More Details for Spring's Outside Start

These details may evolve to meet the needs of our children and parents.

Slippers  I will move slippers inside the classroom in a basket.  Children will put them on inside the classroom.  We will collect slippers inside the classroom before the 12:20pm dismissal.  Please check in from time to time to see that your child's slippers still fit.

Snacks  In essence, we will have 3 distinct snack times.  

1.  Chamomile tea and nuts and seeds at outside drop-off from 8:30 to 9am--a little something to warm up a cold child.  I will supply as many nuts and seeds as I can.  You are welcome to bring nuts and seeds to contribute.

2.  Fruit and crunchy vegetables around the kindergarten shelter at about 9:45am.  Children will make bowls with their hands and teachers will pass around bits of apple, carrot, cauliflower, and soforth.  Please avoid tiny pieces like raisins; these tend to fall through children's hands.  You may drop off these fruits and vegetables inside (basket in hallway) or outside. 

3.  Warm snack in the classroom around 11am.  Rice Monday, Bread Tuesday, and Soup Wednesday.  

Soup Vegetables  We begin preparing the warm snacks a day in advance:  we prepare bread and butter Monday to eat Tuesday; we prepare soup Tuesday to eat Wednesday.  Please bring soup vegetables by Tuesday morning.  If you forget, you and your child could cut a vegetable at home to bring on Wednesday morning, and we will add this to the soup then.

Somewhat Late Arrivals  A reason for our change in schedule is to relieve family and hallway stress in the morning.  As I wrote before, because some children may get to school early, I don't want to make them wait too long in wind and cold before going to the cover of the woods.  We will begin our walk around 9:05 or so--this may change; if most children arrive at 8:25, we will begin earlier; if many children arrive around 9:10, we will start later.

I don't want to make matters stressful.  If you find yourself getting to school at 9:06 to an empty playground, know that we will now always begin our walk with a few minutes of play in the clearing around the teepee on the school property.  You may walk your child there to meet us.  As always, please call the school 341-5686 if your child will not attend school that day.

Carrots, Maxwelton Beach, Looking for Spring

Carrots

       While searching for food in the snow, Little Rabbit of our puppet show discovered twelve extra carrots.  Because our classroom Tomten has been sharing rice and bread and soup with him, Little Rabbit gave Tomten the carrots.  To thank our children for making and sharing snacks with him, the Tomten has passed along a carrot to each your child.  Your child will discover this at snack time, and I will pass long your child's carrot after our closing circle today, Wednesday.

        In our puppet show, rabbit, sheep, donkey, and deer all interact and share their gifts.  In recent school days, our nursery children have been sharing their imaginative gifts with one another.  New children and returning children, girls and boys, older and younger children are interacting much more, and play scenarios are transforming and evolving.  Their have been a number of animal themes:  beavers (one reason children come back with dirt on their face from our walk), chipmunk families including a young boy portraying Grandpa chipmunk, humans caring for dogs, dogs misbehaving, merry dancers cavorting about the room during playtime, cement work and destruction, crocodile hunting, and searches for pirate treasure (with maps drawn in the classroom).

Upcoming Dates

Kim Payne, tonight, Wednesday, February 11, 7 - 9pm, WICA.

No school February 16 - 20, Midwinter Break.

You are invited to join the Dolde Family at Maxwelton Beach, Friday, February 20, from 9:30 to 11am (tide should be low).  This is a chance for children to reconnect and parents to have informal conversation with each other or me.  Siblings welcome. 

Simplifying, Looking for Spring, Starting Outside

After the Midwinter break, we will be starting our mornings outside until the Spring break. The children and I will be looking for Spring on these morning walks.

While you can answer your child's question "Why are we starting outside?" with the response, "So that teachers and you can look for Spring," adults may want more information.  There are many pros and cons to making a schedule shift, and I will not discuss them all here. Here are some changes parents need to be most aware of, with a little bit of discussion.

8:20 - 9am  Parents arrive with child, has child use bathroom, and takes child to Berry Patch playground where Kim (before 8:35) or William (after 8:35) will greet the child.  Children can play.  On cold mornings, hot tea will be available for the child. 

Because I am trying to reduce crowding, noise, and potential stress in the hallway before school (a compelling reason to try the schedule shift), I am allowing, almost encouraging, a more staggered start for our nursery morning.  If you are at school early in any event to drop off an elementary child and you are able to have your child use the bathroom and gear up early, I want to make it possible for you to clear out of the hallway before 8:30.  Because I have to walk my son to kindergarten, sometimes a little after 8:30, I am asking Kim to be the gracious one to greet earlybirds.  A substitute might not be able to be outside by 8:20, so please do not assume school automatically starts at 8:20 with plans to make the 8:30 ferry. 

For families arriving at the peak time of 8:30, remember that there are bathrooms upstairs.  If it works for your child to use the bathroom and gear up at home, and you are confident your child can last until after 10am before using the bathroom, you can also use that option and avoid the crowded morning hallway completely.

For parents without grades or kindergarten children who find it a challenge to arrive at 8:30 only to navigate a crowded hall, you may find it simplifies your morning to bring your child at 8:40, 8:45, 8:50, 8:55, and so-on.  The hallway and bathrooms will be less noisy, and you may find the transition less stressful.  I want to begin our walk close to 9am for a couple of reasons:  on windy, rainy mornings it is warmer and drier in the woods; I want to be able to enjoy the play spaces and trails of the woods without rushing while being aware that we want to return to school to be close to bathrooms before or by 10am.  If you are going to be much later than 9am, please call the school 341-5686 and plan on meeting us after our walk at 10am.

Finally, if your child has lacked rest, is enthusiastic for school but not quite at full strength after an illness (but not contagious, of course), you might consider an occasional 10am start to keep your child connected to school without overtaxing your child.  

Outdoor snack will be early, somewhere around 9:30 to 10am.   Please keep bringing fruits, vegetables, and/or nuts to share.  We will have a basket outside in the shelter near the clay oven.

Eurythmy will now take place on Mondays around 10:15am.  On Tuesdays and Wednesdays, I will offer a circle inside the classroom and our blessing ("The Sun Rays from the Heavens Free") to remember children who are not in school at about that time.

Bathroom boats and washing hands and play and preparation for snacks will take place from 10:25 to 11 or so.  We will be starting to prepare for the next day's snack, making butter on Monday for Tuesday's bread, cutting vegetables on Tuesday for Wednesday's soup.  Please bring soup vegetables on Tuesday so we can prepare for Wednesday.

Our warm snack of rice, bread, or soup will take place at 11am or so (I am trying to have our blessing after the elementary children have completed their 11am recess so we are not overly distracted).  Then we will have lots of time wash dishes (in the colder weather, we have been adding or changing shirts to children who get wet washing dishes; because we are staying inside, we may not necessarily always do this.  Part of the early school experience is learning that not every potential hardship, such as a wet shirt, ruins the morning), play, and tidy up the room.

At or shortly after noon, I will present a puppet show (a pocket apron version of "Goldilocks and the Three Bears."  I will write more about this story and the concept of "just right" in a future entry).  Kim and I will say goodbye to children in the classroom and conclude our morning with our rest at the table.  Children still get to take turns playing the lyre.

No later than 12:20pm, Kim or I will open the hallway door.  Children will still be seated at the table.  Please allow parents with kindergarten siblings (or ones picking up kindergarten children) to greet their child first so that they can dress their child for the kindergarten closing outside.  Come to the door, and we will quietly have your child join you.  Please move gracefully and swiftly out of the classroom to avoid saddening children still waiting for a parent.  Let me know if this 12:20pm pickup allows enough time to reach the kindergarten circle. 

While you are welcome to pick up at 12:25 or 12:30, remember that your child will have seen other children being picked up earlier.  The hallway becomes noisier at about 12:30 when the kindergarten children and families enter.

With warmth and light,

William Geoffrey Dolde