Our First Day

Our first day was as if a sweet dream. With so many children returning, more capable than ever and with younger siblings who last year had their noses pressed against the window, now so eagerly entering in to the work and play, the class is quite harmonious. Miss Elisa is introducing a new bread recipe, with cracked grain soaked with yogurt to stimulate digestive enzymes. It was well received. She is also bringing a new dough-kneading song set in the mood of the fifth, which seems to meet and carry the children in a magical way.

Gates Open Back to Preschool

Children and families gathered Saturday, September 8 for a work party to spruce up the Spindlewood grounds. At the close of the morning, new gates built by parent Sean Donaghy (pictured top right with twin toddlers) were opened to signal the beginning of the preschool year. Posts were installed by alumnus Christian Wincklhofer.

Ten Pillars of Good Childhood

The Association for Childhood Education International, a member of the World Forum Alliance, is promoting Ten Pillars of Good Childhood as the basis for their "Decade for Childhood" campaign:

1. Safe and secure places for living and learning and access to health care, clothing, and nutritious food.
   
   
2. Strong families and loving, consistent caregivers.
   
   
3. Social interactions and friendship.
   
   
4. Creative play and physical activity.
   
   
5. Appreciation and stewardship of the natural environment.
   
   
6. Creative expression through music, dance, drama, and other arts.
   
   
7. Education that develops the full capacities of the child — cognitive, physical, social, emotional, and ethical.
   
   
8. Supportive, nurturing, child-friendly communities.
   
   
9. Growing independence and decision making.
   
   
10. Children and youth participating in community life.

For the full article by Leah Pulkinnen from Finland, see the link below:

http://www.acei.org/about-us/ten-pillars-of-a-good-childhood.html

Sheep shearing!

No, that isn’t a leopard that Emily Garnett is shearing! Buttercup looks different without her winter coat. Emily did such a beautiful job. She made it look easy. Now we have wool to wash and use for stuffing dolls and spinning yarn!

All winter, as you recall, we waited for lambs to be born, but when none appeared, we found a new companion for Buttercup. The children have named her Daisy.

Happy spring!

Susan

Regatta this morning!

Ahoy!

The fleet is ready to launch! Sanded and drilled, with a peeled mast! When you arrive in the morning you can help us find just the right leaf to use as a new sail, and then we will begin our portage through the woods to the stream.

The captains of the boats have been alerted that the bridge across the stream is unfit for walking, so they will be issuing warnings. We will turn left upon arrival at the bridge, and proceed along the mossy banks to the sandy peninsula. The first to launch will be Strawberry, bearing candles for her summer birthday. The remaining vessels will launch in order of age, beginning with the youngest.

We will follow them down the stream and pull out when they have passed the bridge. Then we will break for watermelon!

Don't forget your safety gear! Rubber boots, long pants or tights, long sleeves and hats are needed for bug protection. We have a spray repellent you are welcome to use when you arrive.

See you early in the morning.

M. Susan

Mothers' May Celebration Today

At our Mothers' May Day Celebration today, the children wove crowns for their mothers and grandmothers and served them small breads shaped liked doves. We sang our spring songs as we wound our colored ribbons, and ended our morning with a puppet play of The Queen Bee.

So thankful that the sun shone at last!

To be a child...

"Know you what it is to be a child? It is to be something very different from the man of today. It is to have a spirit yet streaming from holiness; it is to believe in love, to believe in loveliness, to believe in belief; it is to be so little that the elves can reach to whisper in your ear; it is to turn pumpkins into coaches, and mice into horses, lowness into loftiness, and nothing into everything, for each child has its fairy godmother in its soul."
                                                                                                                    Shelley, 1908