Staff
Little Garden
Patch Farm is much more than a licensed care and education program,
it's a community! Learn more about the adults who help the children
learn and grow within this safe and loving community.
Owner/Director
Linnaea Avenell
Teacher Linnaea is an experienced educator,
administrator, caregiver, and parent with over 30 years of
professional experience working with
children and families.
Before opening Little Garden
Patch Farm in Soquel in 2013, Linnaea taught after school enrichment classes
through Los Gatos/Saratoga Recreation,
assisted in the classroom with K-3 elementary school children
at Washington Open Elementary, and was a popular
instructor with both young children and parents at Wilson
Preschool and Santa Clara Adult Ed. Linnaea is
also an experienced former homeschooling parent, sympathetic
to the challenges and gifts that accompany a variety of
learning styles. In addition to her many years teaching, she
has also worked as a director and administrator for youth
programs, as a professional writer, and as a pastoral
counselor.
As an avid nature enthusiast
and environmentalist all her life, she has a passion for
connecting children with nature and helping them understand
the importance of taking care of the world around us.
Her other personal interests include farming, crafting, sewing,
history, cultures, and writing. She loves
sharing these interests with the children and introducing
them to the creative magic of bringing new
things into the world.
As a working mom with three grown children
Linnaea is profoundly sympathetic to the challenges faced by
working parents and the need for quality care that provides children with a
secure, nurturing environment that scaffolds their development into
kind, responsible and creative members of the community.

Co-Owner/Handyman
Mike Avenell
Mike Avenell is Little Garden Patch
Farm's co-owner, resident handyman, and chief goat
wrangler. When not milking goats or making improvements and repairs on
the farm, Mike is a Silicon Valley
engineer helping to research a variety of experimental
high tech projects.
Mike is also an ordained interfaith
minister who has helped lead family retreats. He
has taught meditation for adults as well as children's interfaith
spiritual education.
Along with wife Linnaea, Mike co-taught their
Santa Clara based class Parenting From Compassion
and helped lead the Santa Clara chapter of the Earth's
Kids KIDS CLUB, a program designed to encourage
children and families to enjoy and protect the natural
world. Mike is an experienced volunteer/assistant in
K-3 classrooms and treasures his time with the children here
at Little Garden Patch.
Additional Team Members
Assisting with running the After School Care
and Summer Farm Camp programs are....
Teacher Michelle
Teacher Michelle is an Environmental Studies
graduate from UCSC and a professionally trained educator with over
20 years experience working with children in environmental education
as both a community volunteer and a professional educator. She loves sharing her encyclopedic knowledge of nature and animals with
children to help them appreciate and defend our natural world.
Teacher Michelle has led school field
trips and summer camps at the Environmental Education Center
for the
Don Edwards San Francisco Bay National Wildlife Refuge, taught children and adults about
marine animals and ecosystems at the
Seymour
Center at Long Marine Lab, served as a docent guide for
Natural Bridges State Park , and she led
Earth's Kids KIDS CLUB nature walks for families.
Teacher Michelle was also a popular
and much requested naturalist at the
Little Basin
Campground program. And prior to the onset of the 2020
pandemic, she was an instructor at W.O.L.F. --
the
Web of Life
Field School science camp at Monte Toyon in Aptos.
When not at Little Garden Patch she can be found leading workshops at
the
Puppetry Institute.
As an accomplished
professional artist who works in a variety of mediums including oil and
acrylic paint, sculpture, computer art, costume design,
puppetry, and
more, Michelle offers the children at Little Garden Patch
valuable tips and instruction in a variety of
creative projects. 
She is also our resident
expert on all things "My Little Pony" and "Pokemon".
And this, along with her extensive nature lore, sewing
wizardry, and dragon
drawing tutorials has made her extremely popular with the
children!
Teacher Jon
Teacher Jon is a former Cabrillo College student who
is very popular with the children for his mastery of role playing
games and pretend, swordplay, storytelling, cartooning, and
puppetry. He provides a calm, safe presence as an
assistant during after school pick-up, and occassionally helps out
as a substitute assistant teacher when needed.
Teacher Gabbi
Teacher Gabbi is a Cabrillo College
Early Childhood Education student with many years of
experience working in the child care setting. She is
an accomplished artist whose sewing, drawing and crafting
skills are a great help to the children in the art studio.
And she is a master of anime and cartoon lore.
Although she is here at the farm only part time, she is
hugely popular with the children, especially the youngest
ones for whom she has a great affinity.
Creating a Safe Community
For the children's safety ALL staff,
seasonal assistants, and volunteers
at Little Garden Patch have been fingerprinted and cleared through
an extensive background check with the Santa Cruz Sherrif's
Department and the FBI.
In addition, each team member has also had their
references and health record verified by LGPF's director before their
first day on the job. And, each new staff person must serve an
apprenticeship with an established teacher before being
given lead supervision duties as they learn the routines and
protocols here at Little Garden Patch.
And lastly, it is our policy to
encourage all children to speak up -- to their parents and
the other teachers --if anything should happen that makes
them feel sad or uncomfortable. Please support us by
encouraging your child to come to you to discuss and process
any troubling incident in their lives, whether at home, at
school, or at the farm.
Social learning is the main job of
young children. And gaining new skills in speaking up
for themselves, setting fair and healthy boundaries, and in
resolving conflicts (no matter how minor it may seem to an
adult) will benefit them them both in school and later on as
adults. Thanks for your help!
HOME
|