Registration for school year 2024-25 begins February 1st
Baumhaus (Tree House) includes:
Grade 1 ages 6 - 7 (must be 6 years old by June 1st) full days M - W or M - Th 9 am - 3 pm
Grade 2 ages 7 - 8 years full days M - W or M - Th 9 am - 3 pm
Grade 3 ages 8 - 9 years full days M - W or M - Th 9 am - 3pm
Grade 4 ages 9 - 10 years (beginning fall of 2023) full days M - W or M - Th (we must have enough interest to offer 4th grade. We will make this decision year to year.) 9 am - 3 pm
Forest Fridays two times a month can be added for an additional fee 9:30 am - 2:30 pm
Farm Friday once a month program can be added for an additional fee 9:30 am - 2:30 pm
15 min before care and 30 min after care M - Th can be provided by special arrangement if and if there is space available for $5/day. Parents are encouraged to help each other, and parents and teachers can sometimes help get a child to after school care at The Boys and Girls Club or another aftercare program. *No before/aftercare for Farm or Friday programs.
Our school year runs from September - May in 4 seasonal sessions, each ending with a family festival. Festivals include a Harvest Festival and our Enchanted Halloween Walk, Winter Spiral Festival and Holiday Shoppe, March Animal presentations and art display, and a Spring Festival. We offer Forest and Garden School fully integrated into our days in fall and spring with Winter Outdoor Sports and Activities during the winter months. We provide a daily morning snack or zweites Frühstück (German for second breakfast), incorporating seasonal foods that we harvest, foods native to Minnesota, and cultural foods according to our curriculum. Our curriculum includes harvest, preservation, and cooking. We eat organic when possible and we are able to accommodate gluten free and dairy free diets.
At this time we operate as a hybrid private school/homeschool group. Children must be registered as homeschoolers with their local school district the school year after they turn age 7. For some this may be first grade, and for most this will happen the fall of second grade.
*Due to our unique set up with yurts as classrooms, a rustic fenced in play yard located across from the lakeshore, a mixed age class of 6 - 10 year olds, and no Special Education staff onsite (Our staff have a variety of educational backgrounds and experiences along with training in the Waldorf Philosophy), we can accommodate a variety of different learning styles, but we are not equipped to accommodate high behavior needs. Children must be able to be safe with their bodies, appropriate with their language, and listen to teacher directions in order to attend. * We have high expectations for safe and kind behavior and we offer a semi-weekly Social/Emotional Learning Class (SEL).
Recommended Reading: *The Whole Brain Child by Daniel Siegel *Balanced and Barefoot by Angela J. Hanscom *Simplicity Parenting by Kim John Payne
Journey through the Grades!
Baumhaus friends enjoy a close-knit community fostered by our Waldorf-trained Teacher and talented Assistant with part time teachers teaching subjects such as handwork and German language.
Our holistic curriculum unfolds and builds upon itself year after year. Social/emotional skills are honed over the 3 - 4 years the children attend Baumhaus. We support all children in developing their highest potential by encouraging the artistic, creative and imaginative life, and by providing a strong foundation in academic studies while immersed in nature.
Subjects are taught in such a way that involves the whole child in the learning process, including having each child write and illustrate their own lesson books beginning in grade one. We offer Outdoor immersion all school year with our cozy winterized yurt as a classroom. We provide 1 -3 field trips per year to area Parks, Pumpkin Patch or Apple Orchard, Sugarbush, a local farm (grade 3), Science Center, Watermark Art Center, and Paul Bunyan Community Theater, as well as guests to teach about Anishinaabe culture and Ojibwe language. Indigenous studies and values are woven into our days together. Our German Teacher teaches German weekly. 4th graders enjoy additional offsite learning opportunities such as an in depth study at the Science Center during their zoology block, and an opportunity to learn Spanish. Second and Third Graders may attend some offsite opportunities as it fits into their curriculum.
First GRADE Curriculum
LANGUAGE ARTS
World Fairy tales and nature stories, pictorial introduction to the alphabet, beginning writing and reading.
MATHEMATICS
Quality of numbers, skip counting, introduction to the four operations of addition, subtraction, division and multiplication, Roman numerals, multiplication in rhythm, introduction to mental arithmetic and math facts.
SPECIALTY SUBJECTS & ACTIVITIES
German and Ojibwe language and culture, speech, class play, form drawing, wet-on-wet painting, beeswax modeling, singing, pentatonic flute, knitting, jump rope and circle games.
SECOND GRADE Curriculum
LANGUAGE ARTS
Development of written and oral language skills through exploration of riddles, Aesop’s fables, myths, legends, and other cultural stories. Using materials drawn from classroom literature, children begin reading and writing longer sentences and reading more proficiently.
MATHEMATICS
Continuing to grow the children’s capacity with the four processes of addition, subtraction, multiplication and division introduced in grade one, children now also move into place value, multiplication tables, telling time, math games and geometric patterns.
SPECIALTY SUBJECTS & ACTIVITIES
German and Ojibwe language and culture, pentatonic flute, class play, crocheting, knitting, felting, wet-on-wet painting, beeswax modeling, form drawing, as well as movement games that develop coordination, dexterity, spatial orientation and rhythm. In the spring of their second grade year, rising third graders plan and plant the garden with their parents and teachers.
Third GRADE Curriculum
LANGUAGE ARTS
Creation stories from various cultures, Anishinaabe history and stories, farming and gardening from different perspectives, grammar, punctuation, narrative writing, parts of speech and spelling and introduction to cursive handwriting.
MATHEMATICS
Review of Place Value, adding and subtracting 3 and 4 digit numbers with borrowing and carrying, math facts, multiplication tables, measurement, money, length, weight, liquids and mental math.
LIFE ARTS
Shelter-building, cooking, spinning, weaving, dyeing, basketry, making maple syrup, gardening, beekeeping, and farming.
SPECIALTY SUBJECTS & ACTIVITIES
German and Ojibwe language and culture, speech, class play or puppet show, pentatonic and a string instrument such as ukulele (if available), form drawing, wet-on-wet painting, beeswax modeling, singing rounds, crochet, games, multi-cultural music, and folk dancing. Third graders write and illustrate a keepsake book documenting their years at Apple Blossom. Support for both children and parents through the 9 year change is included in the curriculum during the third grade year.
FOURTH GRADE CURRICULUM
Language Arts: Norse and Finnish sagas, grammar (parts of speech, verb tense, punctuation), letter writing, report writing and narrative writing.
Math: Fractions, averages, introduction to decimals, geometrical drawing, and mental math.
Social Studies: Local and state history and geography, including Native American studies, and map making.
Science: Zoology (human and animal).
Additional subjects and activities: German language and culture, speech, class play, stringed instrument (if available), form drawing, wet-on-wet painting, beeswax modeling, pottery, singing rounds, diatonic flute, cross-stitch, games, folk dancing.
Offsite learning: Grade 4 includes some offsite learning such as visits to the Science Center during the Zoology Block, visits to the Beltrami History Museum during a block on Minnesota history, and arrangements to learn folk dancing in the Rail River Folk School building. Guest speakers from the Indigenous Community and a visit to a local Ojibwe Immersion School may be included.
Parent Involvement
A strong partnership between parents and teacher is cultivated through parent volunteering, parent/teacher conferences, and ongoing communication about their child’s development. As a Home School program, parents and teachers communicate consistently to make sure children are developing needed skills for future school options especially during the third and fourth grade year.