From a young age, Roz Hanchett knew she wanted to be a teacher.
It was something that came natural to her, and it helped growing up in a household with two parents as educators. She saw the importance of learning and the impact that can be made through education. And it wasn’t just Hanchett, as both of her brothers, Eliot and Duncan Pelletier, have gone on to become teachers as well.
As a student at Mountain Shadows in Dublin, she loved her time working with the “little trees” and would make a point to help whenever she could. After graduating from ConVal, Hanchett wasn’t one of those students who needed to figure out what she wanted to do with her life. She chose Simmons University in Boston because it had the five-year masters program in education, which upon graduation would allow her to fulfill her dream.
While she loved growing up in Peterborough, Hanchett also had this urge to branch out. She had friends who were going to school in Boston, and wanted that big city experience. But the pull was there to come back to the area.
“I always knew when I had kids that I wanted to raise them around here,” Hanchett said.
When her oldest daughter, Elsa, was a baby, Hanchett started a play group in her Peterborough home she shares with her husband Josh and their three children. It was a way to get other young moms together with their kids, but it has morphed into something that even Hanchett didn’t envision. It’s been almost six years since Hanchett founded Robin’s Nest Nature Preschool, open to children ages 18 months to 6 years, and the interest has grown to the point where she’s already full for next school year.
Growing up, Hanchett was always outside, and she wanted the same thing for her children – and others in the area. She took a one-day workshop at Antioch University New England in Keene that centered on the creation of a nature-based preschool and immediately knew it was the next step in her education career.
“I didn’t know “nature preschool” was a term but it was around the start of the nature school revolution in the U.S.,” she said.
The goal is for the children to be outside as much as possible. If the weather cooperates, they are out there from the start of the day till their parents pick them up – and many of the kids don’t want to leave when that time comes. They eat lunch and snack outside, take naps in strollers and do craft projects on the collection of picnic tables.
“It’s child led and it’s just the value of knowing and appreciating that children are learning while they’re playing,” Hanchett said. “It’s great to see them be individuals, make choice for themselves. Because there’s really a natural rhythm to how we’re learning.”
They have free rein of Hanchett’s backyard, which has been transformed into a child’s dream play area with a large sandbox, multiple slides, playground equipment and lots of toys. But it isn’t all just play, there’s always an element of learning behind the day’s adventure.
“They do not get bored and they never come up to you and ask what to do,” she said. “They see birds, bugs, worms, we go fishing in the stream.”
They recently learned about vernal pools and planted flowers for May Day, delivering them to the doorsteps of Hanchett’s neighbors. The teachers and kids have taken field trips to the library, the Peterborough Fire Department and the Mariposa Museum, and once a month visit with the residents at Scott-Farrar, typically walking from West Peterborough at least one way.
“Having preschool aged kids interact with the elderly is so valuable,” Hanchett said.
Hanchett creates monthly themes – next up is frogs – and uses educational resources in the region like the Harris Center, Audubon and parents to help teach. They do yoga, learn about nutrition and Hanchett has even started teaching them Spanish.
“It’s been such an amazing program and I’m just so thankful for my family and staff,” she said.
For Hanchett, it’s really the perfect age group to work with.
“You get pretty invested in their lives and you get to experience so many milestones with them,” she said.
The program is five days a week, with as many as 20 students at a time, although there are more than 40 enrolled either full time or part time. One day a week, Hanchett leaves the students in the care of her “amazing staff” so she can teach at Mountain Shadows, where her mom Anne Pelletier has worked for more than 30 years. It affords her the opportunity to work with different age groups and is where Elsa attends second grade, and her son Ian, 6, goes a couple days a week. Hanchett’s youngest daughter Lila is at Robin’s Nest every day.
Since Robin’s Nest follows the school calendar, during the summer she holds one-week themed camps. And with other preschool program closing down since she opened Robin’s Nest, Hanchett has thought about opening another location, including one that would be located in downtown Peterborough.
“I’d love to work with someone to help open something, but I’d have a hard time being away from it,” she said.
Her love of teaching has translated into coaching youth sports, helping with both indoor futsal and basketball this year at the pre-K and kindergarten level. She was heavily involved in sports growing up and her kids have become “obsessed with sports,” she said.
“I think team sports are really valuable,” Hanchett said.
She runs the Living Local Art Fair that takes place each December in Peterborough and spent a few years on the Children and the Arts committee. For the last 15 years, Hanchett has been creating clothing using the art of batiking, which is a technique of using dye-resistant wax to create patterns on fabric.
“It’s neat to see people wearing what you made – and I try not to repeat anything,” she said.
Hanchett is all about being as involved in the community as possible. That’s why she brings the students to different locations around town, does nice things for her neighbors and holds fundraisers for organizations that have helped her along the way.
“I love volunteering and doing what I can,” she said
Things couldn’t have worked out much better for Hanchett. She gets to do what she loves every day, spend quality time with her family and support the community that she both grew up in and has been doing the same for her over the last six years.
“To be able to do what you love and have the support of so many people… it’s really fulfilling work,” she said.