ABOUT SEEDLINGS
At Seedlings, your child will spend time each day exploring themes they are interested in. We've explored birds, snow, bats, polar bears, gardening, and other fun topics. We follow a Creative Curriculum, which provides varied weekly activities balanced between cooking, art and science exploration, construction toys, stories, music, yoga at circle time, organic gardening and nature discovery. We always have room for spontaneous and creative detours! My weekly newsletter announces the theme we're exploring, daily projects, and other exciting Seedlings news.
Weekly Visits with Music Teacher
On Wednesdays we enjoy weekly music time with Local Children's Musician, Emily Fox. She specializes in bringing music to the children from the folk realm of life. Her songs will soon become favorites, and they are especially fun because they provide opportunities for the children to use their whole bodies to incorporate what they're hearing and learning.
Emily also guides the children through a weekly creative "play," where each child brings a character of his or her choosing to life with Emily's musical accompaniment. The "play" is a favorite of the children and is asked about often. They want it to start as soon as Emily arrives each Wednesday!
Emily also guides the children through a weekly creative "play," where each child brings a character of his or her choosing to life with Emily's musical accompaniment. The "play" is a favorite of the children and is asked about often. They want it to start as soon as Emily arrives each Wednesday!
A Typical School Day
Our daily schedule at Seedlings follows the natural rhythms of young children. As Parents and Caregivers, you likely recognize that children generally start their day with wide open eyes, ready for exploration. My mission as a teacher of young children is to embrace their desire for exploration and make time at the beginning of each day for them to settle in to just being at school. We do this by having a "relaxed starting time," one where families are not pressured at home to get their child to school by 9 a.m. "on the dot." Children arrive, generally between 9 to 9:30 a.m., and they utilize this time happily.
A relaxed start to our day allows crucial time for socializing with friends, working independently at our "rice boxes": doing the soothing work of measuring and scooping, or perhaps doing puzzles, building train tracks or painting a picture to take home to our family.
The children look forward to 9:45, which signals that our morning group and activity time will soon begin. At circle time, we do show and tell, sing songs, do a sampling of yoga poses, and tell stories. Then we generally move on to Morning Projects, which can include cooking, learning to draw our names, gluing, art exploration, a science project, or another fun activity that explores our weekly theme. After morning group time finishes, we get ready for outside time.
We have a lovely expansive outdoor play space where the children love to play. There are trikes to ride, balls to throw, and a large organic garden where the children can find all sorts of bugs and butterflies. There are swings in the trees and child-size rakes and brooms to use throughout the yard. During warmer weather we play at our "water table" where we get to float and sink toys and water the garden flowers. A large sandbox and lots of open space offer lots of room for running and playing.
Our school adjoins Madison Meadow, a neighborhood natural open meadow, which we walk to every so often. The meadow offers wider and more natural open places where we enjoy running and exploring.
We are outside as much as possible, especially in the summer months, and I orient most of our circle and group activity times outside too! We even eat our lunches in the shade of one of our favorite low slung climbing trees!
After lunch, it is time for a quieter and restorative time. We read stories, get a drink of water, and then it is rest time for all. I help to create a warm and cozy place for each child to foster a relaxing restful time.
After rest time, the children most often wake up independently and are hungry and ready for a snack. Families are welcome to pick up their children any time throughout the day, but generally most families arrive to pick up their children after snack and free choice time, around 4:30. Our school is open until 5:00 p.m., allowing families who have longer work days get their work done before picking up their wee ones.
A relaxed start to our day allows crucial time for socializing with friends, working independently at our "rice boxes": doing the soothing work of measuring and scooping, or perhaps doing puzzles, building train tracks or painting a picture to take home to our family.
The children look forward to 9:45, which signals that our morning group and activity time will soon begin. At circle time, we do show and tell, sing songs, do a sampling of yoga poses, and tell stories. Then we generally move on to Morning Projects, which can include cooking, learning to draw our names, gluing, art exploration, a science project, or another fun activity that explores our weekly theme. After morning group time finishes, we get ready for outside time.
We have a lovely expansive outdoor play space where the children love to play. There are trikes to ride, balls to throw, and a large organic garden where the children can find all sorts of bugs and butterflies. There are swings in the trees and child-size rakes and brooms to use throughout the yard. During warmer weather we play at our "water table" where we get to float and sink toys and water the garden flowers. A large sandbox and lots of open space offer lots of room for running and playing.
Our school adjoins Madison Meadow, a neighborhood natural open meadow, which we walk to every so often. The meadow offers wider and more natural open places where we enjoy running and exploring.
We are outside as much as possible, especially in the summer months, and I orient most of our circle and group activity times outside too! We even eat our lunches in the shade of one of our favorite low slung climbing trees!
After lunch, it is time for a quieter and restorative time. We read stories, get a drink of water, and then it is rest time for all. I help to create a warm and cozy place for each child to foster a relaxing restful time.
After rest time, the children most often wake up independently and are hungry and ready for a snack. Families are welcome to pick up their children any time throughout the day, but generally most families arrive to pick up their children after snack and free choice time, around 4:30. Our school is open until 5:00 p.m., allowing families who have longer work days get their work done before picking up their wee ones.
