SHOW AND TELL
Bring some dots* for our aboriginal art.
(*like made from a hole punch)
Topic: Australia
All about Australia
The value is compassion, which means to have sorrow for the pain or trouble of another creature.
For science we’ll learn how a huge ship can float in the water.
Outside we’ll make sand castles and play ball madness.
The songs we’ll be singing are Michael Finnegan, Teddy Bear, Kookaburra, Waltzin’ Matilda, and It’s a Small World.
Our art activities are Sydney opera house, wooly lamb, dotty Australia, boomerang, and cockatoo.
Creative dramatics will be interpreting the song Waltzin’ Matilda.
For motor development we’ll build coordination by practicing walking in a straight line. For body development, we’ll work on proprioception with carrying heavy loads, moving our bodies to places on a clock, and moving a pillow with our heads.
CELEBRATING PRESENT MOMENTS
Our preschoolers are the best teachers in the world for living in the present moment. When we appreciate, even luxuriate, in who we are and where we are right now, the more our experiences will be positive. I have found that the more freedom I allow myself to fully and freely experience what is important to me, the more peak experiences I seem to have. When I don’t focus on when I’ll finish and don’t think about what I need to do next, I simply function and allow myself to work. The hours flow by and I’m refreshed and productive. (See Csikszentmihalyi’s book Flow.)
Children are natural geniuses at living life in the present moment. They intuitively know how to get lost in a moment and to enjoy it fully. They put their thinking selves on hold and suspend judgment. This absence of thinking, of quieting the mind, and the ability to not only enjoy what they do, but to actually be what they are doing is what it means to be an unspoiled child. We can learn from them, not to be childish, but to be childlike. We can be totally involved in the moment rather than thinking about all the things we have to do later.
This is a lovely philosophy, but what’s the reality of it? Once you have planned your day, prioritizing activities and allocating time, then be totally in each activity. When you’re driving to the school in the morning, be totally with your child, enjoying the drive and savoring the time together. At pick up time, take the last 5 or 10 minutes of your commute to focus on your child. When you greet her, be totally with her. Greet her with a hug and kneel to her level to hear about her day. Ask her to show you what she did today. Treasure his three-year-old-ness as being perfect for where he is right now. Don’t think of him as being incomplete or that you want him to hurry and get older and bigger. When you get home in the evenings, enjoy your child until you can both move on to your evening’s activities. Don’t rush events. Don’t be annoyed at delay. Don’t focus on what “should” be done. Compliment your child freely and sincerely. Once you have established your life and daily goals, enjoy the daily steps to get there. Explain why and where and how for everything. Encourage your child to do for himself. Don’t follow fads or commercial ad campaigns or establish money as the criteria for doing or not doing.
Our little children have not yet learned to be tense or perfectionists or labeled. Every day is a new day for them. We can learn so much from them so that we, too, can celebrate every moment, and at the end of our lives, find that we have truly lived.
General
Blimey, Mate. We’re doing Australia – In our enrichment curriculum the children will be learning all kinds of new language that is still English. We’ll practice g’day (hello, good bye, and any general greeting), mozzie (mosquito) , roo (kangaroo), and blowies (blow flies). We’ll also interpret Waltzin’ Matilda. It’s a fun curriculum if you want to join us either learning the language or contributing artifacts you might have.
Luau – Our school’s summer events is the luau. In the past we’ve had families who lived near the school and had a child friendly pool to host the luau or made their neighborhood pool available for us to use. If you live near the school and have a pool please consider on hosting this year’s luau. Each family is asked to bring a dish, we usually have the luau on a Friday in July or early August and the luau is just two hours from 6 – 8 P.M. teachers will take care of all the set up and clean up. If you would like to host the luau or want more information before you make your decision please let us know.
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