We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Jean Lomino. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Jean below.

Alright, Jean thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Is your team able to work remotely? If so, how have you made it work? What, if any, have been the pitfalls? What have been the non-obvious benefits?

Before the pandemic, all of our training was in person, at various locations around the US and Canada. When schools closed in March, 2020, we decided to continue training online with live zoom sessions. Our business increased exponentially as we were able to connect with many people at one time from around the world. Even though many of the benefits of in person training were lost, we have come to realize that live zoom sessions have created many new opportunities. Now a ;larger number of people from various parts of the US and globally can meet virtually. This has opened our training to such a wide audience, not only from different parts of the globe, but from a variety of cultural and professional backgrounds. Our program has been greatly enriched as a result. Besides these benefits, the training is now much more affordable to a greater number of people, since our in person training included transportation and lodging costs, besides the actual experience. Accessibility has helped us move closer to accomplishing our mission: increasing the number of hours that all children can learn and grow outside in nature.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

FOREST SCHOOL: Education for the Whole Child Jean Lomino, Ph.D.

Nature and Me
Clinging to the back of my grandfather’s belt, I climbed higher and higher, each step on the rocky trail a wondrous mountain adventure. My four year-old senses were fully engaged and the delight in that moment was the beginning of my lifelong friendship with nature. Now that bond is part of my DNA and drives my passion to do everything I can to ensure deep nature experiences for all children. Forest School provides this opportunity. Current research confirms that children need time outdoors to grow physically, spiritually, socially and mentally and that they will learn better, faster and will become lifelong learners if they are allowed to spend significant time in nature. The reason is clear: nature is a spark that ignites learning excitement for children as they explore and discover on their own.

I was with my grandson a few years ago playing in a small creek near their home. He loves to play in the creek and loves to see what water does, how it feels, and what lives in it. As we were preparing to leave he threw his little arms up over his head and said, “I love this creek!” That proclamation filled me with joy, and I thought to myself, I must do everything I can to ensure that as many children as possible can throw up their arms and say they are in love with nature!” This friendship with nature must occur during early childhood when curiosity knows no bounds and all of life is an adventure!

Nature teaches me to live in simplicity and wonderment. For several years, as a college professor, I participated in wilderness canoe trips on the Minnesota-Canadian border. Each trip rekindled my passion to live in tune with the natural world. The loons’ haunting melodies and the ancient rhythm of waves crashing on rocky shores sang me to sleep at night. Each day gifted me with new pleasures—quilts of lichens and mosses softening ancient granite; air pungent with the scent of fir, spruce and pine; beavers carving paths on glassy water; northern lights dancing across dark skies and wolves howling at moonrise. All nature was my teacher.

Wilderness trips led to a greater sense of connectedness with nature and a deeper need to live more simply. I learned that everything for survival could be carried on my back and that keeping my load light was the secret to enjoying the journey. Wilderness living taught me to consume less. Every day I observed that in nature nothing is wasted and everything is recycled. Nature gave me a new mantra–“the less I carry through life, the more I will enjoy the trip.”

After these trips I always returned home more determined than ever to slow down, savor every day, use all of my senses, consume less, be compassionate, build greater community with my friends and family, and do everything possible to preserve and care for my home, Planet Earth. These resolutions are the guiding principles of Forest School. Young children need to be out on the land, to touch it, to smell it, to hear it, and even taste it. Nature needs to be their dear friend and not an enemy to be feared. As this friendship grows into love, they will begin to see themselves as caretakers.

With unlimited sky overhead and no walls around, a child’s spirit and mind open up and expand. Playing with other children in this openness increases the sense of adventure and team building. Probably the most beautiful thing to see in Forest School is how this expansiveness increases generosity, kindness and compassion. The fresh air, the calming colors of trees and sky, the sounds of sweet birdsongs, rustling leaves, and water flowing–all contribute to a sense of ease, reflection and gentleness. My observations lead me to believe that the development of these attitudes in children is directly related to time in nature, and current research is supporting this view. My mission has become this: “To help children learn to live gently on this earth in simplicity and kindness, so all its inhabitants will be lovingly cared for into the future.”

Wauhatchie School and Current Projects
My passion for Forest School has evolved over the course of my career as a classroom teacher, director of an Arboretum and Nature Center, adjunct professor for the Master’s in Outdoor Education at Southern Adventist University, teacher trainer and school consultant. I have gained a unique perspective about the importance of nature for our schools and for our everyday lives. Throughout my classroom teaching career I tried to provide nature-based experiences for my students as often as possible. Then first as Director of Education at the Chattanooga Nature Center in 2002 and then Executive Director from 2005-through 2013, I observed firsthand many thousands of children and adults enjoying and learning in the natural world through hands-on encounters in nature. And as an adjunct professor and school consultant and now Forest School Teacher Trainer, I have been privileged to help train people around the world to take their students outside the classroom walls and into the natural world.

When I first heard about forest kindergartens in Europe several years ago, I was intrigued, but it wasn’t until I met Diana Meadows in 2014 at the childcare center on her family’s 50-acre estate, that the idea took root. Over the course of several conversations, we discovered a shared vision for very young children to be in nature on a regular basis. When I suggested we start a Forest Kindergarten program, she enthusiastically agreed. We decided to call it Wauhatchie School, named for the Cherokee Chief who lived in the valley centuries ago. After a year of planning, organizing and training, we opened our Forest Kindergarten program, the first one in the state of Tennessee, in the fall of 2015. During that first year we trained seven teachers, three of whom went on to establish the first Public School Forest Kindergarten programs in Georgia and Tennessee, and we think maybe the first in the US. Since 2015, Wauhatchie Forest School has expanded to four sites in the Chattanooga TN area, with almost 200 students enrolled in preschool through 5th Grade. In 2022 I turned over the leadership of Wauhatchie Forest School to a new director so I could focus and grow my work as a forest school trainer through my organization, Forest School Teacher Institute.

Over the past 8 years I have provided training to over 700 individuals from almost every state in the US, Canada, South Africa, China, Korea and Indonesia. In 2017 I spent two months in Guangzhou, China as a forest school consultant, and in 2019 represented the US as a speaker at the International Symposium of Forest Kindergartens in Seoul, Korea. Forest School Teacher Institute provides training online as well as in-person. My current goal is to convince public school administrators and teachers that every child needs significant time outside daily, where they can learn and thrive in nature. The benefits are enormous and are critically important in today’s world. I’m encouraged to see a growing number of public schools in the US making this opportunity available to their students. I am convinced that the Forest School philosophy is here to stay and is not simply a passing trend.

I am collaborating with two universities in Tennessee to develop forest school training for graduate and undergraduate students in Education, because I believe that if the next generation of teachers are given opportunities to learn about and embrace this vision, even more children will receive the benefits of time in nature. Writing books and articles is another way I hope to spread the Forest School philosophy, and I plan to have my first book published this fall.

Any thoughts, advice, or strategies you can share for fostering brand loyalty?

Our training programs are posted on our website: forest teacher.org, FB and the Natural Start website (which is an arm of the NAAEE organization.) We also email a quarterly newsletter to our training alumni with upcoming events and other programs of interest to this group. Those who have taken their training with us often recommend it to their friends and colleagues, so marketing is a combination of word of mouth, and most often, the result of a google search.

Each year we conduct a spring retreat that provides opportunities for inspiration, reconnection with trainers and cohort members, as well as networking. Because forest school is a relatively new idea, it is important for the many people who are starting their own programs to share experiences with others in the field.

Along with my team of instructors and admin team, I respond to emails and phone calls with current and past trainees. We try very hard to keep a personal connection with those who have worked with us over the past several years.

What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?

I believe that speaking engagements, in person training events and our live zoom classes have extended our reach and helped our business grow. We believe in the personal touch, which may set us apart from other forest school training programs. We do not offer recorded classes but rather provide as much real-time, face to face interaction as possible. We are always looking for new ways to create these experiences.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.forestteacher.org
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/forestschool_teacherinstitute
• Facebook: Forest School Teacher Institute

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