Lydia Palmer

Robin’s Nest Afternoon Class Lead Teacher

I grew up right here in Lawrence, Kansas, with an older brother and sister, and my “Mama” and “Daddy”, for whom I am unfathomably grateful for every day. My primary education was much like that of others who went through the public school system, but my parents did everything they could to foster my endless, nagging curiosity and enthusiasm to learn more outside of school. My mother taught me about foraging and herbalism, connecting with the earth, while my father taught me how to ride a bike, painted with me, and read aloud to us every night. By adulthood, I had decided to pursue a degree and continue this quest for knowledge, and maintained a job at the Merc Co-op for a good part of the time I was studying. I graduated in May 2020, with a BA in Psychology and a minor in Applied Behavioral Science. 

I am an avid gardener and forager to this day, as well as a member of the Kaw Valley Mycological Society. While it mostly remains a personal skill and hobby, I am an artist, and am currently working on hand-writing and illustrating a book about plants in the Brassica family. After getting my degree at KU, I’ve always wanted to combine psychology with education, art, and nature. I have long talked about envisioning and creating some sort of art/gardening and foraging therapy program for children and adults and what that might look like. Coincidentally, I found a community in Prairie Moon which embodies so many of my passions. While I do not have former Waldorf training at this current time, I am so excited and eager to learn more and expand my level of expertise and the tools I may use to help encourage your child to flourish.

In my eyes, I have been a lifelong artist, creative, learner, and “wonderer”: One of the aspects of life and our progression through it that excites me the most is that it is impossible to know everything. I find the notion both freeing and exhilarating, especially because it means there are always opportunities to learn more, and wish that everyone could maintain the same wonder at exploring the world throughout their entire lives, through eyes of openness rather than cynicism. It is especially important in early childhood to nurture and foster a sense of curiosity, wonder, exploration in an integrally vulnerable but beautifully open, receptive, and intuitive part of children’s lives. I believe learning should never feel like dread or discouragement, but create the openness to learn from mistakes, from others, from the inherent lessons that nature holds for you without shame or judgment.