Morning Garden!

Lillian and I are going to be doing this Morning Garden Program at The Redmont School in Birmingham and I thought that I would post some info on it in case any other Mommies out there are looking for something fun and educational that they can do with their little ones. I have copied and paced the email that they sent me below. If you like what you see sign up quickly because there is limited space! Oh, and just a little warning...The Redmont School is more on the earthy side, so if you are not into nature this might not be the program for you.


Hello Redmont Friends and Families!

I just wanted to let you know that there is still room in our Morning Garden program. For those of you who don't know, Morning Garden is an inter-active parent-child class held at the school for children aged walking (roughly 18 months) to 2.5 years. As someone who has been attending Morning Garden for the last 3 years and teaching Morning Garden last year, I have found so many benefits from attending the class!

*getting an opportunity to talk with parents and share wisdom's on raising aware, mindful, & loving children
*learning and sharing with folks about our school, Waldorf Education and principles
*having special one-on-one time with my little one during our circle time
*giving my children an opportunity to socialize informally with other children
*meeting life-long friends

If you know someone who might be interested in attending the class or interested to learn more about our school. Please feel free to forward this email to them. Below I have copied our September Theme and Activities. The class will be held on Wednesdays from 9:30-11am. You can contact the office or our website below for more information!
http://theredmontschool.org/Morning+Garden.aspx?Page=65c00fac-f1c4-489f-9ee8-9d3b457e976d

With Joy & Anticipation!
Sina Skates
Morning Garden Teacher

Our Theme for September in Morning Garden is:

Summer to Fall and Welcome to All

Even though in many northern states September marks the beginning of Fall, here in Birmingham, it still feels an awful lot like Summer to me! Our September activities are a mix between Fall and Summer, and an opportunity for us to meet one another and say "Hello"

Week One - September 9th - we will go for a nature walk around the school property, finding treasures as we go. We will meet on the playground behind the nursery playground - it has a large blue slide.
Week Two - September 16th - A little hand-sewing project (you will only need to sew about 3-4 inches of length 2 times). We will be creating a smock for our children to wear out of a piece of cloth and a rope or ribbon. If you have an old t-shirt or button down flannel shirt (adult size Medium or Large) that would work fine, and I will bring extras, too. I will also provide needle, thread, and ribbon to complete the project. We will use the smocks throughout the year when the children will be involved with messy projects...

Week Three - September 23rd - we will create baskets out of grapefruits for our children to play with - they can put snacks in them for snack time or dirt or grass or whatever.

Week Four - September 30th - In honor of entering the Harvest time of year we will be making butter out of cream. For anyone who bakes fresh bread, this would be a great option to bring to snack time to have with our butter. I will also bring seasoning to put into the butter like salt, fresh herbs, and some citrus. Feel free to bring anything you would like to add to our home-made butter. I will bring glass baby food jars so you can take some home with you, too.

Location. We will meet outside on the playground behind the Nursery playground, in between the middle building and the gym. If it is raining, we'll meet in the Auditorium Week One - we will walk by our classroom during our nature walk, so you will know where it is. I want us to be outside as much as possible, especially since it's such great weather these days!

Enrichment Article. This month I have a really, really short bit of an article for you to take home with you (it's only one double-sided page.) It's entitled "Who Me? Make a Doll?" I read it and thought it was fun and interesting, especially as we go into making a smock for Week 2 (not nearly as complicated as making a doll). Each month I will pick out short little tid-bits for us to ponder. I will do my best to keep selections interesting, light (less than 5 pages), and Waldorf inspired.

Morning Circle
For those of you who are new and returning MG'ers, here's a print out of the Morning Verses we will be doing in September. Each month, in accordance with the theme, we will have some new Verses. This is just for fun, please don't think you need to memorize any of these before class (and you may even catch me with a cheat sheet as well.) I will have printouts for the new folks on the first day of class.

1. Welcome Chant
Morning Has Come, Night is Away. Rise with the Sun, and Welcome the Day.

2. Hello Song - for example if it was my turn - "Hello Liam, Hello Sina. Hello. Hello. Hello Liam, Hello Sina, we're glad you're here today." It is sung with clapping hands and great for learning new names for both baby and parent!

3. Fingerplay. Summer Theme.
Here is the Beehive. Where are the Bees? (hands together)
Hidden away where nobody sees.
Watch and the bees will come out of the Hive.
One, Two, Three, Four, and Five. (one hand coming out of the other)
Buzzzzzzzz (fly around and tickle your child)

4. Fingerplay. Summer Theme.
Round & round the garden goes the little mouse... (finger going around child's palm)
up, and up and up he creeps into his little house! (fingers creeping up child's arm, and tickle under chin)

5. Action Song. Summer/Fall Theme.
Once I saw a little bird, come hop, hop, hop. (Hop, hop, hop)
I cried, "Little Bird, will you stop, stop, stop." (freeze)
I went to the window saying "How do you do?" (shake hands)
But he shook his little tail and away he flew! (shake tails & fly around the circle)

Snack Blessing Song.
Blessings on the blossoms, blessings on the roots.
Blessings on the leaves and stems, blessings on the fruits.
Blessings on our Snack.

Please remember to bring a snack to share. I believe, including me and Liam, there will be 6 parent/child groups. Snack time is low key - something simple, fresh fruit, humos, bread, fresh popcorn, etc. In the Waldorf Tradition, we try to keep our snacks healthy, whole-grains, home-made goodies are great, low-or-no-sugar, cheese, etc.

Closing Circle
1. Make New Friends, but keep the old, one is silver and the other gold.
A Circle's round, it has no end, and that's how long I want to be your friend.

2. Tumba, Tumba, Tumba, Tumba. La La La La.

And this brings us to the end of this email! Phew! See you September 9th!

Peace,
Sina Skates