Because some parents cannot attend our meeting for adults on Wednesday, September 2, from 5 to 6pm in the Butterfly classroom, I am distributing the documents beforehand in an electronic format. I do not plan to bring paper copies to our meeting on Wednesday. As always, I will produce paper copies if you request.
Here is an excerpt from the Children's Garden Handbook about what to bring to school for your child. I made some additions, noting differences between expectations for the nursery and kindergarten. I'll restate some of the differences here: no mug needed for nursery; I have mittens your child can use in the nursery so you need not provide those unless you have gloves or mittens that work really well for you; because we are out in the morning, sun hats tend not to be as essential. While I ask that you do bring slippers or inside shoes for your child, please know that I will keep these inside the classroom, reserving your child's hallway cubby for spare clothes and outside clothes.
Click here to see a description of our rhythm or schedule of the day. Each group of children is different, and I will be prepared to adapt the schedule to best meet the needs of the group. Unlike last year, the two kindergarten classes will start outside the same time as the nursery. This will bring joy and potential complications. I think some of our children will love having a sibling nearby. Some of our nursery children, however, need a sheltered space away from six year olds playing like six year olds (and many of the five and six year olds in kindergarten need space to act their age without worry about two and three year olds). At the beginning of the year, we will allow nursery and kindergarten children to play together underneath the big shelter near the tool shed. Two at a time, I will permit kindergarten children to enter our nursery playground to push our nursery children on the swings (because it will be important for me to remain aware of our entire nursery group while my assistant helps children with clothes or the bathroom, I will refrain from pushing nursery children on the swings at the beginning of the year. I do this not to be mean but to provide logical and effective group management and oversight). As the year progresses, we may allow more or less interaction among the classes depending upon our observations of how things are working.
Here are some specific notes about nursery arrival and dismissal. While I exhort you to bring your child on time to kindergarten and grades classes, I realize that 4 hours is a long time for a nursery child, and I would much prefer your child come a little later (coming by 9am would still be on time; by 9:10am or so, we need to leave for our walk) if this means she or he will be well rested and will be more likely to have a wonderful nursery morning. Last year, I allowed parents to drop off nursery children as early as 8:15 am; to me this seemed healthier than having nursery children sit inside a noisy hallway. I will allow this at the beginning of the year this year to start, but if I find--with all the siblings--I am monitoring large groups of kindergarten children at 8:15am as well, I will have to stop or alter the practice. I do not expect or demand my kindergarten colleagues to also come out at 8:15am; they have intricate work to prepare inside the classroom. Our day officially begins at 8:30am.
Do plan to take your child to the bathroom before gearing up at 8:15, 8:30, 8:45, 9, or whenever you drop her or him off at the nursery playground.
Because kindergarten classes will be dismissing inside at 12:30pm, it will help all early childhood children and families if nursery parents begin picking up their children by 12:20pm. If you have no kindergarten child to pick up as well, please depart gracefully and quickly to make space for others. At 12:20pm, I'll start playing the fiddle, and my assistant will peek out to look for parents. We will dismiss nursery children 1 at a time. Please check your child's cubby each day to see if there are wet clothes to take home.
This document describes the manner in which we celebrate birthdays in the nursery class. In brief, parents need bring nothing from home for our celebrations (we make the cake in the classroom), nor worry about altering their schedule (the day proceeds as normal for the children with a lovely and simple celebration for children and teachers fitting in).
Here is a copy of the letter from me our school sent you last week. It will always be here in case you lose your original, wish to share information with relatives and friends, or the like.
I look forward to seeing many of you at our meeting Wednesday from 5 to 6pm. Babes in arms are always welcome at our class meetings. Do know that we will be engaging in a number of movement activities. I try to be as efficient and effective as possible: I will use movement to both help us get to know each other and to demonstrate aspects of Waldorf early childhood education. In addition, I will talk about birthdays, Michaelmas, our nursery Autumn festival, preview some of my puppet shows and describe how I choose literary material to share with nursery children, touch upon how discipline is handled, field all of your questions and respond to what I can, and end with an Irish farewell round that we can sing in parts at the end of our meetings and festivals throughout the year. It will be a busy and hopefully energetic hour. Please try to come on time. We have many parents attending the kindergarten meetings at 6pm, and I want to allow them to be on time for those meetings.
With warmth and light,
William Geoffrey Dolde
