WENDELL — Leaning over a tiny sprig of green leaves, 4-year-old Pax Belmonte points down and, quite sure of himself, said, “It’s wintergreen.”
He plucked one little leaf, scratched it with his finger, sniffed it and popped it into his mouth to eat.
The smell of a scratched wintergreen leaf, which is edible, is not something preschoolers typically learn, but Deer Paths Nature School has been teaching little bits of natural knowledge for 10 years.
At the Wendell preschool, children like Pax can spend their days learning how to garden, identify plants and animals, measure flower petals, write poetry about wildlife and even take care of four small quail.
“They are doing a lot of things kids in regular preschool just learn, but they’re directly learning it,” said Seal LaMadeleine, teacher and founder of the nonprofit school. “It’s also always something that has real-life usefulness.”
For its 10th anniversary, Deer Paths has added an additional 15 acres to the outdoor “classroom” that previously occupied only LaMadeleine’s backyard gardens.
LaMadeleine has expanded the program in more than just size. Deer Paths started in 2008 with just three students coming to her property once a week. Now it’s a three-days-a-week preschool of six children. She said she likes teaching a small group of children because of the individual attention each one gets.
In addition, LaMadeleine runs a once-a-month program for children from ages 6 to 8, Deer Paths Trackers, and one for children ages 8 to 12, Deer Paths Leapers.
“I’ve had kids go through all the programs since near when it started, for nine years,” LaMadeleine said. “They have gained so much knowledge.”
Deer Paths is tucked into a woodland clearing down a dirt driveway off Lockes Village Road, where LaMadeleine also lives. Gardens surround her home, different species of flowers grow sporadically across a grassy hill edged by woods. A natural bridge of rocks lies across a small stream nearby.
“I like picking the stuff,” said Pax, digging a hole in the “small garden” to plant a primrose.
“I like the stuff we can pick to make salads,” Pax added. “We have lettuce in the big garden, too.”
Just walking across the property, the children demonstrated how it’s nearly impossible to not learn about the natural world there.
“That’s an Indian Cucumber,” said Preston Hydefrost of Greenfield, bending over a small green plant with seemingly nothing special about it.
The plant, the students will dig up for its edible root.
Deer Paths, LaMadeleine said, operates primarily because of tuition fees. However, the community has been helping the school expand, donating to its fund drives. Just last weekend, Deer Paths raised $850 through a benefit concert. A few years ago, the students at Deer Paths hosted a raffle at the Great Falls Discovery Center in Turners Falls and raised several hundred dollars, LaMadeleine recalled.
The “big fund drive” took place over three weeks in 2016. LaMadeleine learned the 15-acre property adjacent to her house was going to be developed and pleaded with the owners to leave the natural landscape.
The owners agreed to sell the property for $15,000 and, “miraculously,” LaMadeleine said, Deer Paths raised the money through fliers and by word-of-mouth.
Paperwork and legal processes took several years, but the 15 acres was officially added to the school this winter, increasing the total property’s size to 21 acres. Now the weather has warmed, the students are fully utilizing the added land, the perfect gift for the school’s 10th anniversary.
“We get to do so much over there. We get to study and explore and be stewards,” LaMadeleine said. “With the Leapers, we went to the woods and taught them what was edible and made tea, just a natural tea.”
LaMadeleine said such community support has allowed Deer Paths to go on field trips, including annual hiking trips and trash pick-ups along the Connecticut River. In two weeks, LaMadeleine said the Deer Paths Leapers program will have its first-ever camp-out on the property.
LaMadeleine is pleased with the direction the program is going in. It all began as a dream to “get back to the woods.” Growing up in Connecticut, LaMadeleine always spent time with two things: nature and children. She had many younger cousins to look after and her house was surrounded by thick forest.
After several jobs as a reporter and teacher, she decided to move to Wendell, open the school and bring nature and children together.
The next step, LaMadeleine said, is getting the children more involved in activism and environmental protection. A few years ago, Deer Paths students researched bats, focusing on white-nose syndrome, a fungal disease killing bats in the U.S.
The preschool students presented their posters and information at the Great Falls Discovery Center and raised $450 to donate to bat conservation.
“I felt I needed to teach them what was going on in our environment that’s detrimental,” LaMadeleine said. “Our activism has taken off.”
Reach David McLellan at: dmclellan@recorder.com or 413-772-0261, ext. 268.