We are very fortunate to have some very long tenured staff. Our professional staff in particular has an average tenure that is in the double digits in terms of years of service. Part of our long tenure average is of course good fortune.
We want to tie into our curriculum subject this week (birds) and talk about wildlife viewing as a part of engaging with nature and creating some fun, family time. It may surprise newcomers and outsiders that the 4th most populous city in the United States has an abundance of wildlife. Not only is there an abundance, but there is also an enormous variety.
Joy is a reflection of living our values, and we would argue that finding it as parents is critical to our children's success in life. There are a number of things you can do to be joyful yourself as well as teaching your children to be the same way.
Self-esteem can be a mixed bag. When people move from a sense of justified pride earned by working their way through a task to being convinced of their own superiority with little to no justification, something has clearly gone awry. But there is a clear area where self-esteem is healthy and where, particularly in children, it can serve as an armor against all manner of negative influences. Building that positive self-esteem and thickening the armor starts early. As parents of preschool children, there is no time like the present.
Rather than the traditional public school approach of "sit down and shut up" (which has thankfully started to disappear in many places), we actually find it beneficial to take the attitude of "if it keeps them working and it isn't hurting anyone, then we don't care".
If you consider yourself a hands on learner, whether completely or even partially, we suspect you will be able to relate to why we love this aspect of child development. The playground presents an opportunity for societal learning and practiced citizenship in a hands on fashion. As individuals, children on the playground are presented with a number of scenarios that they must work through.
Entering first grade, children are confronted with social hierarchies and politics to navigate that are going to be, in some fashion, new to them. One of the advantages for children in childcare is that all of them have at least been in a group social situation by the time they move to elementary school. But mere attendance in a group environment does nothing to prepare a child for the transition.
Think back to childhood. Who did you look up to? Were there people in the media and entertainment that you looked up to and idolized? Sports stars? Actors? Pop singers? From a perspective of being worthwhile in your development, how did that work out? If you are like most people it probably didn't work out well.
There are a few ideas that get floated about when it comes to children that make us cringe. Perhaps the worst of all of these ideas is the one that can be paraphrased as "that child did something 'bad', so they are a bad kid". When "that child" is our own, these labels can lead to feelings of guilt and even shame as a parent.
Courage is a moral strength. It allows us to move forward in the face of fear, challenges and even real danger. We say that those with courage are brave. But at times it seems that we limit the definition of what it means to be brave to a narrow band of seemingly heroic acts. Courage and bravery can seem relegated to warriors and superheroes. And this is a shame, because we see acts of courage every day at school that…
While she is remembered for the innovative and lasting education method that bears her name, Maria Montessori was much more. She was a physician, a scientist, a tireless activist for women's rights, and an advocate for peace. To Dr. Montessori, the hope for a true and lasting peace was tied up in the education of children. A moral education focused on a respect for diversity, citizenship and acceptance of personal responsibility was at the center of her hope for the future.
Honor means we possess the traits of honesty, fairness and integrity. These are high goals to be sure. They are truly challenging to exhibit consistently as we are all flawed human beings. But somewhere along the line striving to be honorable went from being required if you were to be admired to being seen by many as an impossibility and thus not even worth working toward. Cynicism not only crept in; it took over.
Joy is an emotion or a feeling - right? By definition it is an emotion of great delight or happiness or the expression of a glad feeling. So why include joy in a list of values that we seek to imbue the children with if it is in fact not a value? This is precisely the conversation my wife and I found ourselves in when revisiting how we do "Greystone House things" earlier this week.
Whether talking about our leaders and their responsibility to govern fairly and within the bounds of their defined power or of ourselves and our responsibility to accept the consequences of our actions and reactions, this concept separates adults from children and commoners from despots. But the thing is, there is no switch that flips.
The new world of global commerce is developing at breakneck speed and that requires that peoples and countries alike build the ability to change and adapt. With that in mind we as parents need to ensure that we prepare our children to be active participants in this world rather than passive subjects.
No need to worry
We read every form submission. If you asked us to get back to you, we will. Otherwise, know that we hear you and are happy for the inputs. And don’t worry about spam. We hate it too – so you won’t get it from us.
Don’t worry, we aren’t verbose
We very occasionally send out cool bits of info, but we never spam. And if you lose interest we promise we won’t be offended. Everything we send out has an unsubscribe link so you can control your own relationship with us (which is of course how it should be).