This always seem like a busy part of the year for everyone. Being part of the All School Lunar New Year feast and the Kindergarten dragon parade is a lovely tradition in the Nursery each winter and the weather was especially beautiful. In the days leading up to the event, Nurseries and I read several picture books about a young girl and her family in China and how they all enjoyed Lunar New Year each year  with fun and food and celebration. We talked about how the Chinese dragon in the Lunar New Year stories is one that brings good luck and how it wasn’t like the story dragons that guard the gold and breathed fire in other fairy tales. Nurseries reassured each other that the Kindergarten dragon was a costume and that the Kindergartners would be inside making it move. We would see their feet!

For their part of the feast, Nurseries prepared many Jasmine tea bags by cutting off the paper tags and filled the large carafe with 36 cups of water, team lifting it onto our cart. They then rolled it down to the Art/Science room on Friday morning to be in place and ready for the feast.

Later on, the Kindergartner’s dragon appeared in our room right around lunch time to the sound of fire works (bubble wrap being stomped) and dramatic music. Without skipping a beat, the dragon-of-many-feet led us through each classroom to pick up all the YGers and OGers.  All in a long parade, we went outside in grand procession to circle around the play yard. The entire school ended up back inside at the serving tables filled with stir fry, egg rolls, spring rolls, noodles, rice, almond cookies, along with jasmine tea, of course,  and then on down the hall to sit on the floor at our red paper “table.”

After lunch and story time we always meet as a group to make plans for the afternoon. For Monday they decided to"take a hike.” They also decided to take their water bottles and their snack or leftover lunch. I suggested it could be easier if they  carried their things in their back packs. It was, they decided!

We stopped for a while in what Nurseries call the Baby Forest. We saw lots of winding deer trails, deer poops and many different leaves, some of which they decided to collect for identification.  

The Baby Forest was originally discovered when the trees were much smaller early in the pandemic. The Nursery group that year decided that the Baby Forest would be our very own outdoor classroom since the other groups each had an outdoor classroom of their own. That year’s group also laid claim to the Tall Grass Prairie (the Golf Course) as another Nursery Outdoor Classroom.

At the time a winding maze work of intersecting trails was maintained by the adjacent neighbors. The grass really was TALL and DENSE which made it fun and exciting to explore and then see how the trails all interconnected. (My wish is that the college would let the grasses and milkweed, etc. grow and take over in that part of the Golf Course for a few years before they mow again.)

Back in early September, Athena and I became aware of the Nurseries' energy building, plus a lot of excitement, tension and talk about Halloween. For now though, the Nurseries have shifted their focus back to other things like getting to know one another, group dynamics, big muscle play, team work, and Color Days. Which is good to see. However, Halloween is still definitely on its way!

Young children typically love the drama and dress-up and celebration of Halloween, along with the family night walks and of course, the possibility of special treats. It is a BIG exciting time. And it can also be frightening.

For young children, a friend can literally disappear behind a mask, so I do ask that the Nurseries leave masks, at home.

During conferences, several parents had questions about what Halloween looks like in the Nursery. Because it can be overwhelmingly BIG at times for young children (and more and more commercially pervasive these days), I try to down play the Halloween aspect and emphasize the harvest elements of this time of year and to keep it as low key as possible. We’ve already been to the Antioch Farm to help the college students with their dry bean harvest and Nurseries will be going to Peifer's Orchard to harvest their own pumpkin from the field and an apple off the tree.

Younger Groupers are currently at work on their original Halloween play and the Nurseries will get to be an audience for the dress rehearsal. To get a sense of their young audience, several YGers usually come down at some point to talk with the Nurseries to find out what they would be comfortable with. This helps to demystify the YG play for them, helps make the Nurseries feel included and connected, and it also helps put a real face on the YG actors that they will be seeing on the stage.

The Older Groupers are also at work on their own plays which usually take the shape of a series of original skits with various Halloween themes. The Nurseries will be invited to the OGer’s Enchanted Forest dress rehearsal as well, which traditionally takes place in the copse of trees now known as Forest Kindergarten. The skits tend to be wonderfully slap stick and hilarious to adults and Nurseries alike.

The YG and the OG Halloween plays are definitely great theatrical experiences that are fun and, help build the feelings of being part of the wider school community for the Nurseries.

They also sometimes help spark the the urge among the Nurseries to do their own original scripts and plays. When that does happen, I am their scribe and they are the playwrights. People join in as they want and choose their own roles from acting, to audience member, and sometimes they will invent the role of tech. Nurseries create the story together and, of course, any one who wants to act always creates their own character. Over the last number of years, Covid realities have broken the flow of this kind of modeling from the older students down to the Nurseries, and I am waiting to see the connections and inspiration return. I know they will eventually.

Of course, talking about Plays brings up play and playfulness (and story telling) which is the foundation and source. Here is a definition/description I like from scholarpedia.org:

1. Five Most Agreed-Upon Characteristics of Human Play
    •    1.1 Play Is Self-Chosen and Self-Directed.
    •    1.2 Play is intrinsically motivated—means are more valued than ends.
    •    1.3 Play is guided by mental rules, but the rules leave room for creativity.
    •    1.4 Play is imaginative.
    •    1.5 Play is conducted in an alert, active, but relatively non-stressed frame of mind.

Really, what is called “a Play” in a lot of ways is a just a more formal version of “play.” Sometimes Nurseries want to keep their spontaneous imaginative play absolutely free flowing and improvisational and sometimes Nurseries want me to record it, to save it as “a Play," with a more formal written process. Who knows, this could be the year we see the return of written plays in the Nursery! We shall see. When Plays do happen, sometimes they are written and not performed. Sometimes they are written and performed, but only for other Nurseries. Sometimes their audience consists of Nurseries, sometimes just me, and sometimes, very rarely, Kindergartners. Whatever they want and decide on in terms of an audience is how it should be for them at that point in time. I trust them to know what they need. Enlarging their audience beyond Nurseries, or perhaps Kindergarteners, is very occasionally considered, but I have yet to have them actually want to follow through.

However, if we have a play, I always have the written script to share with families!

Athena brought in an amazing machine for the Nurseries to use this week. It’s a power packed, lever based nut cracker that her mother let us borrow for black walnuts.  

These kinds of hand powered mechanical devices are becoming so rare... from a simple can opener to hand cranked meat grinder.  Children love them for a reason. Simple tools and mechanical devices help with a child’s growing understanding of the physical and mechanical and even mathematical worlds. Play with the non-digital, old time, classic Etch A Sketch and you may begin to build a foundational understanding of the x and y axis and the slope of a line.

These Nurseries are so adept at internalizing the routine and ways of the Nursery along with the wider world of the rest of the school and play yards. Some children are already beginning to expand their social worlds to include interactions and friendships with some of the older students. They are all busy learning and growing in so many ways. They are building stamina, and are using incredible amounts of energy as they do it. One of their repeating favorite book choices these days is Harry Hungry by Steven Salerno!

They seem to be a collection of individuals with very active mirror neurons. Not every photo you’ll see catches the split second of action for everyone, but one way you can see this is by watching how often and easily they mirror Athena’s moves during our music time. I watch them with one another and see this same thing. They find it very easy to be elbow-to-elbow with one another around the table. They are truly drawn to this sort of close group work. It’s my observation that many Nursery aged individuals need to practice, experience and re-experience, say being around a table or circle or in a group, in order to comfortably play and work in close proximity. But it just seems to flow for these particular Nurseries. Possibly due to a lot of active mirror neurons?!

So it’s not just their physical growth that demands energy. Recent research shows that children, especially from the of ages three to seven, have brains that demand even more energy than what’s required for general physical maintenance and growth of the rest of the body. Energy is automatically channeled over to the brain. The brain comes first and recent research shows that the process of learning uses a lot of energy!

It’s still astonishing to me, but for children who are three to seven, the brain accounts for over 60 percent of their energy expenditures just in terms of their Basal Metabolic Rate. Their brain growth requires so much energy during these years that it can actually result in delaying growth in the rest of the body.  If you are interested in reading this and more about human metabolism, Herman Pontzer [professor of Evolutionary Anthropology at Duke University] has a very interesting and also very readable book based on current research titled, Burn, published in 2021. See pages 87-88 specifically for more on young children, their growing brains, and the enormous energy demands for learning at any age.

It’s no wonder that Nurseries look and feel tired at the end of the day, and a bit more so by the end of their week. They are busy sponging up their worlds, processing, internalizing information and wiring and rewiring their brains to store it all along with a lot of physical activity. Several families have come up with a plan of having their Nurseries take a bit of time off to shorten their week, or shortening a day here or a day there a bit. In other words they are tweaking their own child’s weekly schedule with the help of some strategic planning. Please do catch me if you think your child would get some benefit from a few weeks of easing in more slowly as they get their sea legs and we can put something in place as needed. You will know.

We are just two weeks into the year and Nurseries are so very quickly picking up the routine and the how-we-do-things. As they have become more and more familiar and comfortable with the room and play yards and one another, this week I’m watching them expand their experience into new possibilities and the things they want to try out. There are the trikes, the balance beam, climbing, running FAST, sharing space, playing one-on-one with friends and also in small groups, petting Juniper the ball python, perhaps flushing the toilet on their own (they all know that I will flush for them as needed.) They have all been navigating the playhouse stairs all the the way up and the slide all the way down — plus some are practicing running up to the top like they see the older children do!

They all seem to be very patient with process and have all been able to find a way to wait for the cheese plate to be passed or to get into their gear on a rainy day. They have also begun setting times with each other for the tire swing and the teter-totter or swings. I imagine they will be expanding this to setting times for trikes soon.  

Many have begun to want to use the formal meeting process with a friend  for solving problems as they emerge, and are also finding the courage to set a limit for a friend or friends along the way. They are beginning practice stating a problem to one another, articulating their feelings and working together toward a solution that feels okay to one another. Of course, this process of figuring things out with one another is still very new for many. Athena and I are always available to help facilitate. Some Nurseries who were young last year and are back for a second year are able to model and help explain the process.

On Tuesday, two Nurseries were rather interested in the straw bale playhouse which was currently very busy with a large group of older children and their very complicated game of chase.

They checked it out for a while observing before going over. A little later they did go over and then they came back. There was a problem they said; it was not going well.

I suggested they talk with the other older children who were deep into their very active game. Did they need to talk with any one in particular? They quietly decided, yes they did want to talk and that they needed to talk with everyone. I said I could help them do that if they would like me to.

By the way, I know that you can well understand that what they were proposing is a challenge for almost anyone at any age.  

Athena and I went over with the two to help facilitate. Another teacher quietly watched from nearby. I explained to the others that the Nurseries wanted a group meeting and the olders gathered up.

These two Nurseries were definitely learning by doing! They felt comfortable talking back and forth with each other in whispers. They were almost ready to talk with the others, but not quite. In a few minutes, their process seemed to be stalled.

At a pivotal moment a Younger Grouper stepped forward and offered to help. She explained to Athena and me that the Nurseries could tell her what the problem was and then, if they wanted, she could tell the others for them. Would that work? “Yes,” we both said. The two Nurseries agreed also.

The Younger Grouper bent down to listen, talked quietly with the two and then spoke the Nurseries words to the gathering. The Nurseries heard their thoughts being transmitted and saw them received and acknowledged. A resolution was made and the olders’ game continued.

The two Nurseries watched for a moment and then got busy around the play yard… a feeling of resolution met.

This was extraordinary work on everyone’s part.

They are all stepping into new experience of all sorts, physical, social, emotional, and figuring things out, using their wonderful bodies and brains.

Here is a story of mystery, unknown sand structures, bugs, children as theoretical observers (scientists), plus childhood wishes that can often persist through adulthood.  On Monday morning Nurseries found about forty mysterious and beautifully crafted pits looking like little sand funnels in the ground. They were right around the perimeter of the little red house on Tire Swing Side. What could they be?? Nurseries had many theories… ant or bee holes were two favorites. We do have lots of ants around, plus some very non-aggressive little black bees that are often busy tunneling on sand hill in the spring. So their theories made sense. I did think of antlion larvae, but discounted it as too improbable, I had never found them before, so why would I now and with so, so many all at once? (Growing up in the Kansas City area when I was eight, a great wish of mine was to find an antlion larva and watch its lifecycle, but I never did. Their adult form looks similar to a lacewing fly.)   

Well… amazingly, a bit later on while Nurseries were getting ready for clean up meeting, one of the Older Groupers dropped in with several antlion larvae to show the Nurseries!

Nurseries gathered around where he sat in the big rocking chair and he gave a beautifully presented talk about antlions. Two of those well constructed... and treacherous to ants… sand funnels belonged to them. (He mentioned that they would not want to touch the antlions since they can bite.) He also explained that he would return them to their same funnels in the sand where he had found them earlier.

Mystery solved, Nursery questions answered, and my childhood wish fulfilled!

Every individual is unique, and every group they make is different. These particular individuals are people who seem to truly love conversation and have the urge to join up and engage with others in that way. It was pretty striking to Athena and me from the beginning of our mornings this past week.

Both Thursday’s and Friday’s small groups gathered together elbow to elbow around the Rectangle Table with our huge new batch of school made play dough. They enthusiastically shared stories, movie reviews, observations, ideas, and talk, talk, talk and listen, listen, listen, for a good part of their early morning. How very interesting; it was true for each small group, for both mornings, and so very early in their year together!

Our year is over and the Nursery room is being cleaned and stacked and wrapped to be ready for Becky and her deep summer clean. Once I am finished putting the Nursery room to sleep, the floors will be stripped and waxed and polished along with the rest of the school to be ready for fall. Thanks to all who were able to come to the end-of-the-year Work Bee. Your help is greatly appreciated. So much got done, both inside and out!

As an end to their year together, Nurseries dictated two separate group snack menus for their two blow-out snacks. We had the opportunity to plan two "last" days in the Nursery this year and both turned into fruit feasts. As you can see from their menus, fruit is a favorite food item.
 
Thursday: "strawberries, pineapple, watermelon, raspberries, cheese, nuts, potato chips."

Friday: "watermelon, blueberries, cherries, blackberries, mango, applesauce, seaweed, coconut, cheese, nuts, potato chips."

Along with our two last-day snacks, the Nurseries cleaned out their cubbies to make the end of our year together a bit more concrete for them; plus they all set aside their most loved snack helper names to take home!

We had ten Painted Lady caterpillars that were gifted by a Nursery family to spend a large part of May with us. We watched them eat and eat, grow and grow, and become chrysalids, quietly and invisibly busy as they became Painted Lady butterflies. They all emerged from the chrysalis shell during our last week and a half. We released them over several days as well fed and beautiful butterflies when they signaled they were ready to take flight and leave their habitat for the outside world.

Inspired by nature and specifically butterflies, we are in the early stages of creating a garden with native host and pollinator plants. The idea is for the children to be able to watch and experience in a natural setting while attracting pollinators and other wildlife. More first steps on this were taken at the Work Bee... several school families worked for hours to do some major honeysuckle and multiflora rose removal along the old stone wall. Four hackberry trees were uncovered and saved in the process, along with at least two wild cherry trees. So it feels like we are on the way!

Below is one of the hackberry trees newly emerged from the honeysuckle overgrowth!

Thank you All and many wishes for an enjoyable and growing summer.

Ann

About fifteen or so years ago, a Nursery child walked in one morning talking about something she called Name Days... and could we do them? I asked her what Name Days were and what we would do for them. She explained that for Name Days, everyone would get their very own, special day to plan any way they wanted. So how how would we do it? She talked more and well, yes, the other Nurseries thought it sounded really good! They all thought it could involve visits, or hikes, or maybe decorating cookies they made into their own shapes and making other special things like fruit bat caves, and sometimes eating fruit... or cake or pizza! 

That spring the Nursery did Name Days for the very first time. They loved it. And I saw that it created a very special focus for them as they finished up their year together and talked and thought about the coming newness, changes, and plans that would happen when we headed off into all of our own different summers.

Over the years, the Name Days celebrations continued to be a fine and fun springtime tradition for the Nursery in which each child has the opportunity to plan the day. The day is theirs as much or as little as they want! Over and over again, what ever they choose, each child is seen and celebrated by the whole group with a special focus… and often in some new ways. All the children become more aware of one another, the group, and their special place in it.

I think that some of the power and fun of Name Days comes from knowing it was an idea that was invented and brought to the Nursery by a long ago child just about their age. At some point in their process, I get out some of the old charts for them to look at and think and talk about. I know there is a certain feeling of connection with those other children... some of them are in high school or college... or even in the Kindergarten that year... or maybe in the OG or YG! It helps makes them aware of the history and tradition of what we do. All those charts made by children from the years before... it also helps create a sense of continuity with the past and helps spark their own sense of personal time. I know that this is part of the reason that its meaning connects in such a magical way. There is something about the concept that dovetails beautifully with the realities of being a young child, which of course makes some sense since the concept was created and brought to us by a child!

I also think that some of its power comes from an acknowledgement of who they are, how they’ve grown, what they've done, the group they have lived in and helped to make throughout the year, and of all the other people in it.

Oddly enough, for the very first time in my Nursery history, this year we didn’t have any repeating Nurseries in the group. So this year there wasn’t anyone who had actually experienced Name Days from the year before to help bring it forward. However, we do have the siblings and cousins of children from the prior year and this gave the other children a strong reference point. Last fall, when we got out various old charts to look at in preparation for our Color Days, Nurseries were curious about the Name Day charts they saw. After I explained a bit, they thought it sounded really good. They immediately put it on their list of things they would like to do.

Among many other things, these coming weeks will be for getting their last few Name Day ideas and plans down on paper, making the Name Day chart and then using our very interesting and shared and collaborative process for figuring out the schedule of the individual celebrations. (More on that another time.) And then the doing of them as we roll along into spring.

So many thanks go out to that long ago Nurseryer, and to the other children (and supportive parents!) who have helped it come to life!