Little Red Schoolhouse

This week we visited the Little Red Schoolhouse Nature Center in Willow Springs. The new, LEED-certified, building has such a wide variety of rich nature learning experiences, including lots of indoor room for imaginative play, doing puzzles, and reading about nature. Also, many static and live displays (the alligator snapping turtles seem to be their favorite!), and a beautiful, peaceful outdoor area, including a pond, where one can see fish, tadpoles, and (non-poisonous) water snakes, hear bullfrogs, and see snowy white egrets in their natural habitats.

There are regularly-scheduled interpretive programs and activities for all ages. (I'm going back tomorrow morning for a free landscape-painting workshop! : ))

When we go, we visit either before or after lunch, since picnicking is not allowed there. The older boys really enjoyed the exploratory play area this week, 'excavating' for dinosaurs and other plastic toys hidden in a large bin of environmentally-friendly corncob granules. The ramp going downstairs to the turtle and fish tanks is like a journey back in time, with fossils (and live plants, such as ferns and cycads which have survived from the age of fossils), interpretive labeling and displays, along with full-size wall outlines of dinosaurs so the kids can compare their size to these ancient giants. Those always elicit a "Wow!" This place is one of our very favorites to visit, year round, for our field trips.

And you know what else? The Cook County Forest Preserve owns and maintains this property. They have amazing, knowledgeable staff, some of the best in the field. (And I can say that with some authority because I have known several personally for many years. : )) The CCFPD is part of a wider coalition called Chicago Wilderness, which has sponsored regional and national Leave No Child Inside legislation, and is on the cutting edge of nature education worldwide.

Cool.

The amazing alphabet

What amazes me about people is how rich our language is, and how quickly the infant brain learns it! Right now we have four children, L (almost 4), R (2.5), A and M (almost 2), who are eager to learn the alphabet, and they are making amazing progress! Maria Montessori wrote about how the age of four was towards the end of the sensitive period for learning this, and my observations these past many years seem to corroborate this. However, some of my friends have raised their children within the Waldorf School framework, and they don't introduce the alphabet until the age of seven, preferring instead to focus on oral storytelling, handwork and visual arts. Somehow, we all get there eventually!

We combine alphabet puzzles, the Montessori sandpaper letters, art activities, flash cards, and baskets with things that all start with the same letter, to encourage children with different learning styles to explore the alphabet in different ways. I am completely amazed that my almost-2-year-old knows 20 of the alphabet letters already! So it can be done...

I think you have to be very subtle though - if I've learned anything about kids (and older!), they don't like being put on the spot unless you make it fun in some way. They get performance anxiety just like anyone else. Pressure is very counterproductive, whether it's learning the alphabet, trying a new food, or potty training. I've learned this the hard way, believe me! : )

Kids and food

Today we had Life cereal, OJ and milk for breakfast. I know, Life isn't organic, but oats are a very hardy crop and usually not knee-deep in pesticides (think of how the hardy Scots lived on oats and barley for hundreds of years without benefit of Monsanto...). I worry most about fruits, especially the thin-skinned ones like strawberries.

For lunch we had poached an organic chicken, and served dices of the chicken, along with petit pois and cocciolini pasta cooked in the chicken broth. Pears were our fruit course, afterwards. The kids loved it. They will eat pasta every day if I serve it!

We color-code the children's plates, cups and utensils. That helps me immeasurably but the children also find security in knowing where they sit and what to expect at mealtime. Food=love=security for kids. The small touches really matter! A pretty table, food attractively displayed and arranged, teaches them subtly that aesthetics matter, and that they are worth the respect these small touches afford.

I haven't thought far enough ahead today to contemplate snack yet. I always give the children choices, and rotate those choices among them so that everyone has some input about our shared meals. Since mealtime probably takes up at least a third of our time together it's a wonderful vehicle for transmitting cultural values such as politeness, cleanliness, respect, and care for the environment, not to mention care for one another.

Since time immemorial, mealtime has been the time for sharing our stories. I hope people will continue to share those stories around the dinnertable, rather than eating on TV trays as I have seen many families do. What a missed opportunity!

Our program

Why is our program special? Well, we promote a connection to the earth. Food doesn't grow on styrofoam plates - yet, anyway! There are human hands at work, important work, that many kids have grown up dissociated from. Every spring we grow some food - strawberries, broccoli, tomatoes, raspberries, even apples. And we try to purchase as much organic food as possible. The research connecting pesticides to illness is pretty conclusive.

The kids play outside for a good part of the day. We teach them the names of the birds we see, and the plants we raise, and we look for monarch butterfly eggs to nurture so they can wonder at the process of metamorphosis.

I admit it - I'm a science and math geek. Well, maybe not so advanced on the math, but I try to make those connections wherever possible. Like in music. And it's important to me that kids actively problem solve, not just be passive observers. So.... not much TV here either (unless it's program related!).

I'm also a Montessorian in spirit, if not in our entire classroom. Montessori had wonderful materials for teaching about math, reading, and nature. We use those every day.

Next time I'll talk more about our kids' activities and some of the great things they say to me.

For the Love of Children

It's never easy to give your children over to someone else while you go to work. It's a sacred trust, and a huge responsibility for both parent and caregiver. But somehow, we all believe that love, and hope, and responsibility will prevail. This little blog is designed to maintain confidentiality but also provide a window into a caregiver's day.

Our children are worth it!