Students at Asheville Farmstead School
By Lauren Stepp
Every morning, a group of children heads straight for the woods. They balance on fallen logs, arrange pebbles into careful patterns and pause to examine frost melting off leaves. There is no rush to rotate from station to station and no bell signaling the next block of time. Instead, the forest sets the rhythm.
This is the Asheville Farmstead School, a nature-based early childhood program tucked along Morgan Cove Road in Candler.
Founded in 2016 by executive director Lauren “Lala” Roddick-Brown, the school grew out of her growing concern about the academic pressure and screen saturation reshaping early childhood.
“I believe that when we over-academicize early childhood, we unintentionally sideline the very skills that matter most at this developmental stage,” says Roddick-Brown, who has been an educator for more than 20 years. “Social-emotional growth, problem solving, self-regulation, empathy and resilience are not extras. They are the foundation upon which all later academic success is built.”
Seeking an alternative to traditional education models, Roddick-Brown turned to the Cedarsong Way, a forest kindergarten model developed in the Pacific Northwest that emphasizes emergent curriculum and year-round immersion in natural settings.
Rather than relying on predetermined lesson plans, teachers allow learning to unfold through play, collaboration and real-world discovery. Children might spend the morning observing seasonal changes along a trail, recording sketches in nature journals or working together to design a game from materials they find in the woods.
“The forest school philosophy resonated deeply because it trusts children as capable learners, it trusts nature as a powerful classroom and it trusts the process of play, exploration and relationship as legitimate forms of education,” says Roddick-Brown.
Today, as one of only seven internationally accredited Cedarsong Way schools, Asheville Farmstead School offers a continuum of nature-based programming. Camp Farmstead anchors the summer months, Sprouts serves preschool-aged children during the academic year and Littlest Learners provides homeschool enrichment and kindergarten preparation. Across programs, immersion in the natural landscape remains foundational.
“While we have expanded in scale and clarity, the original vision remains intact,” says Roddick-Brown. “We are still committed to nurturing children in nature, building community and honoring childhood as a formative season of life.”
This spring, Asheville Farmstead School will mark its tenth year with A Decade Rooted in Nature, a community gathering and fundraiser on Saturday, April 25, from 2–6 p.m. at its 25-acre campus in Candler. The gathering will serve as both a celebration and a reaffirmation of the school’s guiding principles.
“After more than a decade, I remain committed because I see that it works,” says Roddick-Brown. “When we trust children, honor childhood and allow nature to be a teacher, we nurture not only learners but thoughtful, connected human beings.”
Asheville Farmstead School is located at 218 Morgan Cove Road in Candler. For information, call 828.771.6047 or visit AshevilleFarmstead.org.
