Summer 2023 Newsletter

It has been such a wonderful summer session these past six weeks! See below for a summary of all the meaningful experiences we’ve had together!

The Heart

The kitchen table has been the place where many arts, crafts, educational activities, and conversations have taken place. They say the kitchen is the heart of the home – well, it has certainly become the heart of the school during our mornings, as we all come together to craft and snack while chatting with one another. During these opportunities, we tend to check in with one another to see how we feel that day and discuss anything pertinent for the day ahead or of interest. 

It has become an unofficial circle time that everyone naturally wants to participate in. I love these opportunities to really naturally connect with the children. I can see in their eyes how they love the individual attention wrapped up in a natural, one-on-one conversation with their teacher, and how this goes a long way in establishing and preserving the teacher-student connection, as well as stronger friendships between the children.

Indoor Activities

While indoors for the first hour of the day, I’ve seen the kids develop and perfect so many core human skillsets, such as problem-solving, language skills, motor development, spatial skills and coordination, cooperation and negotiation. All of this has been repeatedly practiced through the joyful experience of child-led play, with the kids utilizing the open-ended toys strategically placed in the living room in the most creative of ways!

The kids have also enjoyed the play-based activities I have invited them to participate in. Some of our favorites have been melting frozen toys, nature movement cards, planting beans in paper cups, making new treasures out of upcycled materials, tape, and hot glue gun (supervised), puzzles from animal unit studies, and the many art crafts with dried beans, yarn, and paint. I have really enjoyed crafting with the kids and seeing all our individual creations at the kitchen table. 

Outdoor Adventures

The Pond
Our outside adventures this summer have been powerful. Nature is now fully awake and active, and nowhere is this most evident than at our pond – the source of so much life, coming alive with birds, bugs, fish, reptiles and amphibians.

Some of the animals that have fascinated us the most have been box turtles, large bass, bullfrogs (and their loud croaking songs), the water snake that always sunbathes in a particular location of the pond (now named Dwight), swallowtail butterflies, native bees, dragonflies (we once counted about 50 flying over the pond!), and the numerous birds that call our space home (cardinals, belted kingfishers, great blue herons, chickadees, phoebes, to name a few).

Just by being so close to the pond and observing all the wildlife it supports, the kids are understanding on a deep and natural level the ecology of ponds. This includes the effects of rain, water flow, all the animals that inhabit the pond, their relationships to each other, and life cycles.

The Trail

Our trail continues to be another source of inspiration, too. The trail is bursting with mushrooms of all colors, shapes, and sizes. The kids and I are truly fascinated by them, and going on the trail always feels like a treasure hunt. Particularly in the early summer, the kids would always ask to turn on our bird app – The Cornell Lab’s Merlin App – to determine which birds were singing in the forest. It is amazing to watch the kids become bird watchers. This app has helped us so much in learning more about the birds we share this space with. Now in late summer, we have noticed how quiet the birds have relatively become, as they hunker down during their molting season.

On our way to the trail, we always stop by the creek, where we have found baby salamanders and water skidders, reminding us to be gentle and considerate in our water play. After torrential rain the night before, we tend to also find glass in the creek. I have found this to be an incredible opportunity to discuss how trash tends to find itself in nature and the effects this might have on wildlife. 

The kids enjoy looking for glass in the creek, as if they were looking for hidden gems. I love that they are participating in the stewardship of our creek, by helping to clean the creek bed, where we have found so much wildlife. They are learning to be one with nature and good stewards of the land.

Another favorite activity has been to observe and discover animal tracks. The kids are becoming quite good at finding these tracks and deciphering who was at the creek the night before. They are turning out to be amazing little nature detectives, with their eyes and ears becoming more attuned to the environment around them.

Water, Ice, Sand, Dirt, Mud

With temperatures unprecedentedly high, water has become a huge element of our play and exploration outside. The kids have really enjoyed playing in this big bucket we have – filling it up with water and soap, watching all the bubbles form, then dunking in the bucket, two-three kids at a time, watching the water gush out.

They have also loved pouring the water into other buckets, throwing it up in the air, watching it splash to their immense delight. I have seen so much creativity, imagination, problem-solving, cooperation, turn-taking happening with this fun, child-led activity!

Playing with water has been so joyful for all of us that frequently the kids won’t want to go back inside, despite the high temperatures (we eventually do, to cool off before pick-up).

Another favorite activity has been digging in the dirt in certain areas of our playscape, and coming up with ways to manage the distribution and deposit of this freshly dug-up soil in other areas. So much team work and cooperation has gone into this activity, which has been a delight to observe.

We've recently observed that one of the holes the kids had dug up on the hillside in the wintertime actually became an animal home! How neat was it to see that our play had an effect on wildlife, providing a shelter for an animal. 

Lastly, rainbow ice has been a huge hit, as the colorful ice is used countless ways outside. This is an activity I will likely still have outside in the cold months, as we continue to explore the properties of ice together, in warm and cold temperatures!