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About Us
Our Approach
The Dandy Lions Outdoor School is committed to making nature personal. Inspired by pedagogical elements of Waldorf, Montessori, and Reggio Emelia, we focus on free-range learning through the senses, and play-based interpersonal relationship building. In short, the kids are equal participants in creating their school experience.
Our Story
We believe in creating community through lots of communication, and opportunities for families to connect with the teacher and each other. Besides the conversations that connect us at drop off and pick ups, we also coordinate a yearly camping trip for school families, host a harvest celebration, a winter solstice caroling expedition, and a Spring potluck gathering.
About Ms. Anna, founder of Dandy Lions:
"I’m a mother of 4, and passionate about raising children according to their biological/evolutionary needs. My university degree is in Sociology, and I love the process of deconstructing social norms, to find which ones are well suited to child (and adult!) development, and which ones belong by the wayside.
The degree to which our modern world undermines children’s natural development became a deep reality for me as I worked with occupational therapists for my own child’s sensory challenges, and researched how movement wires (and rewires) our brains. As technology, and screens, and even just urban living brings children inside more and more, they are missing vital opportunities for the movement needed in developing brains and bodies.
I found my interest in plants as medicine -and nature as a healer in general- as I was searching for alternative answers to my own chronic illness, in my 30’s. I completed a 9 month course at the Elderberry School of Botanical Medicine, where a large focus was on plants native to the Pacific Northwest. I learned about plant identification, toxic and healing plants, anatomy and physiology, and medicine making. (And also healed my illness!) I love bringing all this knowledge into my days with the children.
I’ve always known that I wanted to work with children, and early exposure and experience has given me a deep intuitive understanding of the infant, toddler, and preschool age ranges. My mother had an in-home daycare when I was a child, as did my grandmother. Between my house, and my grandmother’s house, there were children everywhere, of all different ages. Although I was the youngest of my siblings, I helped raise many children in my young life. I have gone on to be a loving presence, and mentor, in the lives of more children than I can count. I cannot imagine a more rewarding, and fulfilling focus in my life."