About US
Adventuring Outdoors Together for Over a Decade
Touring the Colorado Rockies by bicycle, trail running, overnight backpacking trips, weddings, then babies...all momentous adventures made successful and more fun with the support of each other! Now, as parents of young children, we want their childhoods to be filled with wonder and adventure. We both have benefited from the joys and challenges of the natural world - why not provide this for our children’s learning environment as well? The desire for a less-structured, outdoor, play-based school stirred the souls of both Sarah and Beth and has become the latest of our adventures together.
With the encouragement of one another, we both became trained Cedarsong Forest Kindergarten Teachers and certified Forest School Directors by the Forest School Teacher Institute. Now our vision has materialized as Little Mountain Forest School. Come join us!
Sarah Callaway, MEng, PMP
I stepped off the plane in Sydney, Australia as an uptight, risk-averse pregnant mom, carrying my one-year-old so that he wouldn’t touch anything (or get lost, or kidnapped, or who knows what else.) I had temporarily given up my successful career in program management to become a stay-at-home mom in a country I’d never even visited. My brother-in-law told me, though the kids would be too young to remember their experience overseas, it would change the way we parented them. That statement sounded a bit dramatic to me at the time. Little did I know, it would not only change the way I parented...it would change almost everything about me.
The culmination of my experiences and the relationships I formed during our time in Australia taught me how to slow down, let go, and see the wonder in the small things. I studied Montessori, Waldorf, Reggio Emilia, and Bush Kindy philosophies while immersing myself and our children in these programs. The bush school we attended captured our hearts. When we returned to the US in 2019, I permanently resigned from my job and diligently have been working with Beth to create a school with a loving atmosphere of freedom and exploration for the children of North Alabama. We’re so excited to be able to welcome you to Little Mountain Forest School this fall!
Beth Barry, RN, MSN, CRNP
“I beg you, to have patience with everything unresolved in your heart and to try to love the questions themselves as if they were locked rooms or books written in a very foreign language. Don’t search for the answers, which could not be given to you now, because you would not be able to live them. And the point is to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps then, someday far in the future, you will gradually, without even noticing it, live your way into the answer.” Rainer Maria Rilke, Letters to a Young Poet
I spent much of my 20’s and 30’s on outdoor pursuits, traveling, and fulfilling my desire to serve others as a nurse practitioner. I also spent much of this time, as I did during my years in school, fueled by the desire to please and receive a pat on the back for a job well done. The outdoors provided the freedom to choose my own adventure and challenged me in a different and more fulfilling way; this was living. If I could spend the entirety of the day outdoors, I would! When it was time to start thinking about what schooling may look like for my son, Jack, I wanted him to begin his early years (and hopefully, beyond!) learning in an environment that encouraged him to explore and question the world around him without requiring a checklist or seeking the approval of others. I am thankful to Sarah for sharing the forest school philosophy, which encourages children to follow their interests, explore, and fuel curiosity. Come join us as we adventure together at Little Mountain Forest School!