Maple Sugaring Season

Dear Spindlewood Parents,

Looking forward to welcoming you all back this week. (It has been so quiet around here!)

Just before the break, “Mr. Jack” helped us tap the big maple tree in front of the barn. (You can barely see it behind the snow bank.) The first few drops of sweet sap have started to flow. We are waiting for Old King Winter to fall asleep on our seasonal table, so that the water fairies can dance up from the roots to meet their friends, the returning sun fairies. This is the story I will be telling this week, presenting in picture form the process of the sap flow that requires freezing nights and above-freezing sunny days. With a little luck we might have some maple syrup to celebrate a traditional (British) Pancake Day/Shrove Tuesday next week on the day before Ash Wednesday!

Here’s the song we sing at our 12:30 closing circle~

Mix a pancake, Stir a pancake, Pop it in the pan,
Fry a pancake, Toss a pancake, Catch it if you can!

Toward the end of Lent we will plant our Easter wheat grass gardens. If you would kindly return the bowls from the Advent moss gardens, we would like to recycle them.

This Tuesday you are all invited to a Parents’ Evening, 6:30 – 8 pm in the kindergarten. It would be great if one parent from each family could attend; better yet, find child care now and so you can both go out on a date afterwards! (What extraordinarily lucky children these are to all have both parents creating a home for them!) Once again, by special request, we will have a topic of Working with the Will of Young Children. Perhaps it will always be a mystery to ponder. Dr. Rudolf Steiner shared insights from a lifetime of research. I could touch on these, and how this affects our practice of the 3 R’s of Waldorf/LifeWays, as you know, Rhythm, Repetition and Respect/Reverence. And then we will share an experience of this with Beeswax Modeling, an activity that you can also do at home. It will be fun.

See you soon,
Warmly,
Susan