Škola v Přírodě

view from our cottage - breathtaking

When I first arrived in the Czech Republic my oldest son was 7 and immediately started 1^st class. Immediately I learned that the school organizes something called “Škola v Přírodě“ (school in nature.) As a newbie in the Czech school system and as an American I didn’t understand why would a school take away a whole class for a week somewhere into the nature and hang out with them… where is the learning part? And then year after year I learned to appreciate such activities not only as a parent (because a week without my son was just heaven – an I do love him dearly) but also as a teacher as I learned to value what the students were learning during that week… It was out of school, it was fresh and clean, it was social and adventurous, it was independent and fun….

our cottage

This year, I decided to take my class to such a trip. We chose to go abroad yet not very far to keep the cost at minimum. We chose the neighboring country of Slovakia and their famous High Tatry Mountains. It was 3 nights and 4 days of living in a tiny little clean cottage, eating good Slovak food such as ….. and walking and walking and walking…. Lots of hiking which we all very much complained about yet would do it again if asked J I think the only thing I would do better next year – is to assure that there is no internet or WIFI there…(yeah, the students would cry…)