Friday, December 4, 2009

Nursery Advent Garden, December 11, 9am

Dear Nursery Families,

I look forward to seeing you at our Advent Garden next Friday, December 11, at 9am. The Festival takes place at the Sanctuary at the Whidbey Institute. Please ask me or a parent who has been around if the location is unclear.

Follow this link for a brief description of the festival and lyrics to many of the songs we will sing.

A number of you attended our parent & child festival last year, and our nursery festival will be similar--during the daytime, parents encouraged to sing, children sitting with parents in family groups. Unlike last year's parent & child festival, we will strive to have the nursery children leave the garden while the candles are still lit so that is the final image they take with them. I will seek help from any families in which 2 parents are present to help me gracefully extinguish candles so that we can send each child home with a candle in an apple.

Even with the less formal atmosphere (singing rather than quiet music, sitting with parents), some children may find it intimidating to walk the spiral. Even if a child just watches, she or he benefits from the group experience. Because it is a nice rite of passage for a child to walk with a teacher, I will first seek children willing to walk the spiral with me, then children who might be more comfortable walking with a parent.

Grandparents, siblings, and friends are welcome. The kindergarten teachers might prefer that 3 day kindergarten siblings wait until the evening for their own walk (so their evening experience remains magical and strong), but I'd rather have your family attend than you not come if it is too hard to find care for a 3 day kindergarten child. I do not think it will be a problem for nursery children to come back in the evening to watch their kindergarten siblings walk the spiral.

Please contact me with any questions or comments.

With warmth and light,

William Geoffrey Dolde

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