Nothing is more important to our children than family. While they love being at school, there's no place like home. The loving arms, familiar faces, smells and sounds all serve to help our kids feel safe and secure. Families give children a sense of importance and belonging, of being loved especially for their own wonderful selves. And even when our kids aren't feeling so wonderful, family--through our unconditional love--is a most powerful anchor.
Today we gathered at the table to work on our family pictures. Each child took a moment to share their photos with the group, naming the members of their family. Then the artwork began in earnest. I supplied the children with glitter glue pens, small bottles of old-fashioned plain white glue, sequins and colored macaroni. Along with manipulating the different types of glue tubes, they had to figure out how to keep the glue off the faces in the pictures. This was quite a challenge: one child was having so much fun squeezing the glue into huge puddles and declaring "it's like ice cream" that the faces had to be wiped clear several times. Another child glued over her father's face and laughed, saying "He's wearing a mask!" before it was cleared off. It's great to see the children becoming more comfortable touching gooey things; they were less hesitant to get their fingers in there as they poked the sequins and macaroni into it. One child even noticed that when she pushed a clear sequin into the glue, she "can't see it no more". Once these pictures were done, some wanted a second piece of paper to keep working with the available supplies.
Thanks, too, for the lemons! Lemons were brought by one child to be shared. We discussed the lemons and where they came from at Morning Gathering, and later we sliced into one. We smelled and tasted our pieces; "sour" was the group consensus.
Lately, my desire has been to enrich and deepen the playtime. This Monday I took a big dive and moved the housekeeping from it's original space to the area opposite the block play. The futon is now gone and a smaller reading corner now rests next to the shelves where the little kitchen was before. There is a lot of cross play between the blocks and housekeeping; today, one child filled up a bag with kitchen things "for the farmers market" and used blocks to build a stand to display their wares. The other children used some picture dominos as money to buy the items for sale. This drama lasted for quite a long while, with a lot of dressing up involved.
Most helpful was an idea I wanted to try out: offering longer chunks of playtime both indoors and out. Our morning went along with our Gathering, art, some play, a break for snack, more play (and playdough!), then lunch and lastly, our time outside. The children weren't upset by the switch, and instead I found that things went more smoothly. By streamlining the transitions, which are always the most challenging moments both for kids and adults, our day was more peaceful and the children were able to stay engaged in their play longer. This newer routine also means that we drop three separate transition times (getting dressed to go out, changing shoes/slippers to come back in, and leaving the school area indoors), which I believe is a relief to the kids as it asks less of them. We will try meeting parents at the gate over the next week, too, as it makes the end of playtime at school more concrete.
I understand that this is already a long post, so here are some snippets to round out our week:
The plum tree is still a house. We had more campfire play and the children are very interested now in sticks they can break to put in it.
In a further imaginative turn, sticks are used as 'flashlights'. We encourage them to aim their lights low, so as not to hurt our friends.
We planted a potful of sprouting bulbs. The digging of dirt was a community effort!
We played a counting game, throwing five pinecones at a time at a long stick lying on the ground. Then we count how many cones landed in front of the stick and how many landed beyond. No matter how many, they always add up to five!
We made cards to give or mail to someone. They used their writing, and then I took dictation and added it on in my writing.
Small blank books were made for the children on Tuesday, for them to do with as they pleased. They decorated them with stickers and markers, and then decided to cut them up to bits with scissors. Lots of good cutting practice!
We painted with two colors at the easel. Each child chose their colors. One painted each color onto the paper separately, one painted one color first and then over it with the second, and one child dumped one color of paint straight into the other, mixed it, and then began painting. Remarkable that they all approached the same project in their own authentic way.
Fun.Fun.Fun.
PS--The popsicles didn't quite make it outside this week. We'll try for next Wednesday!
