Wild Child: Swallowtail Forest School Doubles Capacity

By Mckenna Graham • Photos Provided 

It’s a rainy spring day at the Louisville Nature Center (LNC). The eager leaves of the deciduous forest covering the roughly 80 acres that LNC manages are bursting forth in their annual vernal display, signaling the end of winter. 

Nearby, obscured by a veil of wild grape vines, honeysuckle, and Osage orange the giddy whoops and wails of children can be heard. For them, the springtime means mud, and along with it the untethered joy that comes from cloaking themselves in the brown goop from head to toe. Tucked safely away in their forest classroom, this group of kids attending LNC’s Swallowtail Forest School slide down what they have aptly named “Mud Hill” like they are tobogganing in the winter snow. Some of them use the mud to make potions and pies anointed with diminutive native flowers and others simply plop a handful of mud on their head and call it a day. Here, the rules are fewer, the reins a little looser and the kids, ranging in age from three to five, take full advantage of all the delights that nature affords them. 

Founded in September 2020 and spurred forward by the demand created for outdoor activities due to COVID 19, the school started in earnest with a parred down staff of three and a mere 10 children. Now, six years on, the staff and the students have increased in number. Current enrollment for the past year totaled 45 and next year the school debuts its second classroom. This new space, dubbed the Pawpaw classroom, will increase total school capacity to 90 students and 6 teachers, a 5:1 student teacher ratio (since each session is capped at 15 students). 

Forest classrooms here are simply a semi-cleared space in the woods, far enough away that there is privacy from park visitors and hikers. The boundaries of the classroom are determined by orange cones that students learn not to go beyond. Each also has a small shed structure where students can hang their backpacks and where circle time takes place in the morning. In addition to bathrooms available in the LNC visitor center, students also have access to an outdoor toilet within the classroom boundaries. Each classroom has its own unique natural elements to explore. The original classroom, known as the Spicebush classroom, was built next to a hill that provides endless fun while the Pawpaw classroom features a large fallen tree perfect for climbing. Classrooms also include books, various pots and pans, buckets, several swings, ropes, tires and other materials that change with the season. For example, in the fall the school brings in oodles of pumpkins for students to enjoy. Some get rolled down the hill and smashed, others get painted, and most are eventually eaten by the deer. In the winter, students freeze objects in blocks of ice and then delight in chiseling those same objects back out. 

The classroom expansion came about as a response to the waitlist of families wanting to enroll and will provide more opportunities to give children access to the outdoors with the convenience of an urban location. Rebecca Minnick, Executive Director of LNC, points to data from the Parks Alliance showing that increasing visitorship to parks and expanding interest in outdoor experiences isn’t slowing down. 

“It’s a growing need” says Minnick, “it was already a growing need, and then the pandemic just skyrocketed it. People realized, number one, that the outdoors was a good and safe place to be, but also how good it makes them feel.”

Olivia Kaiser, Swallowtail Forest School Director, echoes these sentiments, commenting how she has witnessed children in the program grow and thrive in the outdoor environment. Forest exploration and healthy risk-taking, like climbing trees or balancing on rocks in a creek, help to develop gross motor abilities and independence. Instead of learning in traditional academic settings, kids are exposed to basic pre-K curriculum in new and dynamic ways, like learning numbers by counting the roly-polies under a log or colors by identifying the hues in the changing fall foliage. 

The kids also absorb a fair bit about science and nature, happily rattling off the names of common forest plants and describing the life cycles and behaviors of various insects, such as the school’s namesake, the swallowtail butterfly. During the 2024 school year the children even had a special “class pet”- a wild turkey they named Kevin Bacon who made regular appearances during the fall and winter months. Their regular cast of characters includes animals cared for by LNC, such as Cornflake the corn snake, Francis the Turtle, and Balthazar the Gray Rat snake. 

“We don’t do any academics,” says Kaiser, “but we do follow seasonal change. So, we focus on what’s happening in our space and around us at all times. And learning comes naturally through that.” In addition, the school performs assessments twice a year, once in the fall and again in the spring that focuses on students’ social and emotional growth. 

Data from various institutions, such as the Institute for Child Psychology, shows that outdoor experiences for children are vital for their development and may provide better academic outcomes for kids long term. Time outdoors is linked to stronger attention spans, better emotional regulation, increased focus, and higher academic engagement later in life. It also fosters creativity and supports cognitive development. The second classroom will allow more children in the Louisville community to benefit from increased access to the outdoors in their formative years- an especially valuable resource for kids coming from neighborhoods with limited access to greenspace. Swallowtail teacher, Elaine Keller, recalls watching first-hand how the transformative power of nature can cultivate confidence in students.

“I remember a breakthrough day for her,” Keller says, speaking about a child struggling with separation anxiety from her parents. “She wasn’t doing well, but we were out front playing in a giant puddle by the garden and I said to her, ‘This puddle looks really fun. It looks like a lot of kids are splashing in this puddle. Don’t you think it would be so cool if you had a ton of fun, and then you got to tell Mom all about it?’… I remember, holding her hand and walking into the puddle with her, and then… the transformation! She starts splashing and getting dirty and muddy. Throughout the day, I slowly started backing away. By the end of the day, she was playing by herself and playing with others, just getting dirty and realizing it can actually be really fun to play outside and, like, I don’t need my mom here!” 

Though the Swallowtail Forest School does encourage children to take the lead in play and choice making, they also provide opportunities throughout the school year for some more directed enrichment activities as well. About 15% of the program is enrichment based, with activities such as hiking, crafting with natural materials, science experiments, and seasonal parties. Most importantly, they teach students their ethos: “Be kind to yourself, others, and nature”. 

With the school expansion and many other developments on the horizon (such as plans for a new Living Building certified visitor center) for LNC, there is a greater need than ever for support from the community they serve. As a non-profit, the Center relies on charitable donations and volunteers to accomplish their mission of connecting people to nature. Currently there are still openings for new students in the 26/27 school year. But LNC has many other ways to get involved as well- such as guided hiking excursions, their annual PawPaw festival, community nights, and miles of hiking trails to explore. They encourage everyone to come for a visit, wander the woods and along the way you might even rediscover the magic of childhood deep in the forest.