I thought I would share an observation about Nursery aged children and the groups they create. It may be interesting for you to contemplate; it always has been for me!

Over the years I’ve seen a predictable and repeating cycle and flow to Nursery time… September through May. It seems to coincide in many ways with the back drop of seasonal realities and changes, and also with the growth and changes the children bring to each other and to their group:  Year-after-year, there something mysterious that happens in the Nursery during the last half of December while we are all away on Winter Break.

Of course, because it happens while we are away from one another, it’s always a bit of a mystery. I know it will happen, and yet I never totally take it for granted. It’s always a surprise when we get back together and I see it… the predictable process of growth and development that takes place in the children while they are away. Every year Nurseries say goodbye to one another in mid-December and, somehow, when we get back together in January, they, and the group they collectively make, are somehow operating at a remarkably new level!

How does this happen?

I do get the sense that in amongst all the mundane (and profound) day-by-day routine — their play and work, getting the room out/cleaning it all up…  over and over again — that they are all taking in an enormous amount of experience and information. They are connecting with cohorts, finding what they need, making their ideas happen, talking and listening to one another, feeling and thinking, learning one another (and themselves in connection with others,) identifying problems and finding solutions, articulating plans, doing stuff, having fun, and on and on and on.

Processing time is so important for everyone. I think that this may be a key to understanding a lot of the hows and whys of what they are able to accomplish over their Break. Somehow during the Break they are processing, consolidating and internalizing their Nursery experience. It’s probably running in the background of their busy/relaxing times with family, holiday celebrations, and continued personal experience. I also think Winter Break provides an important step away from the school routine for them. It’s a breather from the intensity of their work and play together. It lets them switch gears and leave behind what has come before and what they have been doing… for just a bit. During those first few months of school, the children absorb many of the essentials they will need for themselves… and for the group that they will continue to build together. Then Winter Break gives them the time away from the busy-ness of it to consolidate what they have already taken in. They’ve missed one another and the experience of being together. They return pleased and ready to be back, and, in some mysterious way, to take next steps.

In so many ways, I have always thought of Winter Break is an essential part of the Nursery program and their year together. When they return, new brain connections are in place, they have wired up into new complexity and are ready to take  their experience off to new levels. The time away seems to come at just about the right point in order to help support this important work for them. It’s is long enough, but not too long.

This year seems to be no different. These Nurseries have returned as others have in the past. January is here and they have jumped right in, new brain connections in place, freshly wired up and busy surprising their teachers and maybe themselves!

The sudden cold weather seems to be bringing on changes for the Nurseries. They are even hungrier now and are beginning to actually understand the need for coats and hats when they are cold, and that putting something on your hands can make you much more comfortable. They are also beginning to want to build more with blocks, read more stories, explore more Quiet Toys, spend more time with arts&crafts and projects... it's typical cold weather focus and interests that are growing.

Tuesday morning, the Nurseries explored cardboard, scissors, and tape ideas for quite a while inside. Then, when the time for outside finally came, several children discovered a beautiful soft grey and white bird with yellow tail tips lying on the ground near the Nursery door.  It had probably flown into a Nursery window when it became confused by the reflection of trees in the glass.

Word spread quickly and the children gathered to see. I asked Nurseries to look, but not to touch. Even though it looked lifeless to me, I was aware that sometimes a bird can survive a flying crash.

With the little cedar waxwing, there was concern, curiosity, and animated discussion.  Some people were back and forth in their thinking, at times referring to it as alive... but sleeping, and sometimes saying it was not alive. One or two referred to it as dead. While we watched, a bead of what I knew was blood appeared from its beak, and I was sure in my own adult mind that it was dead. After looking closely, one child's explanation was that it had been eating red berries and then the berries came out of its mouth while it was sleeping. For the most of them, that became the general theory and explanation.

So what should we do?

A box was found and after decorating it with markers, they filled it with soft brown leaves for a bed and then thought they needed something soft for a pillow. We still had a container of of pink yarn they had cut into pieces earlier in September and had kept for projects. Would that do? Yes it would.

The box was prepared. I asked how we could put the little bird in the box so carefully so we wouldn't disturb it? One child volunteered that his mother had used two or three sticks together to move a dead bird once. I found a sturdy, curving stick that also had fork in it, and another child found another stick she said would help. She and I did team work together to transport it and then placed it gently in the bed they had made. Somehow we got it into the box with its head positioned on the pillow of yarn. Almost everyone said that it would need a blanket and we found a square of fabric in the room that they thought would work. One child folded it in half to cover the bird... except for its head.

Where could we put the box so the little bird could be in a protected quiet place and away from where people walked? They had many ideas: maybe up on the stone wall, or by the sand box, or in the upstairs of the red house.  I said I thought maybe we could find a safer place, a little more away from where so many people would be running or playing. Some thought maybe near their jumping off place. I said maybe near it, but what about down the little path where we don't go unless they're with a teacher, where it is very bushy. They thought that would work.

Once we had climbed the stone wall and gone in the bushes, one child suggested putting the box up in the crook of a big tree nearby... to be very safe. I said that I couldn't reach that high and we walked in a little further so I could demonstrate. I said that not even Nathan could reach that high. So, instead, we found a short tree stump that was surrounded by small circle of tiny volunteer trees growing from the base of the stump. They placed the box with the little bird there and returned to be with the others who were already playing down on Tire Swing Side.

The next morning, two of the children asked to go back to check on the little bird. After looking, they said it did not look like it had very much life. Before returning back down to the play yard, they decided to open up the blanket to full size before replacing it. It would help warm the little bird more. That would give it more life. 

There is still not much talk about Halloween… yet… but Nurseries, plus their play, are becoming a bit more intense, excited, concentrated, and scattered — all at the same time. It’s kind of like young squirrels expanding from the nest in the early summer when their tail fluff is still a little sparse and they are racing and chasing, tumbling and falling through the trees together… and then again later on, after the heat of summer is gone and their tails are getting bushy and they are deciding to carry walnuts that are often way too big for them to manage well:   Squirrely (ˈskwɪrəlɪ ) adjective. like or typical of a squirrel in appearance or behavior. US informal. nervous, sensitive, eccentric, flighty, unpredictable.

Nurseries are squirrely!

A favorite Nursery game this fall is something they call “Bad Guys.” It’s a chase game they invented together (although really it’s one of those old, old childhood games that are passed down through the ages by children, and from within the world of children… no adult necessary.) The name can vary, but the form is about same: chase-and-catch, and sometimes chase-and-capture.  

It’s exciting and the ones who choose to play it, love it! It brings them together physically, plus their interaction and problem solving from deep inside the intense play of a game like "Bad Guys," can help build their group.  However, “Bad Guys” is intense enough that it can't always continue to work by just patching together the rough bits with one another.  And when that happens, the adult world (a Nursery teacher or two) will step in and say something like, “People are getting hurt. This doesn’t seem to be working anymore. What else could you play.” Often they will think of a different running game like “Flood,” or something else entirely. However, they always do want to return to “Bad Guys” at some later date. It is just that exciting and fun to them.

Last week though, maybe with our first taste of cold weather and the season’s changes and Halloween excitement and their growing squirreliness, “Bad Guys” had gone over the edge and was breaking down for them far too often. It had become clear that they were unable to manage it well.  So, after we had come in for stories and music, I called  a group meeting and said that too many people had been getting hurt, and that “Bad Guys” didn’t seem to be working well. We wouldn’t be able to play it. One child, quickly picking up on what I had said, simply stated, “We won’t play it… forever.” I said, “Well at least not until after Thanksgiving.” So we will see.

I’ve known some Nursery groups that can master the need for clear limit setting… the talking and listening and problem solving that is required for such a powerful form as “Bad Guys.” I’ve also known some groups that can’t. In any case, eventually their Halloween squirreliness will subside! I know that more practice with meetings and with talking and listening to a friend and more comfort with setting clear limits for a friend who has overstepped and more experience with really listening to a friend who is telling you to stop… all of it will help them. In the meantime, their “Bad Guys” play has been one of the running games they have used this fall to help connect with one another and grow their group.

There is much more play among the different groups this year, especially this past week as individual children expand their social networks beyond their own group. They are branching out and getting to know one another. It seems to be a very natural and organic process coming from sharing our space outside and from having shared siblings in the Nursery, Kindergarten and Younger Groups. And, of course, it enlarges everyone’s play options.

The concept of the Tide-Me-Over snack has caught on with Nurseries and has become a predictable part of the morning for many. As they recognize the need, individuals seem to be quite comfortable now with simply announcing their plan to Athena or me, washing up and finding a spot to sit at the little tables or outside on the stoop while they re-stoke their fires. I know this goes a long way to help everyone stay on an even keel throughout their days while they wait for our regular morning or afternoon snack times. So Nursery families, thank you once again!

Nurseries are beginning to connect with the trikes now. Each fall I watch this happen. There is often a learning curve as they build the coordination and leg power. The pay off for them is mobility and speed and another avenue to social connection. It’s always great to see this take off. There has also been a great deal of interest in digging on sand hill and climbing and acrobatics on the monkey bars and the A-frame climber, plus jumping off into the mulch from various platforms.

People are using scissors and tape for paper and other loose parts constructions. Lots of painting and drawing and decorating is happening as well. I’m beginning to see more quiet conversation and imaginative play as they become more comfortable in the group and with reaching out into the give-and-take of this kind of play.

They are beginning to have meetings to solve the kinds of problems that occur quite naturally while working and playing together. They are busy learning the social tools that are useful in any group. They are learning the phrase, “I need space,” to frame their feelings if another child is too close or is encroaching. They are learning time setting with one another as a way to come to consensus for turns on the sling swings, tire swing or blue bronco. Eventually this will be the method that will be so useful for them in sharing the trikes. They are working to be aware of their bodies moving through space and to slow themselves down around the room and in outdoor areas that are tight. For those, who tend to travel on a bee line from here to there, Athena and I are working to help them become more aware of watching for others.

They are learning pro-active social and language tools that can be used to help prevent conflict at the easel or with turn taking for specific tools or a toys or a book. I let them know they wouldn’t be able to just take it from the other person, but they could say, “Could you let me know when you’re done with the ______?” It communicates a want and lets the child who is actively using it to finish first. It is simple and straightforward, and seems, for both children, to eliminate, the often turfish element of possession of a communal object. What I consistently see is that using this phrase usually encourages a switch off of things to take place fairly quickly. These are just a few of the foundational social tools they’ve been practicing and using with one another.

Last week, along with Elaina in Art/Science, Older Groupers worked on five batches of sour-dough they used to make red sauce pizzas to take around to all the groups. On Friday, before bringing ours to the Nursery, two OGers came down to ask if there were children who couldn’t eat cheese. Since there were, they quickly figured out they could just bring us a bowl of mozzarella separately to add as needed. Our gluten free person had her cheese on rice crackers, our cheese free people had theirs with plain red sauce, and all the rest had red sauce pizza with cheese!

This is a letter of appreciation to Nursery parents. Heartfelt thanks go out to each of you for having your child join the Nursery this year. They have each brought an absolutely unique self to the work and play of what they’ve done this year. I have loved watching them discover who they are and who they can be.

I’ve watched them taking it all in as individuals. I’ve watched them flocking up into the safety of taking it in all together… especially during those first few months of getting-to-know-you. I’ve watched them expand into the experience of checking out being with this person and that person… one-on-one and with smaller groups in the Nursery. I've watched them begin to move beyond Nursery and into all those other people and groups around them at the Antioch School!

Along the way there were problems to solve, conflicts to resolve, sometimes courage to find in order to really say, “Stop,” or to really hear, “Stop,” … to really talk and to really listen with one another. This work is universal and very human. Being developmental, it is ongoing and it builds on what has come before. Children need this experience along with the scaffolding, tools, support and skilled guidance to find their own voice and way toward solutions. What drives them in the social realm is similar to what drives them in the physical realm, or any realm really... challenge and mastery... the feeling of I-can-do.

And of course the idea is for them to learn to do it on their own! This is a process. It is over time. The opportunity to experience and practice is key. It can sometimes be ongoing and challenging work for children and the adults who care for them, but problems to solve and conflicts to resolve really are a vital grist for their mill. It's all so necessary to becoming practiced and skilled in the doing.

Being individuals with their own individual temperaments, personalities, and experience meant that the nuance of their own work... what they needed, and needed to work on... was unique and very much their very own. Athena and I were there to provide the scaffolding, tools, support and guidance; they were there to make themselves part of this important and necessary process.

These are children who have a lot of social drive! So of course, the ultimate carrot for them... the real reason to take on the hard part of the doing of it… is to help smooth the path and make yourself part of something bigger than yourself. Their motivation is to be together with a friend or friends and to have FUN & PLAY & LEARN! It’s pretty simple and also very complex!

For me, it’s a musical composition by Kimio Eto for Japanese Koto that has always been a metaphor for the work the children take on during their Nursery year together. Musically it’s always captured the repeating themes, the playful approach, the sometimes struggles, the ongoing push to master, the essential nature of the children’s process as they move forward in their cycles of growth and development. Oddly enough, I found the original album I had from my childhood and discovered that in English the composition is titled “The Sound of Construction and Progress.” It absolutely fits!

So celebrate them! They have all done so much to create this group together… all year long. They have enriched themselves and one another in the process. All these glorious individuals have come together to create a truly glorious group. It is very much theirs! I do get the very strong feeling that they will each be carrying along some of their Nursery year as they go forward… expanding, growing, and polishing themselves and the others around them along the way. Thank you all so very much for my experience of being in the day-to-day with your most amazing children.

It was another short but busy week of high energy while we wait for spring. There were many, many books to be read, mud to moosh, to stomp, to churn and to fall into,  and grass — dormant, but no longer icy — to run on. There were lots of ideas and innovations, especially within the realm of the theatrical. We are still deep into Shape Days and will begin talking and planning for Name Days soon... to begin sometime in late March or early April.

As anyone who lives with them knows, young children can be very concrete in their ways of seeing the worlds around them. At the same time — and paradoxically — they often live in a rich world of metaphor to help them make sense of it all. These particular children are all of this. Add deep thinkers too. The simple, beautiful song, "Runnin’ for Freedom" you'll see here, brings Nurseries to experience that is made immediate and authentic by the personal: It was composed by a Nursery friend and her father! It meets the children where they are in their own particular concrete/metaphorical mix of the moment. Poetry, song, storytelling, dramatization, it was another opening of a door from their own unique and and very young experience into a wider dimension and reality.

Thank you so much for the sharing this family piece and making this possible. Nurseries enacted the song with Athena through call and response during Music on Thursday morning. They loved it!

I was able to catch the children and their own theatrical inventions and performance of "Runnin’ for Freedom" in a sequence of photos. And here is the song:

Runnin’ for Freedom

Headed North.
In the night.
Through the woods.
And the fright.
Oh, I’m runnin’
For freedom now.

I’m alone.
Yes I am.
But the Lord.
Guides my hand.
Oh, I’m runnin’
For freedom now.

I’m in the dark.
But I see the light.
And my fire.
Burns bright.
Oh, I’m runnin’
For freedom now.

What?
Does freedom mean?
I don’t know.
I’ve never seen.
But I’m runnin’
For freedom now.

These days, the angle of the sun is telling Nurseries, “Wake up; wake up; run and explore!” However the reality is that there is only so much you can do with snow that has turned into lumpy, frozen foot steps and an impenetrable ice cap to the hard frozen ground.

Sap is beginning to rise. Energies are high. Outlets are a bit limited. Cabin Fever is a frequent result.

However, there is still periodic mud to celebrate. One child came in on Friday after our quick overnight freeze, saying she really wanted it to be a really rainy day (like Thursday). When I asked why, she talked at length about how much she loved playing in the mud! She wants more rain to make even more mud.

When we are all together again on Wednesday, we will have three Octagon Days. Three days for a single shape can seem like a lot, but octagons are often very intriguing to Nursery ages (think of the joy of traffic signs in general.) They can also be inspirational for STOP, GO, and CAUTION signs and the play that results.

These winter days, especially with current icy cold realities, some Nurseries are often choosing to be cozy and warm inside after they arrive. They are creating spontaneous story times asking Athena or me to be their readers while the world warms up a bit. They often love to sit with old favorites to reread or they will search through the shelves for new ones to experience. When we come inside after morning pick-up, each of us chooses a book to be read… including me. On Friday time a Nurseryer chose to be the one to present her story. She chose an old favorite of theirs… Polo and the Dragon by Regis Faller. She made it a fun, interactive time, and they all loved it!

Nurseries were very busy with big block construction in the room and in the hallway throughout the entire week. On Thursday after an early morning of construction in the room and hallway, followed by Art/Science, plus an all school fire drill, then followed by outside play to decompress a bit, they were looking at quite a big morning clean up to do before Snack Time.

Nurseries were running out of steam.

While we were gathering to have our meeting and choose jobs, little did we know that Kindergartners had been working to clean the hallway. They had already put all of the big blocks an other things away! Our clean-up had unexpectedly become much simpler!

Nurseries wanted to write a card to Kindergarten to say thank you. In order to make sure everyone could help, they brought the card over to Kindergarten in a very large basket… with lots of room around the rim for many hands. They asked Lindie to read it to Kindergartners. The message talked about how it was nice of Kindergartners to clean up for them. It was heartfelt… plus it was a great opportunity for several Nurseries to stay for a few moments to talk about Kindergarten!

Everyone seemed very pleased to see one other on Monday. They seemed to come back after our long Winter Break with a new level of curiosity, wonder, and inquiry. Often in a contemplative mood, many are are posing questions to the group and to me and themselves about hows and whys. They are wondering what makes things the way they are. They have ideas. Some ideas are right off the top of their heads. Some they consider and think about for a while and then carefully compose into a theory.

One child asked, “How did the sand in the five minute timer get to be blue? Did you color it, Ann?”

“No, it just came that way from the supply store,” I said. Curious myself, I asked her, “How do you think it got to be blue?”

The entire group was listening and there were several different theories, some wonderfully fanciful, some very much tied to experience and observation. After thinking a while, the child who originally posed the question said,  “I think they used real sand that that they put special color on… and they heated it in the oven.”

Our Number Days began on Tuesday and Wednesday with ZERO and continued on Thursday and Friday with ONE and TWO. Many zero, one, and two shaped cutouts were painted at the easel or decorated at the tables.

There are a number of Nurseries in this group who especially love numbers. They are very interested in counting and organizing them and are also intrigued by larger concepts. We read, How Much Is a Million, by David M. Schwartz and illustrated by Steven Kellogg which they loved. Taking the time to actually articulate each number, I imagine, did you know that to count to one million would take 23 days? Or that to count to one billion would take 95 years? Or that to count to one trillion would take 200,000 years? “No one could even live that long!” several observed. It was a lot to wonder and think about!

All of the Nurseries had a very busy time last week. I think they are not even aware most of the time of just how busy they are. When one child wondered why it was almost go-home-time and how we weren’t even able to do everything they had planned, I mentioned about how very busy the day was. I also mentioned that we had stretched the day as far as we could go and had just run out of time.

She looked surprised and very unconvinced. Raising her eyebrows, she said, “I don’t know… what did we do?”  I started listing some of the things we had all done with the day: Block construction, peeling apples, time in the hall, reading stories, music with Athena, making and seasoning applesauce, taking leftover Chicken Apples to the deer, plus many other plans, inside and out along the way.

But it really didn’t convince her at all! She still had things to do and Time should wait!

They are all voracious inventors and consumers of experience. They get an idea and toss it out for themselves and in so doing, off it flies to the other Nurseries.  It is invented and reinvented by different individuals. Shared in the moment, it slides into group experience and, really, who can even know exactly where the ideas come from. They are sponging them up, using them, and collectively making them their own!

By the way, Nurseries are very happy and enthusiastic about Holidays already here or on their way. They are also beginning to talk about making gifts and giving gifts and of course wrapping gifts!