See how Amazing Childhood Can Be.
Our Learning guide
Aimée Parnell
Aimee Parnell is our director and learning facilitator. She has been working as an educator for nearly three decades. Her debut into the world of education came at age 13, when (much to her parents’ dismay) she planned a weeklong summer camp at her house for the neighborhood children whom she babysat. As a teenager, she often volunteered in her mom’s preschool classroom, and while at university, she was a youth softball coach, and a chaperone for her mom’s high school French class’s field trips to Paris.
Aimee graduated with honors from Northern Arizona University with a B.A. in Psychology, worked as a one-on-one aide for children with special needs living in foster care, then earned a K-6 teaching credential from San Diego State University, with an emphasis in multicultural education. In 2003, she enlisted in the Peace Corps as an Environmental Education Volunteer, partnering with local teachers in Gabon, Africa, to develop culturally relevant, localized teaching materials and lessons for their classrooms.
Aimee’s education work in Central Africa continued for over a decade with the Wildlife Conservation Society, the Gabon Sea Turtle Partnership, and as an independent consultant. By the time she passed on the baton, the teams she led grew their annual sea turtle family festival from a single rural school to a country-wide event with over two thousand children and their families participating each year.
Along the way, Aimee also became a yoga instructor, worked as a graphic designer, muralist, documentary filmmaker, French/English translator; she designed and directed an eco-remodel for a local hotel, was a fixer for a Hollywood film crew, and was part of the team that helped to raise and successfully release an orphaned West African Manatee - a first for the species. Adventure is in her nature.
Storytime in Malembé village.
With Laddie, from Rina Nzala village.
Helping a student remember his lines in the 2006 Environment Day play.
Play-based environmental education, in Mayumba, Gabon, 2004.
A sea turtle conservation mural in Aimee's Peace Corps village, Mayumba.
Interpreting for South African documentary filmmaker Kingsley Holgate.
Aimee taught preschool at a licensed Vermont parent child center from 2018-2020, and was the lead teacher for the Pre-Kindergarten 4s and 5s classroom during a colleague's five month maternity leave before deciding to forge a new path for early education in her area by establishing the New World Adventure School.
Throughout the year, Aimee takes part in professional development programs, aimed at expanding and improving teaching skills. She is a lifelong learner who is constantly researching ways to evolve into a more effective educator and good human. For more than 20 years, her personal philosophy has been: “Spread Sunshine, and Cultivate Kindness.”
Aimee's goal is to help spark your children’s curiosity about cultures, ecosystems, and the infinite wonders of our universe. She is inspired by the Agile Learning Center and Montessori models and draws from both in her approach to education. Fundamentally, Aimee aligns with Maria Montessori's exhortation to "Follow the Child", and with the roots of agile learning:
The soil we grow from is trust: in students, in each other, in you. The four assumptions—roots—which ground us are as follows:
- Learning: Learning is natural. It’s happening all the time.
- Self-Direction: People learn best by making their own decisions. Children are people.
- Experience: People learn more from their culture and environment than from the content they are taught. The medium is the message.
- Success: Accomplishment is achieved through cycles of intention, creation, reflection and sharing.
More details about ALCs are available here, and about Montessori here.
Education, Elevated
Our farm is at the trailhead to the summit of Mt. Ephraim, in Springfield, Vermont. Miles and miles of trails that were once stagecoach roads, and before that, Abenaki paths, beckon just beyond the garden gate. Our little adventurers explore, map, and help caretake a home range. There are boulders to climb, stick forts to be built, wild blackberries to gather, and hills to race down. A few weeks into the semester, the children are leading the hikes, because they know just where they want to go.
Our indoor learning space is a tranquil, spacious yoga studio with sunny yellow walls and big south-facing windows, adjacent to the kitchen in our 1810 brick farmhouse. During the school year, it becomes an emporium of tinkering invitations, tiny natural curiosities, and an abundance of handwork supplies. We've got a cozy corner for resting, snug nooks for reading, and enough room to play a good game of The Floor Is Lava when temperatures are too icy. During favorable weather, traditionally indoor pursuits tend to migrate to our sunny, south-facing deck, or out into the woods and meadows surrounding our farmhouse.
JOIN THE ADVENTURE
Vinnie the cat loves Storytime and snuggles
Vinnie the cat loves Storytime and snuggles
Vinnie the cat loves Storytime and snuggles
Vinnie is a registered emotional support animal. This snuggly guy waits by the window most mornings, waiting for his friends to arrive.
creation station
Vinnie the cat loves Storytime and snuggles
Vinnie the cat loves Storytime and snuggles
Goal-setting, tinkering, potion-making, and many other creative endeavors are ready to happen anytime, with everything we need at our fingertips.
A Legacy of Connection
A Legacy of Connection
A Legacy of Connection
Built in 1810 by two brothers, our brick Federal farmhouse was once an inn on the stage road from Brockways Mills to Springfield. It is listed in the Historic Homes of Springfield, Vermont, and was for many years a sheep farm.
Spaciousness
A Legacy of Connection
A Legacy of Connection
Wide open spaces abound, with expansive views over the Connecticut River Valley and beyond. Birdsong, spring peepers, the hush of snowfall, and the occasional rumble of a tractor plowing a field compose our soundscape.