in our handmade papier-mache lanterns. The children make a yellow dye with marigolds. They come home with yellow and orange-stained hands and unbridled excitement about their work. They use their dye to color silks brighter than sunshine, which becomes capes, and they learn to trust and nurture their own inner light during the darkest months of the year. Come winter, the children find confidence in their bodies and a home in nature as they hike through knee-deep snow to the top of “avalanche mountain” where they dig tunnels, build houses, and tend to snow babies in the pines.

Older kindergarten children learn to sew and to create beautiful, useful handmade things. At home, we find our children looking for magic everywhere. And we feel them being drawn to what is beautiful and true – moss, mushrooms, tree bark, the sky, the exhilaration of a swing, the joy of making mudpies for sale. “Look at those sparkles in the snow! Jack Frost was here!” we overhear them say; or, when finding a smooth stone, “the gnomes must have put this here for me to find” or seeing the pink sky at sunset “those must be father sun’s eyelashes we see, as he goes to sleep after a long day.” Our children have learned to find magic and comfort in the natural world.

The teachers are strong and kind. They hold space for the children and teach them about the hard, important work of learning to get along; to use gentle hands and golden words, to disagree well and create space for one another in the fullness of who we are. They tell the children rich stories that inspire their moral courage and nurture their inner wisdom.

The teachers also create and hold space for us as parents so that we can be in a community with one another. We are invited to attend gatherings where we learn how to nurture wonder with our children at home and where we bond and receive mentorship on the joys and struggles of parenting.

We have naturally sought each other out and have built a community together. Inevitably, when someone is sick or welcoming a new baby, soup shows up on a doorstep. People carpool. We have playdates and parent get-togethers. Sledding, hiking, going to the beach in summer.

Many of us share the values and work of striving for racial, gender, LGBTQ, and disability justice. We see the importance of building our own inner consciousness and that of our children to best be of service to social justice movements and actions.

We wear masks indoors when hospitals are overrun and covid numbers are up because everyone is our community. Our children have learned and we know that even the smallest among us, and the humblest of actions can contribute to making the world a better place - especially now.

We have learned how approaching life, nature, and learning with practiced reverence and wonder reveals the truth that everything is a miracle. Our children learn best when they are outdoors, in the dirt, and close to nature, using their bodies for good while developing their minds.

We believe that our connection to the natural world can heal us.

As some of our children enter the world of academics, we knew we wanted to continue to support their wild capacity for wonder, their ability to find joy in a tree branch, and their inclination to see themselves as inextricable from the world around them.

We hope to nurture their natural impulse toward imagination so they can use that imagination in service of helping to create a more, just, equitable, and sustainable world. It is our hope that we can offer a tiny ripple, in service of the work of many, to redefine our relationship with mother earth.

Through the alignment of stars, privilege, luck, hard work, and listening, Meadowlark was born. It is our hope that Meadowlark’s home will be in the classroom next door to Marigold Preschool and that we too will contribute to the care of the indoor space and outdoor grounds and gardens.

Meadowlark has a kind, experienced, and talented Waldorf teacher who shares our values and has worked closely with Brenda for over a decade. She is simply one of the best teachers we have ever met. She has put together a beautiful first-grade curriculum, centered in nature, and inspired by Waldorf pedagogy, that is as practical as it is wondrous (see the Our Approach section for more).

In Waldorf tradition, the teacher will follow her students through eighth grade. As the inaugural Meadowlark students move on to second grade, we plan to have a new teacher to meet the rising first graders.

It is of most urgent importance to us to make Meadowlark as accessible as possible by offering substantial tuition assistance. We will actively seek alternative sources of funding and founding teachers of Meadowlark are exploring an application for a charter from the state so that Meadowlark can be free for all. As we grow, it is our intention to hire leaders and teachers from diverse backgrounds to help lead the school and its programs.