Our Story

About BeeLoved Farm

BeeLoved Farm began as a real working micro-farm. Originally, my husband, Bill and I wanted to name our BioDynamic farm "Beloved Farm". But our oldest daughter, Shayne, inspired the name "Agapetos Farm" the Greek word Ἀγαπητός, meaning beloved.

As the farm grew, our weekends began to consist of nothing more than giving tours to families with young children. It wasn't until our youngest daughter, Taylor, who had begun taking Early Childhood classes at Folsom Lake College, that the vision for an Early Childhood Center was born.

Since my husband had made many observatory bee hives for the farm, the decision was made to return to the original English version of Beloved and added an extra "e" making it "BeeLoved Farm"

BeeLoved Farm was already equipped with a 2-room school building, as I was the founding board president of Cedar Springs Waldorf School and the building here was the original Kingergarten and 1st grade when the school opened on Michaelmas, 1990.

Taylor and I went to Austin for our LifeWays and came home after the first summer and opened BeeLoved Farm in July, 2010. We both completed our LifeWays training and graduated from Rudolf Steiner College in Fair Oaks, in August 2011. Shayne was the first to complete her Waldorf Teacher Training, also graduating from Rudolf Steiner College in Fair Oaks. Next, I completed my Waldorf Teacher Training in the Bay Area at the Bay Area Center for Waldorf Teacher Training. Finally, Taylor followed her older sister and mama and decided to attend the West Coast Institute for Waldorf Teacher Training to become certified as a Waldorf Early Childhood educator too. Just before Shayne took a lead position in Vermont, my oldest daughter and I completed our training in Research for Infant Educarers (R.I.E.).

So to recap, both Taylor and I completed our LifeWays Training. Both Shayne and I completed our R.I.E. (Pickler) training. All three of us have completed our Early Childhood Waldorf Teacher Training (Taylor was to have graduted but COVID-19 has pushed her graduation date out). I have also done the H.A.N.D.L.E. (Holistic Approach to Neuro-Development Learning Efficencies) and the foundational courses for Dr. Steiner's "Currative Education" courses.

I doubt highly that the men in the family, my son Colt or husband Bill, will obtain their Waldorf Teacher Training Certificates but we ladies in the Hodgkin family have certainly followed our heart's desire to work with young children and the farm is the perfect canvas upon which to create an artful living.