First Two Days

Dear Nursery Families,

     My hope would be to contact you individually.  Please accept my apologies as I provide some general impressions of our first two very sweet days with our Butterfly Class of 2010-2011.

First, the most tender and difficult moments (rather than holding those back).  Right before noon, Lynne walks the three children who stay all day down to the Golden Forest kindergarten room to join a healthy group of young kindergarten children (including my son Crispin) for the early lunch and nap.  While we are as peaceful about this as possible, it not only makes the children leaving (to stay all day) perhaps a little sad, it also makes the children staying with me a bit tearful--they wonder why isn't their transition happening.  I do not as yet have inspiration about what could change about this, if anything.  Even without the transition, 4 hours can be a long time for nursery children; around noon it becomes harder to find the joy in cooperative play and work.

That being said, it has been a delightful and spiritual start to the year.  Words cannot describe how wonderful it is to witness your children at work and play and discovery.  In the woods--which might possibly overwhelm at first--children have found joy and engagement with the present moment in walking short trails, balancing on logs, building pretend bonfires and forts, and the like.

When we return to the playground, some children enjoy swinging.  Others have enjoyed helping me build stools and tables for the classroom.

Inside, all children have shown incredible reverence around the simple yet appropriate start of the year puppet show of "Rub a Dub Dub, Three Men in a Tub," (I present it in a loving way; when they knaves are thrown out, they are put to put bed and sung a lullaby) and our fingerplay and blessing, "The Sun Rays from the Heavens Free, On our lovely earth and sea" (full text in the attachment I sent previously, I believe).

While children in the nursery are free to play or join the adult in work out of an impulse to imitate, every nursery child helped me to knead bread today.  All children ate bread with great delight at snack time.

Almost every child helps to wash dishes at some point (again, this comes out of imitation in the nursery, not out of direction or compulsion).  The process of cleaning up has been fairly smooth--I also won't be disappointed if it becomes more challenging as our children create more complex play scenarios that involve more play objects.

Finally, today 5 8th graders visited us to practice guitar.  As a potentially nonconformist student of Rudolf Steiner (founder of Waldorf education), I am attempting to transform tasks such as the teaching of music into lawful and meaningful work worthy of imitation by young children.  Rather than having the 8th grade visitors play with and engage directly with our nursery children (which delighted some of last year's nursery children and intimated others), this year I had them all face in a circle toward me.  It was really a practice session for the 8th grade and me as we prepared to play guitar and sing waltzes for a dance during our Michaelmas pageant on September 29.  Lynne washed dishes.  Lynne and I both observed.  The play of our nursery children was beautiful.  Some sat on stools and thumbed through Rise Up Singing as if they were preparing to play music as well.  Others played with babies, cars, houses, and other ideas with loving and lawful engagement with no need for redirection from me or Lynne.  It was a hint that lawful work from adults (whether it be chopping wood or preparing 8th graders to play for a festival) can be very nourishing for our youngest of children.

With warmth and light,

William Geoffrey Dolde