What are waldkinder? The word is from the German ‘wald’ (wood) and ‘kinder’ (children). The ‘waldkindergarten’ of Germany, Sweden, Denmark, and more recently, U.S., are schools where young children spend their days, rain or shine, out of doors. They walk and explore local landscapes as a means of learning broader truths about how our world works. I love this ethos, and am attempting a conscious effort at incorporating this ideal into our daily lives.
We live in Westwood, California, a small mountain town at 5,000 ft. in northeastern California along the Sierra-Cascade divide. We may lack bookstores, coffee shops, and ready-made entertainment, but we abound in opportunity for unmediated contact with woods, water, trees and sky. “Woods Children” our daughters will be, if we take the time to lead them into our wild, mountainous and expansive backyard. This humble blog is my attempt to share our explorations of this place we call home.
Mama Bluefoot 
Hey Mama Blaufuss!
What a cool way to show what you and the girls are learning about in nature, in your very own backyard! Yes, you live in a beautiful place! So glad you are getting out and enjoying it, no matter rain, shine or piles of snow! Awesome pics of the flora and fauna too!!
Love ya,
Krista
Hello Mamabluefoot,
This is indeed a great place that we live in, here in the Mountain Meadows Basin. I though, perhaps, that you might be interested in seeing my little website, which illustrates some of the living wonders within our area:
https://sites.google.com/a/calneva.org/jim-s-place/
Best Regards,
Jim M.
Thank you for sharing, Jim! What a wonderful resource and beautiful photographs. I am going to add a link to your site to my Resources page, if that is alright with you.
That would be alright with me. I know that there is so much wonder within our neck of the woods that most folks will never see. Web sites such as ours provides a way.