LONG VERSION

WHO I AM

Ethan Mitchell was born on the farm in New Haven where he still lives, and has spent the last 20-or-so years teaching and tutoring. He's worked at Pacem Learning Center, the Walden Project, Pond Brook, and New Roots (where he has also been a co-director and director). In those realms he's often taught math and history, among other courses. He ran the Teacup Classes for homeschoolers, which extended into a series of free online courses during COVID. He is excited about interdisciplinary and place-based education. He is also a local historian and independent researcher, stonemason, essayist, game designer, and father.

The impetus for Tiny Schoolhouse came in the winter of 2024/25, when New Roots had closed due to low attendence figures, but several of the students wanted to continue going on learning adventures together. And we did! And now I'm getting more organzied about it.

WHO THIS IS FOR

Tiny Schoolhouse is mainly intended for homeschoolers roughly ages 8-12, who are excited about our program. Schooled students are welcome to attend if their schedule allows. Younger and older children are welcome to attend if it seems like a good fit for them. Parents are welcome to come check us out, but we ask that parents do not stick around throughout the day.

HOW IT WORKS

Check the schedule, and see what looks interesting. Please let Ethan know which days you are planning to come--in principle we could have too many participants on a given day (depends somewhat on the activity). You'll have to make arrangements for dropping off and picking up your child(ren). Our programming runs from 10:00 to 3:00 unless otherwise mentioned.

In some cases, especially if we are in town, we might move around a bit on foot. This means that if you're dropping off your child late, or picking them up early, you'll need to contact me to figure out where we are. I'm at 802-349-4362. The Tiny Schoolhouse itself does not move during the course of the day.

If there is medical, dietary, allergy, or other information about your child that I should know, please tell me. I also ask for contact information in case I need to get in touch with you.

CONSENT

I am only really interested in working with children who actually want to be here. That's something I get pretty idealistic about: I tend to think that children only learn well when they've agreed to the context of their learning. Moreover, children who are strongly at odds with the learning context can make it impossible for anyone around them to learn.

At a practical level, everyone has days when they aren't that enthusiastic. I get that and I can work with that: after all, it's an important skill to be able to work through transient disintrest. But if your child does not want to be part of Tiny Schoolhouse programs in general, I don't want them here. You should find something that's a better fit for them, and perhaps come back later when they're in a different frame of mind.

With that said, I expect everyone who comes to participate in our activities at some level, including what I call "vitamins": a fairly brief round of essential skills that I want to make sure everyone I work with is getting exposed to. (These include reading, writing, arithmetic, and basic safety / first aid / health topics). If you have questions or concerns about this, please let me know.

CURRICULUM

The aim of Tiny Schoolhouse is to place children in a rich learning environment, provide tools and skills, ask questions, and prompt and guide learning journeys. We happen to live in an amazing place, rich in history, ecology, geology, and cultural opportunities. Tiny Schoolhouse is a way to take advantage of all that. I will offer a wide-ranging and interdisciplinary approach, and overall we check a lot of the usual boxes for education in this age range.

As a drop-in program, Tiny Schoolhouse is not usually in a position to monitor a student's overall learning trajectory. There may be gaps in your child's education which are not getting filled at Tiny Schoolhouse, and while we often notice and discuss this stuff, we're not neccesarily going to see all of those.

Tiny Schoolhouse is not an accredited school, we're not offering any kind of credits or certification. I am always happy to talk to schools about any children I've worked with extensively.

MEDICAL

• Coming from an outdoor education background, I think controlled risk-taking is an essential part of childhood confidence-building, as well as opening up a range of learning opportunities which are not possible in a closely controlled environment. I'm suspicious of a day in which no one needed a band-aid.
• There's often a noticeable gap between the risks that children (and sometimes parents) focus on, and the actual risk profile encountered in outdoor education. Children who have not been in the woods much are often focused on cuts, burns, and wild animal attacks. The first two happen, and they're rarely a big deal. Wild animal attacks, in round numbers, don't happen.
• The really serious concerns, in our environment, are traffic accidents, drowning, head injuries, hypothermia, tick-borne illness, and anaphalyctic shock. The most important parental interventions are to send your child with appropriate clothing, an epi-pen if needed, and do routine tick checks.
• I, personally, believe that vaccines are one of the most amazing examples of human ingenuity, even if some vaccines work better than others. Not everyone agrees, I realize. I'm not interested in checking children's vaccination status, that feels creepy and invasive. I also have a family member who is immunocompromised, so if your kid is actively sick (whether or not they're vaccinated with X, Y or Z), please don't send them to me.
• Ethan has Wilderness First Aid and RC Life Guard and CPR certification. Some of the other teachers who might join us have similar certifications. We carry a fairly large first aid kid, including a trauma kit. We do not have an AED in the schoolhouse, but would love to, if someone wants to chip in for it.
• Ethan is also a former CNA (my certification is no longer in date). If participants need medication administered during the course of the day, put it in writing, and I can do that. Note that I am not in a position to evaluate interaction effects, contraindications, or the like.
• In the unlikely event that I need to send someone to the ER (this has happened only once in my career) it's useful to have some basic information available for the EMTs, doctors, and insurance people.

  MONEY

  Tiny Schoolhouse is a freely shared service. You are welcome to attend even if you can't currently pay.

  But for this whole thing to be sustainable, I need to be making a little something. We have to eat, and towing a schoolhouse isn't exactly great for gas mileage. That probably equates to a $20-$40 donation per participant per day. I think it's worth it, but if you can't manage that, I understand.

  Some activities we're engaged in have a fee built in, which I'll post on the schedule. Usually this is not the case.

  Then there is the stickier issue of sending your children with money. Tiny Schoolhouse will sometimes be out in the woods, but we're frequently parked in places where it is possible to spend money. This creates a lot of learning opportunities, which is a nice way of saying it can cause problems. If you don't send your child with spending money, please be aware that their peers might have some, and that can cause hard feelings. If you do send your child with spending money, please be aware that their peers might not have any. $10 seems like a lot of spending money to me, but maybe I'm old and I'm not adjusting for inflation.

  If you are sending a child to Tiny Schoolhouse with money earmarked as a donation to Tiny Schoolhouse, money for fees*, and also spending money, please make it clear to them which is which. (This has been a longstanding source of confusion). Alternatively, hand the money off to me directly, or pay me on Venmo*.

  I will discuss, critique, and in certain cases gently mock your child's desire to spend all their pocket money on bubble gum or the claw machine. I will not, however, stop them from doing so. If you send your child in with $50 and they want to spend it all on chocolate, I will preach a little sermon about nutrition, but I won't actually stop them. (Ask me sometime about the trident. Not the chewing gum...an actual trident...)

  FOOD

  Food is a frequent source of difficulty in this age range, hence the rather long set of notes here. We assume that you've discussed these issues with your children. Tiny Schoolhouse takes a three-fold basic approach:

  • We attempt to ensure that all participants have the option of a decent, nourishing meal. I'm not charging for that. That seems weird and creepy.
  • I can attempt to accomodate a range of dietary needs (see below), but I cannot police what participants are eating. I can try, but no promises whatsoever.
  • I allow a pretty wide range of behaviors around food (snacking during activities, trading food, etc.) as long as these do not become highly disruptive.

  Tiny Schoolhouse often provides simple meals (soup and snacks, for instance). I can accomodate or provide alternative options for participants have informed us in advance that they are:

  • Vegetarian or vegan
  • Gluten sensitive
  • Have any of the "Big 9" food allergies (that's milk, eggs, fish, shellfish, tree nuts, peanuts, wheat, soybeans, and sesame).

  I cannot guarantee other accomodations or requests in terms of the food that I'm providing.

  We encourage all participants to bring their own food: dietary restrictions aside, children are often very particular about what they're willing to eat.

  Please assume that participants may trade food or purchase food (depending where we are), and have whatever discussions you feel are appropriate about that beforehand.

  We may ask people not to bring certain foods that are allergic triggers for other participants. We'll let you know if that's the case.

  Please be thoughtful about sending children to Tiny Schoolhouse with lots of "junk food". Different families have different ideas about nutrition, and that's fine, but it's hard to resist the kid with a pillow-case full of candy. This is especially an issue around Halloween, Easter, and birthdays.

  BEHAVIOR

  > We don't have a complicated disciplinary structure: we don't have a principal's office that we can send kids to. In general we try to talk things out, and I feel like conflict resolution is just as important as anything else we might be learning. If a child's behavior is overwhelmingly disruptive, though, we'll ask them to leave for awhile.

  See the shorter version of these notes here