ANIMAL CARE AND BARN -
A CFM SIGNATURE PROGRAM
"Children have an anxious concern for living beings, and the satisfaction of this instinct fills them with delight. It is therefore easy to interest them in taking care of plants and especially animals". Maria Montessori, The Discovery of the Child
Cape Farm Montessori is a farm school and at the heart of our work is a belief in the reciprocal benefits of human-animal interactions and the utmost importance of the proximity to nature and connectedness between animals and children.
Since our establishment, CFM has offered the child both indoor and outdoor child-centred environments which stimulate the child’s physical, personal, social, and academic development through the care and maintenance of living things and animals. Our campus is home to a variety of domestic and wild fauna and includes 2 donkeys, a pig, numerous chickens and our hand-reared peacock. Our eco-pool supports a variety of species and is an important breeding pond for the Western Leopard toad.
Through our BARN programme, we strive to educate and instil positive values early on. We believe this is important not just for animal welfare but for the child’s wellbeing too. We believe it is important to understand four broad and interrelated areas of children’s relationships with animals, namely their knowledge, attitudes, empathy and behaviour with respect to animals.
Within this broad framework, young children develop a wide range of specific biological theories including concepts of life and death, growth, food and eating, inheritance, genetics and reproduction, and illness and health. Through direct experience with animals, a child can learn how to accurately predict and recognise another’s feelings and share these feelings as an empathic human being. We believe a duty of care for animals is a fundamental link to environmental stewardship and functions to socialise children into caring adults.
Our BARN program is extended to all the children on our campus from Toddlers to Pre-schoolers on a daily basis and is supplemented with occasional outings and excursions.