A Wild Home

07/25/2025

🪏Planting fruit trees on the swales in the Forest Garden at Wild School🍊AJ

Open spots for August Wild School; every Tuesday 9:30-1:30, ages 5-16 sign-up & info here:
https://awildhome.org/wildschool/

(We currently have kids ages 6-13 registered for Aug)

07/24/2025

☘️Nature journaling at Wild School; where science, language arts, foraging, & art collide

📸 Wood Sorrel identifying, tasting, sketching, comparing, & looking up close on the microscope ~AJ

➡️A few August spots available, ages 5-16, sign up at https://awildhome.org/wildschool/
(We currently have ages 7-13 signed up)

⬇️ Video in the comments

07/24/2025

🐚 One of the kiddos at Wild School brought their pet hermit crabs to share with the group- of course we all loved that!
🍩Then, this week he brought donuts to share & did an amazing job asking the neighbor if he wanted one, too! Tastsy, but my favorite part was not biting into one, but watching him share with his classmates with such excitement & jump on the opporunity to communicate so well with our kind neighbors-who last week brought popsicles over to the kids at school!🥰 ~AJ

A few August spots available, ages 5-16, sign up at https://awildhome.org/wildschool/
(We currently have kids ages 7-13 for August)

07/17/2025

🍄‍🟫We’re inoculating the mulch paths through the Forest Garden Swales with mushrooms at Wild School…planting trees next time, after discussing the value in mimicking natural systems in previous weeks.
🔎We found all sorts of mushrooms around A Wild Home, inspecting them up close & sketching some in our journals. Will be so fun to cook up homegrown mushrooms with the students in a few moons!

07/13/2025

📸 Comparing Poison Ivy & Virginia Creeper at Wild School 🌿 Up close on the microscope & in its natural environment. Knowledge is power…& can keep ya from getting an itchy rash, in this case! 😆

📝Nature Journaling isn’t a flashy hashtag I add on run-of-the-mill outdoor educational activities or something I saw someone else do once & am now going to just throw into the program. It’s a practice I’m passionate about because of proven connections, growth, & skill building I have observed in students for the last decade I’ve been teaching. Over the years, I have dedicated time to deepening my personal practice, have seeked out opportunities to strengthen my teaching methods from trusted sources, & reflected on what works, what doesn’t, & how I can best help kids experience development of observational + drawing skills, while incorporating core subjects like Language Arts + Science….upholding a sense of wonder & joy.

🫶AJ Amanda Jo Boener

07/10/2025

👣 Solo, evening walk for hours; observing, exploring, enjoying.
🍄‍🟫 Basket came back empty of the mushrooms I thought I might find
🟣 Added elderberries to the Winter store I keep every year
🌧️ And the rain washed away so much. My heart came back full & my mind, clear.
🪏Then, worked & played away -all smiles- in the garden a good while as it poured.
🚶‍♀️I have yet to regret following a ‘I should take a walk’ impulse. 🫶AJ

07/07/2025

Unpopular Opinion Alert‼️ I know it’s easy to assume my WILD school is , but it is not. I’ve been watching the rebellion against number-driven classrooms for many years- the accusations & concerns are valid. AND educators + adults 🗣️ Let’s not swing that pendulum so far in emotion-driven reaction, that we do our kids a disservice by forgetting or shying away from the gift eldership can be. That is another, much longer conversation for another time, I’ll definitely add that to the book😌 but I will share with you one of my tested & grounded approaches on how I build balance into the curriculum here.

➡️I do, very intentionally, allot ‘Your Choice Time’ into the classes at Wild School here. When the outdoor classroom is a crucial ingredient in the learning process, giving kids ownership in how they want to spend their time, be it; harvesting in the garden 🍅 feeling the squishy mud between their toes 🟤 checking on the tadpoles in the wildlife ponds 🐸 playing games in the grass 🏃or smelling & tasting plants in the herb spiral….learning happens with greater ease, joy, & confidence when kids feel acknowledged, safe, connected, & free to just BE as they choose in their classroom, without always having an agenda that’s decided by adults.

📸 Your Choice Time during the 1st July class for Wild School ❤️AJ

07/04/2025

🫶We had an AMAZING turnout & time together for the open, community day here last week- thanks so much to all the families who came out to PLAY!

📸 Check out some of the creative mudpies that were made in our Muddy Place, by toddlers -> teens! The design for the Mud Kitchen & rainwater storage that will feed into the space is in evolution, alongside the happy kiddos who play here for Wild School…sure wish my school growing up had a Muddy Place! 😆Glad I get to play in the mud with them now. 🫶AJ (Amanda Jo Boener)

07/03/2025

A MUCH needed adventure day, away from A Wild Home. When you run a business out of the home, are a single mom doing it alone, while also homeschooling 4 kids, remembering what actually fills MY cup (in the midst of taking care of everything else) is foundational. And it’s a muscle that I’ve gotten out of the habit of flexing….but admittedly, that I haven’t had the privilege of being able to flex, with all the change & demands in the last year. I have suffered because of it.

🌊 Feeling small fills my cup. I do miss traveling full time & exposing myself to physical locations that demand reverence, humility, acceptance, & release. The kids & I decided we need to build ‘adventure days’ into our schedule again(we’ve done this before), since it’s so important to all of us. Now that we’re back in a rooted home & not in our Skoolie, putting it on the calendar -at least until it becomes part of my muscle memory- is an intentional way to make sure we’re living our brightest life.

📸 I have teared up so many times in the last week. A couple were sad memories washing over me, but all the many others were of immense, overtaking gratitude- usually while deep in the moment with others’ kids or 1/all of my 4 stellar humans, I get the privilege of raising. Yesterday we started our day with math tutoring the kids truly enjoyed, then went to PE. Next, ate our packed lunches on the side of the highway in torential rains, with van trouble. Moved on to check out a new-to-us state park, enjoying chatting with rangers at the awesome nature center. We submitted our bodies & laughter to the ruckus power of the ocean waves. Explored new, interesting landscapes. Found sea shells & ocean critters, while admiring another storm rolling by. Climbed old, ginormous trees. Ate a super tasty, vegan dinner out that we all felt great about putting in our bodies. Listened to music all the ride home as the sun set over the ocean, with the windows down, salty hair flying, & many moments of different family members voices rising above in vulnerable, yet comfortable passion.

I love my life -in the ups & the downs- this too shall pass. And I’m not going to let it pass, without presence. This is my devotion.

Thanks for leaning in & listening 🫶AJ

06/25/2025

Wildcrafting at Wild School!

🌾For the last class of June we made keychains from Job’s Tears seeds- a plant we sketched together in our Nature Journals & harvested from the garden. 👐With a butterfly at the end, to represent the work we’re doing here to make a welcoming home for the pollinators, like raising & observing the monarch’s transformation here. 🧘And to tie in the meditation we did on the inner work that can feel so lonely, but our chrysalis is magic & pulling from our mindfulness toolbelt can help us, when we’re ready to take flight.

📸 Pictured also is my friend Nance, an Animal Biologist & Fl Native Plant Society member, a guest mentor I invited in to share her passions with the students.

Summer sign-ups at the website www.awildhome.org

+Come check us out for a FREE open play day here this FRI 10-1, details in events

06/25/2025

Mentors Matter✨And bringing elders to share their passions with the Wild School students is something I’m passionate about!

As an Animal Biologist & Native Plant Society Member, who’s knowledgeable, experienced, fun, so kind & approachable to kids- my good friend Nance Dwyer was a perfect fit to invite to teach & share the day with us. Very grateful to have her in our family’s lives & so glad the kids got to learn from her today! 💚AJ

06/22/2025

🌞Summer Wild School is here!✨
July registration + details at www.awildhome.org

And come to our FREE Play & Explore day this Friday, 10AM-1PM

Evolving, as we explore