Earth School

Earth School Programs for Homeschoolers at Hilltop
Hanover Farm

Earth School Workshops and courses, in operation since 1999, are designed for children of all ages to explore the many arts and dynamics of human life. Programs are conducted both indoors in schools, and outdoors in nature. The name "Earth School" comes from the Native American understanding that the planet can be the best classroom, and nature the best teacher. Earth School aims to foster respect for the planet and its people, to engender trust, and to promote teamwork, confidence and a sense of self.

Academic programs, compliant with NY State Core Curriculum requirements, bring alive world cultures and environmental awareness by incorporating art, theater, movement, music, stories, games, and exercises. Within this multi-sensory approach to education, Earth School provides a safe and supportive environment for natural learning and discovery. Programs based at Hilltop Hanover Farm in Yorktown, NY, balance essential academic subjects with sustainable living practices. Also integrated into all activities is the development of core qualities that are the building blocks for responsible human beings, such as respect, value, care, and patience.

The teaching staff exemplifies the highest caliber of experience and training, and all share the same dedication to helping children unlock their natural genius.

Goal of Earth School

The main goal of Earth School is to find the ways to help children reconnect with their natural genius, through the basic use of all their human faculties, while developing higher standards, principles, teamwork and a stronger sense of self. Workshops and courses are about switching on the senses, learning to trust the instinct, and re-engendering natural ways of being, so that qualities like respect, thankfulness, awe, and value are a natural response. This work is based on over 30 years of experience, with students of all ages and backgrounds, in which it's been discovered that most people learn best through hands-on experience, rather than only through books and words on paper. Earth School is dedicated to keeping alive the essential understandings and experiential knowledge that ancient and indigenous peoples all over the world have always sought to promote. Earth School seeks incorporate the best of all ways, practices and traditions that are productive and useful to humans and the planet.

The Important Book

Read The Important Book (page 1, page 2) written by the class of 2009-2010 and dedicated to the Earth School teachers for all the "important things" they teach. Based on the book by Margaret Wise Brown.

Download Earth School Forms for 2012-2013 School Year
(Free Adobe Acrobat Reader required for downloads)

• School Registration

• Contact Information / Medical History

• Parent Letter

• Tuition Agreement

• Tuition 2012-2013

• Earth School Calendar 2011-2012 | Calendar grid format

• 2012 Autumn into Winter Calendar of Events

• 2012 Autumn into Winter Registration Form (PDF)

• Field Trip Permission Slip

Watch a wonderful video produced by a volunteer about her experience with the Earth School for Homeschoolers programs at Hilltop Hanover Farm.