First Picnic of the Year!

A brief summary of today's events:

• Long morning hike that included reading, water/mud play, and oral story-telling
• Beautiful picnic outdoors (Leek and Potato Soup with couscous salad and pita)
• An afternoon hike that involved solo time for a non-sleeping child that included measuring water depths, exploring skeleton leaves, long-jumping off of stair stumps, turning sticks into magical walking and talking sticks, and a conversation on Aboriginal cultures
• Dreamy sleeps for our younger children, followed by soy yogurt, fruit and a little outdoor play to end the day

All is well, as we witness the beauty of Spring slowly revealing itself....

First week of March already!

Good day to all forest preschooling families and friends! It's been some time since our last blog, as we've been super busy gearing up for our new staff member to begin, new children starting our preschool, and all the other changes taking place. The past month has been filled with creative adventures; identifying animal calls and where those animals live on Jamie's recorder, learning how difficult it is to make snow-people in dry snow and then brainstorming to use a watering can to assist us in building a snow village, finding a fallen tree and then taking it for a train ride all the way to the Gatineau hills, listening to numerous stories about love during Valentines day, and so much more. We've waved good-bye to Jamie as he has set off to a job in Africa, and now welcome Sara onto our team. Her skills at engaging children from a holistic and creative perspective have been a gift to watch this past week, and I've witnessed the children be drawn to her like the shiniest of magnets. Yesterday, the children opened up our dressup box (which has been there with dress up clothes for about two months now, almost untouched) and played in imaginary worlds for about an hour. I truely believe this is the result of having Sara on our team who so graciously goes about setting up the space in a conscious and engaging manner.

So, on that note: Cheers to the coming of Spring and seeing what kind of magical shinnannigans we can get ourselves into!

Another beautiful week of Sunshine

Wow, the weather this Monday and Tuesday was surely in our favour! The children were troopers this week as they explored the concept of opposites, such as hot and cold, and completed the activity of creating their very own ice candles. They were very quick to describe other opposites and we were surprised to hear their description of so many 'feeling' words in this description. What an emotionally-aware bunch we have on our hands.

Both Jamie and I were very happy this week to see the children enter into a new transition level into the program; it seems as if they are really grasping and enjoying the quiet time in our days, are learning to sing most of our regular songs, and are learning to walk for longer periods unassisted then in previous weeks. We took this opportunity to acknowledge each child and tell them how proud we are of their latest feats.

We would also like to take a moment to thank all our volunteers who've been so fabulous to us in recent times; from sharing vehicles, to baking muffins, to cooking and preparing lunch...we are blessed by this help! We'd also like to announce that we have another volunteer coming on board on Monday's to assist in cooking for the Forest Preschool, which assists us greatly in focusing our efforts on programming and getting more children for the Preschool. Yeah to fabulous help!

Lastly, now that the program is in full swing and we're getting busier and busier, I'd like to remind parents that we'd like to be more consistent with payment schedules and the receiving of cheques. If you could please write them out the Carp Ridge Learning Centre, and hand them to Marlene directly on the first of each month for the month ahead we would greatly appreciate this effort for our own organizational efforts. Please see me if you have any further questions.

To conclude, Freya Struthers (LC Director) will be in India on vacation for three weeks beginning this Saturday. I will be on site from Monday to Friday for any questions and we wish her a very joyful and peaceful holiday!

Until next week, Marlene

Alternative Discipline

I thought this would be a helpful resource; these are all positive forms of discipline that we use at the Forest Preschool.

Alternative Discipline:
[From Mothering Magazine Website]

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• Use positive reinforcement.
  
• Create a positive environment.
  
• Say yes as much as possible.
  
• Save no for the important things.
  
• Use natural consequences.
  
• Use logical consequences.
  
• Use restitution.
  
• Leave it up to your child.
  
• Compromise.
  
• State your expectations, and get out of the way.
  
• Give specific instructions.
  
• Give a reason.
  
• Offer help.
  
• Give a choice.
  
• Redirect your child.
  
• Remove your child.
  
• Make positive statements.
  
• Give in occasionally.
  
• Give your child time to agree.
  
• Simply insist.
  
• Make rules.
  
• Ignore some behavior.
  
• Avoid nagging and threats.
  
• Distract your child.
  
• Use humor.
  
• Make it a game.
  
• Be willing to admit your mistakes.
  
• Stop and think before you act.
  
• Don't make a big fuss over little things.
  
• Stick to routines.
  
• Don't hurry your children too much.
  
• Get to the root of the problem.
  
• Correct one behavior at a time.
  
• Give yourselves time.
  
• Use the golden rule.
  
• Model appropriate behavior.
  
• Think of your child as an equal.
  
• Always keep your love for your child in mind.

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow....

Well, Christmas is over and we've finally taken down the decorations on our outdoor Christmas tree. The children had so much fun looking for the tree, decorating it, singing carols, and then rediscovering that it was still up after the holidays. Alas, Jamie has cleaned and next week the children will probably come up with some imaginative story about how the animals loved the decorations so much that they decided to take them away!

The past couple of months have been filled with beautiful and busy beginnings; from forming relationships with our new children and families, to learning how long it takes to put on seven childrens' outdoor gear. With logistical lessons in tow, we've finally come to a place where blogging is a realistic and worthy weekly goal. On this blog you will find some insights into what your children do from day to day, as well as memos that need to get out to parents such as supplies they may need or volunteers being requested.

To summarize the past two months, we have turned a fallen log into a pirate ship, created our very own nature playground by turning a hill into a half-dozen or more slides, made jewelry out of crystals after finding a quartz crystal on our hike, finger painted in the yurt, sang songs, climbed snow mounds that magically turned into mountains, and so much more! The children have been so inspiring, so alive, so enthusiastic...it has truly been the best affirmation that we're on the right path.

Within the next two months we will see our bus or van option come to life from downtown Ottawa, we will continue recruiting more children into our full time preschool through a new marketing strategy, and we will start our Families in Nature Program on the first Sunday of February between 10-12. We look forward to posting on the blog and encourage feedback in every way possible.

To a magical-outdoor 2009!

Vegan Banana Blueberry Recipe

Here's a great recipe I used last week that is so moist you'll be shocked it doesn't have any dairy!

Dry Ingredients:
-1/2 cup brown sugar
-1/2 white sugar/sucanat
-4 cups flour (2 w/w, 2 pastry)
-1 tea baking soda
-3 tab ground flax seed
-2 tea cinnamon
-1 tea salt

Wet Ingredients:
-1 cup vegan margarine (Balance recommended)
-6 brown bananas
-1 cup apple sauce
-1/2 cup soymilk mixed w/ 2 tea apple cider vinegar
-2 tea vanilla

Mix dry ingredient and sift. In separate bowl mix wet ingredients, then combine. Don't overmix, just moisten and then fold in 1 cup of blueberries. Spray muffin tray, and pour. Bakes at 350 degrees for approx. 20 minutes.

Enjoy!

Non-Violent Communication

Well, yesterday was our training on Non-Violent Communication at the Carp Ridge Learning Centre. Rachelle Lamb was the facilitator hailing from Victoria, and our 15 participants ranged from people who worked with or lived with children and wanted to bring about a new wave of conscious caregiving, to people who wanted to improve their personal relationships by becoming more conscious of how they respond and react to one another. It's such an amazing opportunity to be in a room full of people who are committing to becoming more conscious and striving to have more effective and less violent relationships.

For a brief recap we began the workshop by focusing on 'NEEDS" and how they are the basis of every interaction. All people, all the time, whether they have the tools to identify it or not, are communicating their needs. We spoke about basic needs, universal needs, and our group specifically spoke a little about ego-needs. From there we went through the steps of Non-Violent Communication: 1) Observations- objectively identifying what an individual is observing without interpretation or judgement 2) Identify feelings- how does the action you observed impact you personally, without thoughts 3) Needs- Focus on what are your needs in the situation, which are life-serving 4) Request- concrete action that has a timeline. This process was highlighted by the importance of intention when you enter into a conversation and a natural curiosity about the people in your life. Having the intention of connection and harmony, and being curious about another individual, will take you away from judgement and will move you towards a new form of being with people. Simple but not easy, effective but not natural in terms of our instinct to judge and analyze.

All in all, great experience and I'm looking forward to the impact this will have on my life as I continue to practice this form of communication. The children in our preschool will be greatly impacted by adults who clearly communicate with them without judging or imposing their truth on them. Thus, furthering our value of empowering each child within this environment. We'll look at having another training session in the New Year for parents of the children at the preschool. Stay Tuned!