|
Dear Rockwood families, This wintertime has been a time of warmth and strength, and of deepening the roots of our community, our work together, and our collective and individual health. We enjoyed our time as a community celebrating Valentine's Day. Students made "mailboxes" for the delivery of all the class creations. Then we enjoyed exploring all the goodies that were shared! Teri and I wanted to share something profound from our mindfulness practice with the children. During one of our mindfulness sessions, I asked the kids if they knew or could explain what anxiety is. Here’s what they said when I asked, “What is anxiety?” Anxiety acts like a magnifying glass - what’s small seems really big. Anxiety is when you’re worried about what could be instead of what is. It’s little fears that feel big. It’s feeling jumpy. It’s worrying about the future or the past instead of being here right now. It’s feeling worried or stressed a little but for a long time. There are different types: anxiety because you’ve never had something bad happen and you wonder if it could, and anxiety because you had a bad experience once. There’s social anxiety too – wondering what people think, wondering if you said something stupid. It’s when your reaction is bigger than the reality. "Times have changed, and science has made great progress, and so has our work; but our principles have only been confirmed, and along with them our conviction that [humanity] can hope for a solution to its problems, among which the most urgent are those of peace and unity, only by turning its attention and energies to the discovery of the child and to the development of the great potentialities of the human personality in the course of its formation." – Dr. Maria Montessori, from the foreword to The Discovery of the Child In that aim of putting ‘attention and energies’ into the discovery and development of your child, we continue to work daily on skills that aid anxiety, and we practice mindfulness, movement, breathing, art (like pointillism, weaving on a loom, and paper mache), music (including how to read it), and self-expression. This month we also took on academic challenges like square roots of 7-digit numbers, persuasive paragraphs or essays, chemistry, playwriting, converting decimals and fractions, factor trees to find common denominators, spelling rules, appositives, complex sentences…. Students are also carrying out very, very Big Works such as a handwork sale to raise money for people experiencing homelessness, and researching trees to coordinate with a nonprofit that will donate and plant trees on campus, inspired as a remedy to the wounds along Highway 290. These children have strength, creativity, and vision! They also have fun—be sure to ask your child what whigmaleerie means or what an elytron is! Reminders and Sign-Ups Sign ups went out for two great opportunities coming up in the next two weeks: the opening of classroom Observations, and your child’s Student-Led Tour. Check your emails to sign up. We look forward to having you join us! The office also announced that Cedars is hosting a campus-wide Open House on March 4 at 1:00! Check their email for more details. Upcoming There is no school on Friday, March 4 (but we’ll be hosting the Open House that afternoon.) Spring Break is March 14-18 this year. Thank you again for this sweet time with your lovely people. We treasure it! Fondly, Paige
0 Comments
|
