Revised Rhythm

Summers are always the craziest times at our Enchanted Childhood Playschool. We generally have more children. Sadly, Mama and I have found that our greatest skills really lie from ages two through four (Yes, I realize that does not include Bunny who is only 16 1/2 months. My own don't count).

Babies are getting harder and harder to fit into our rhythm. The issue is that if we are going to do something, we want to do it right. Babies need and deserve a lot of attention and we simply cannot give them what we want to give them and continue to teach Playschool the way we want. It is bitter sweet since we love babies, But we have decided that we will not be accepting any more babies (other than my own, of course) to our little group. They will have to be at least 15 months old and on one nap a day before they join us.

Older children, while still welcomed and loved here, just seem to fade more and more into the real world. Some start attending other pre-schools part time or kindergartens and only come to us on holidays. I have never once been happy to see a child go (except for a little boy whose mama decided stay at home with him). A piece of my heart goes with them as they trudge off into the haze of the big world. No child has ever come back the same way they left. They may seem the same from the outside, but their hearts change. The enchantment of childhood is replaced by the allure of big kid/grown up things. It gets harder and harder for them to see the magic. I guess this is called this growing up, but I don't like to see it happening to children so young.

With the end of summer, comes the longing to get back to where we belong. To take what we have learned and apply it to the rhythm of our day. We made new, revised, playschool sunny day and rainy day schedules.

Front

Mama's amazing artwork in the corners haha!

Back

In addition to the new rhythm, we have added various new things to our playschool. We now have stump stools at several places along our walking paths to encourage stopping to play and explore. We also just added (today in fact) an old boat to the shore of our little creek. I can't wait to see what adventure the children dream up for that. A ship wreck? A fishing trip? Who knows! Pics to come!

I am so excited to see what this new season brings. Anything is possible!