“This is my favorite place,” a ReTribe Forest School student whispered as she showed off her sit-spot. She transformed this spot into a carnival during free play – including stations of throwing a stick through a stick frame, batting back and forth a jaw bone on a string, balancing on a log, face painting with charcoal, swinging, and limbo.
ReTribe co-founder and mentor Julia Hunt had a similar special place in her childhood. She says, “I think about my childhood and a certain tree at my elementary school. We called it the old man’s tree, and we built little fairy homes. I can still feel the feeling of the place and this feeling of ‘I belong here.’ I could spend all day there. It still exists, a really warm feeling. So I know that I have that in me, and I know how the kids remember this landscape … it’ll be like this magical place in their mind. I know that’ll be so special to them, and I have this belief that then they’ll want to preserve that specialness for others.”
