Joy in Variety, Joy in Repetition, Musicians in the Woods

Dear Families,

I wanted to share with you a pleasant polarity I have observed in this year's group of children--their apparent joy and satisfaction in both sameness and variety.

Your children seem as a group quite content to sing "Twinkle, twinkle," and the "Dandelion" song daily during our indoor circle time. Many children sing and gesture with enthusiasm. While it is true that young children enjoy repetition, this year's group of children seems particularly to find nourishment in familiar teacher-led material. Although I am far from reaching my goal, I strive to make a children's song or verse as artistic as a Bach partita for the violin or a poem by Rumi or Yeats or a novel by Woolf--rather than being deadening, the repetition can be enlivening (each iteration provides new discoveries). Some years I have had to remain steadfast in my belief in consistency and repetition amidst complaints and questions and demands for new material; this year I am staying with some songs longer than I had planned and will the potential challenge of finding the right time and motive to switch to new circle material.
We have celebrated birthdays on 6 of the past 7 nursery days at which I've been present. As such, children have seen a puppet show of the birthday story rather than "Rub a dub dub." They still speak about "Rub a dub dub" fondly. On Wednesday, the 7th & 8th graders will surprise us with a play of this nursery rhyme (along with sea songs they have learned on guitar). Again, I find myself having other puppet shows ready to go but not wanting to deprive our nursery children the value and delight of repetition and consistency. When the time is right, I will start displaying a version of "The Turnip" or "The Pumpkin" in which grandaughter and her family and farm animals work together to pull a giant vegetable off the vine.

While teachers strive to remain consistent to provide a sense of predictability and security, our children have shown flexibility and variety in their play themes and conversations. On a number of days, children have told me what they will be for Halloween--and often children tell me several different ideas for their Halloween costume, even on the same day. While there is nothing wrong per se in a child wanting to portray a powerful archetype like a princess or a hero, your children's suggested costumes have shown whimsy, eclecticism, and refreshing delight: from bird to spider to squirrel to carrot to cabbage to leaf to violin to cat to dog to bunny to teacher to rain to more creative ideas than I can remember. Again, without implying that one sort of conversation is good and another bad, this has been a refreshing change from some years in which even in a nursery every boy wanted to be Batman and every girl wanted to be Ariel from the Little Mermaid (again, children like heroes and archetypes and want to portray these, too).

I've had discussions with a couple of parents about potential fears, dragons, giants, and the like. I have not observed these images surfacing this week in the play of the children inside or outside. I have observed a lot of dancing and music making--with Oats and Beans and Jolly is the Miller Boy being popular with a number of children. Some children have formed orchestras, using sticks as violins or flutes or drums or guitars.
For young children, all festivals can seem to happen at the same time or place (I remember nursery children frequently playing out Santa Claus games around Easter). In any event, as we have reprised some of the dance songs from Michaelmas, I have received requests for Maypole songs. Children have built pretend Maypoles inside and outside as I have sung songs familiar to children from our parent & child class and/or festival last spring.

With warmth and light,

William Geoffrey Dolde