Founder, Ecology + Farm Teacher

Lacy Stewart was born and raised in the Ozarks. She and her husband Dustin landed back in the area after college and felt a calling to provide a space for the community to gather, utilize, and develop programs like Rooted Adventure School. From that, a lot of hard work, and determination, the Stewart Farms CO-OP was born. You might say Lacy is a "reluctant homeschool mom". The farm work and business side of things are more her strengths. But when watching her kids work together to creative problem solve a fort build or identify the latest creature they've rescued, it has been a no-brainer that home based education is the right path for her family no matter how much self discipline she has to muster. Developing a ferocious appetite for learning and an always inquisitive mind is at the for-front of her teaching style. Her four kids spend the majority of the day roaming the farm making discoveries while she tends to the plants and animals. This style of "life-long learning" more closely based on your geographical region is part of what sparked the desire to create Rooted Adventure School. A place where parents can become a part of a community, share the load, and delight in the joys of home education.

Art Teacher

Barrett Crosby Cook was born and raised in Springfield, Missouri. She graduated college with a bachelor’s degree in art, with focus on multidisciplinary art-making and creative writing. After a few years of work in the art world and other artistic pursuits, she returned home and began working for Placeworks — an organization managed by the Springfield Art Museum that hired artists to facilitate art projects with rural schools, lead tours at the museum, and guide students on nature-based art walks at the Watershed Center. She then combined lives with her now husband and have had two children — ages one and three. Revering the land of the Ozarks, cherishing the seasons, and nurturing a sense of community are all priorities to Barrett and her ventures with Rooted Adventure School. In addition to teaching, Barrett is continually learning in permaculture, craft, reading, and movement while dabbling in the beginnings of homeschooling with her little ones.

Teacher: 11&up

Kellyn, her husband, and their five children recently moved from the Arizona desert to Southwest Missouri. She enjoys taking care of their homestead and reading good books aloud with her children, a hot cup of coffee in hand. Kellyn has homeschooled from the very beginning and loved (almost) every minute of it. Finding inspiration from Charlotte Mason and Wild & Free, nature study has always been an integral part of their homeschool life. Nature, literature, and the liberal arts are the main pulse behind their family culture. She and her husband recently founded Bardic Inspiration, a local youth organization centered around the importance of story and its role in history.

Teacher: 9-10

Lesley seeks to create an atmosphere for learning that is positive and beautiful—while allowing children to learn through their own observations, questions, and interests that will provide a love for life-long learning through books and living ideas.

Lesley grew up in the country just outside a small Missouri town and her favorite pastime was being outdoors with her horse. She’s still a country girl at heart, but now lives in the city with her husband and two daughters where she loves being a homemaker and mother teacher. She really appreciates a slow walk through the woods, tending to her ongoing project of a cottage garden, creating a cozy home, reading good books, and is in the constant pursuit of her own life-long learning.

Stefanie is a Missouri native who resides in the Ozarks with her husband and five kids. A lover of nature and rural life, she enjoys gardening, baking, reading, and hiking. One of her greatest joys is witnessing children connect with nature and discover their bigger purpose within creation. Stefanie is passionate about encouraging others to find the beauty in any surrounding, especially in their natural environment.Teacher: 6-8

Sienna is a homeschooling mom of four with a love for plants who focuses on connecting young people with the land around them. She teaches herbalism for youth and adults at her home in Springfield and focuses on native ecology and foraging within the Ozarks Bioregion.