Soup, Clothes, Wolves, Dreams, Geese, Meeting

Soup We welcome soup vegetables on Monday and Tuesday. Children and I work on peeling and chopping the vegetables at the end of the morning on Tuesday. If Wednesday comes and you realize you have forgotten to bring a soup vegetable, please bring vegetables that you (or you and your child, ideally) have already chopped at home.

Winter Clothes Over break, boots and clothes and bags were lifted so that deep cleaning could occur. Please check to see that your child's clothes are on your child's hooks. If you feel confident frosty weather is behind us, consider bringing home some of your child's extra winter coats and snow pants (leaving rain gear at school, of course). My experience is that families that leave lots of extra clothes at school until June tend to lose some in the end of the year business.

The Wolf and the Seven Little Kids Our nursery children seemed ready for a told fairy tale (rather than puppet show) with more drama. While I observe plenty of cooperative play, I have also observed increasing interest in conflict and tension--play themes that involve taking and robbing (these themes are not limited to boys or girls), themes about death and rebirth. I have heard children say, "We can never die" or, "Teacher, if you kill us real, we'll come back." The timed seems right for a well-wrought, artistic gift that presents images of life, death, and reincarnation and helps feed the interest of the children with a narrative that engages with these themes while also providing light and warmth. "The Wolf and the Seven Little Kids" is just such a story from the Grimms' collection. It is often a favorite first story of the sort that has more tangible forms of darkness and evil (teachers generally delay stories such as Cinderella or Hansel and Gretel until children are 6 or 7; "The Wolf and the Seven Little Kids" has been told to fascinated and delighted children many times in many Waldorf schools and elsewhere).
Here is an on-line version of the story, very similar to what I tell. I offer this not with the recommendation that you read this to your child at home, but so that you can be aware in case your child talks about any of these themes at home. I was blessed to be able to have Nancy Mellon (author of Storytelling With Children and a teacher of storytellers) observe me tell this story to a kindergarten class years ago, and many of the nuances I use (or choose not to use) come from Nancy's discussion with me afterwards. I plan to tell this story at our meeting Sunday and will relate some of what Nancy discussed with me.
Here are some words towards interpretation of the story from Rudolf Meyer from The Wisdom of Fairy Tales.

Dreams While young children have loved the story, the wolf, nonetheless, can be scary. He does swallow six of the seven children. The wolf does die at the end of the story. While I gave due consideration and concluded that this story would have a positive effect on our class as a whole, and while I did discuss my decision with parents of younger children in the class, it is possible that a child could be upset by the story (although this has not occurred with me, I have heard of other nursery teachers observing that some of the youngest children become upset because the wolf drowns, not because he tricks the kids and swallows them). Nancy Mellon, in working with parents and children, recommends drawing with a child to help process what the child is experiencing. She also acts out this story with her kindergartens (I did this, too, as a kindergarten teacher; in the nursery, I try to avoid singling out the children by having them play this or that role; at the same time, I would not be surprised--I even hope--that children pick up plot elements from the story in their play).
I am offering a brief pdf selection here about responding to children's dreams from Whole Child/Whole Parent by Polly Berrien Berends. I find Berends' reflections in this selection helpful not only in responding to dreams and nightmares but also in responding to fears and challenges our children present. I recommend her book highly (and did so in several parent conferences); know that it is not a quick read; its strength, however, is in its meandering and meditative nature--it does not answer questions but helps us frame our questions in a new light.

Wild Goose Lake In a conference, I had a helpful conversation with a parent about fairy tales, gender roles, archetypes, needs for new archetypes, and the like. I recommended the fairy tale "Wild Goose Lake," in which two girls use music to gain a golden key to unlock a gate to provide water to their village. They have to free the water from the Dragon King, but he never appears in the story, and there are not the battles or deaths or marriage plots you might find in other tales. I have told this story to many kindergartens and nurseries (and may tell it to our class at the end of the year). Here is an on-line text for this tale. I would be glad to talk about this tale, gender roles, archetypes, and stereotypes during our meeting on Sunday.

Meeting, Sunday, 3 to 4:30pm On Sunday, I will tell "The Wolf and the Seven Little Kids," read a book, and present one or two other experiences (not necessarily pleasant). These then will allow us to discuss a variety of topics (really based on the interest of the parents present) including but not limited to, media and violence in the media, looking ahead in the Waldorf school and discussing reasonable expectations for playdates and movies and the like, fairy tales and gender roles and stereotypes and archetypes (I am a big fan of Jack Zipes, and you may find me somewhat flexible), and more. I am not attached to where the discussion goes; I feel very prepared to talk about or help talk about these topics, but I want to avoid making the meeting a lecture.