When Aaren Harris created her pre-school program, she wanted her three-year-old students to be able to get outside.

Last month, students at Little Wings Farm School got an up-close look at cultivating crops when temperatures dip below freezing at Old Saratoga Mercantile.

“There aren’t many adults who know how food is grown. So I think it’s really cool for them to see it,” says Harris, the director of Little Wings Farm School.

New York doesn’t offer forest school licensing, but what she has created with Little Wings Farm School is a bit of a hybrid.

Besides farming, Harris teaches students kindergarten readiness. Those lessons are then paired with monthly field trips to different farms, where even learning how to plant garlic helps kids with their skills.

“Any job that they strengthen their muscles in their arms and hands is just the work of early childhood. So it’s great. All of these farming tasks really translate to down the line, like writing readiness,” says Harris.

Old Saratoga Mercantile first invited students to the farm last year. Since then, the kids have been able to explore the crops, and the farm store.

“For us, here personally, I think we’re doing something differently than, no one else is doing the winter greens. So it’s not just you’re seeing a farm that most kids don’t get to see. You’re seeing a unique farm that very rarely exists in Northern New York,” says Christina Myers, owner of Old Saratoga Mercantile.

Harris says she has a waitlist of about 90 children for only a handful of spots. She hopes others can replicate the program she’s created, but says licensing could prevent problems. Because of the lack of forest school programs, it is up to local town boards to decide what the pre-schools can really look like.

“Really, what could happen in the future is that the state decides to adopt a more open forest school licensure program because there are a lot of people coming to me trying to duplicate this program and struggling,” says Harris.