Rudolf Steiner and others recommend reviewing the day backwards. I find it excellent practice for myself, and often I find it a helpful way to review a week with our nursery children.
It felt just right to have siblings from the kindergarten sit with their younger siblings in the Butterfly Room before our closing circle. It also seemed to work well to allow nursery children to run to a parent and come back to our playground before we gather for the closing circle. A parent from kindergarten has asked if her toddler--not at all at a developmental stage where she finds it easy to sit placidly in her mother's arms before coming to the closing circle--could join us on the nursery playground for those last 5 minutes before we gather for the circle. This child has joined us a couple of times, as has my younger son a couple of times. My observation in all these cases has been that this brief addition of a younger child has helped the transition from home to school. On one day I saw an older child in the nursery class merrily playing and "mothering" one of these visiting toddlers. On another day one of the younger children in the nursery class, with a big smile, enjoyed a chance to guide one of these toddlers. Kim Payne talks about the benefit we give our children we gradually bring worlds together rather than having sharp transitions (his examples are often in home life--in gradually bringing a child into the "world" of the parent who is making dinner). Although I had some concerns that the kindergarten children might feel deprived of their experience by coming to sit with the nursery class, and although I had some concerns that once a Butterfly child hugged mom or dad she wouldn't want to come back, and although I still hold it possible that a toddler visiting us at the end of the day wouldn't always work, I have observed that this gradual transition from school to home has been very helpful for all the children. Please do give me feedback if you find it is not working for one of your children or your family.
We have been spending about 90 minutes outside each day, and we visit several play areas in addition to our nursery playground, swings, and berry patch. Right before we return to the playground, children and teachers work and play together in a clearing with a teepee constructed by last year's fourth grade. At the start of our school year, there was also a pile of moldy blankets present in this clearing. Over three days last week, Kim and I packed the blankets into bags and hauled them off. Often these little bits of work, of bringing a touch of order to potential chaos, has tremendous satisfaction for children who play and work in the environment of work. Kim then began gathering rocks to build a (pretend) fire ring. Children helped build up a (pretend) bonfire and roasted (pretend) hot dogs, smores, and the like. We continue to visit a mountain to climb down and up (challenging and optional), a clearing with big rocks to climb, and a big clearing near the ropes course where we have a snack of crunchy fruit or vegetables and seeds.
In this big clearing, I have been offering traditional singing games such as "Then We Go to Market," "Fiddle up to London Town," and "Hey Jim Along Josie." We have not been obligating children to sing and move to these games with us. On one day, a number of children were picking berries or playing other games--until "Jim Along" came (it gives a chance to run, try to skip, and jump). On Wednesday all 8 children participated freely for most of the circle time.
It continues to work to have me and children ahead with the scouts on our walks and other children being guards in the back with Kim on our walks. As one boy said as we walked slightly behind the children in front, "You and I are the chiefs on this walk." We have occasional trips over tree roots, but in general the children find this time nourishing and invigorating.
We have been blessed with mild whether. Although a number of these outdoor play environments do have shelter of some sort, please do check your child's supplies to make sure the rain gear (which we have not needed yet) is ready for our first rainy day at school. After September 29, as per our early childhood policy, we will wear rain pants, coats, and boots every day. This allows us to venture forth on our walks without fear of being surprised by rain.
Although some children still quietly or vocally protested over rice or soup, others who had not tried rice or soup the first week tried them. Some children have much bigger breakfasts at home than others, too. One child commented, "O, I actually like this kind of soup" after not trying the soup at all the first week. The bread and butter on Tuesday seemed universally popular. We do have that second snack at 11:45am, and I have not noticed any children showing stress or melting down because they are hungry. Please let me know if you feel your child is suffering because she or he is not getting enough snack. I am not going to change what I serve (this would not be very helpful to that child or her or his classmates), but I can--as I have in past years--be more insistent at snack time with one or two children to have them try and eat more. I prefer not to do this, but I also realize that each child is different and as a teacher am willing to modulate my approach while keeping the course of the classroom ship headed in the direction it needs to go. I have told a (true) story about a boy who loved to play outside except on soup day. When his mom and I reminded him that he did actually enjoy many of the vegetables in the soup, and I insisted he eat two bowls, he started having fun outside again because he was not so hungry. This became a treasured story in years past.
On one day this week, with a just a little help from teachers, children built a big car or bus in the open space in the middle of the classroom. At one point every child was part of the construction and the game. There were several steering wheels and more than enough seats for everyone. There were some disagreements. There were times where there seemed to be separate games going on (steering wheels in different directions, name changing from bus to car to plane). Some children built beds into the bus. I was particularly impressed when children wanted to make seat belts for their bus. They asked me and Kim to tie some of the colorful ropes we've been knitting, and children asked to have them be big enough to hold in two or three children (like an amusement ride at the county fair). This allowed every child to have a seat belt. This game, with permutations, lasted for half an hour or more. It reminded me of how much the creative play of children (more than any puppet show, story, or song I can lead) can help develop attention span, cognition, and social and emotional capacities. It was also very nice to see that is possible for the entire class to play in the same area--even if separate games became more prevalent in coming weeks or months.
While there have been many harmonious moments, there has been discord in the play as well. Some of this manifests itself when two children are playing and a third wants to join the game, or when a child calls another her or his "best friend" at the exclusion of another. Disputes over various play materials continue, as they likely will all year. Even though this article is ostensibly about conflict for toddlers and not nursery children, it does an excellent job of bringing together various streams from Waldorf education, RIE and Pikler, and social inclusion work of Kim John Payne for young children. These moments are often challenging for the children--and for the adult trying to help the conflict evolve into conversation without championing one child over another. Here is a selection I have written about ways of speaking without judging, inspired by the book Whole Child/Whole Parent.
With warmth and light,
William Geoffrey Dolde
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