Collaborative play

At the beginning of your time at Apple Blossom you'll probably hear a few wise words from the teachers about play. One tidbit I really found interesting -- partially because it encouraged me to break a common habit -- had to do with friendship on the playground.

"Try not to ask your child 'Who did you play with today?' Because chances are they took a turn playing with everyone. They'll run in and out, in and out, of different groups. So they won't know quite what to answer and it's not quite the right question to ask."

The photograph above, a perfect portrait of collaborative play, really brings these words to life.

Chopping apples

At Apple Blossom, the children and their teachers follow a rhythm -- a comforting daily and weekly routine made up of outdoor and indoor time, focused activities and free play. 

Every Monday morning the children bring a vegetable from home and sit around the outside table to chop them for Tuesday's soup. And every Thursday morning you'll find them cozied up again, peeling and chopping apples for Friday's apple crisp. 

It's such fun to see the same activities performed within the changing of the seasons. In September, tiny heads poked out from sun hats and arms were slathered with sunscreen as they chopped and chatted. And now fresh snow surrounds the happy workers as they sit bundled in woolly layers, smiling with rosy cheeks. 

Martinmas

Apple Blossom's beautiful lantern walk celebrating the Martinmas festival occurs every November. Martinmas falls halfway between the summer solstice and the winter solstice. The meaning, as I understand it, is that we our celebrating the light inside ourselves as the season turns to a time of darkness.  From connecting with this light within we help ourselves and each other build up our inner resources of courage and strength to be our best selves.

  

Before the lantern walk a parent makes a lantern for his or her child out of a beautiful watercolor painting made by the child and the parent illuminates it with carved shapes covered with kite paper.  At the lantern walk we each place a candle inside  our lanterns and the entire community of parents and children does an evening walk throughout the school while singing lantern songs. I love this festival!  My children are still singing Glimmer Lantern Glimmer.

Glimmer, lantern, glimmer
Little stars a-shimmer
Over meadow, moor and vale
Flitter, flutter, elfin veil
Pee-wit, pee-wit, tikka-tikka-tik
Rucoo, rucoo.

Glimmer, lantern, glimmer
Little stars a-shimmer
Over rock and stock and stone
Wandering, skipping little gnome
Pee-wit, pee-wit, tikka-tikka-tik

Rucoo, rucoo.

Parents' evening

Such focus!

Last week, on a chilly evening after the sun was down and the kids were asleep, the Apple Blossom parents and teachers gathered inside school. The topic of the evening was Warmth -- how essential it is to our children in their physical and emotional growth and how to encourage and support it. 

We sat around a beeswax candle under a soft light, savored warming refreshments (peppermint tea, warm soup and homemade bread) and enjoyed a lively and fascinating -- and sometimes silly -- conversation. 

It's wonderful to really spend quality time with the Apple Blossom teachers and hear their thoughts on children and home life. So many new ideas and helpful tips and loving guidance, and right at the end of a long day when we often need that most. When the discussion opens up and different parents chime in with comments or questions or simply a funny story you can feel how dear everyone holds each other.

 

Adding a wire handle to a finished beeswax lantern.

While we chatted and ate and laughed, we all worked on lanterns for the upcoming lantern walk. Using beeswax warmed in our hands, we molded colorful patterns onto glass jars. How beautiful they will look, lit up with candles on a cold autumn night! What fun to use our hands and make something all our own.

In the end, such a peaceful, calming -- and yes, very warming -- evening to connect and create together. 

Community

Instead of zipping in and out of school, Apple Blossom parents and families like to linger. Whether you're dropping off or picking up or stopping by to shop at the Apple Blossom school store, you'll likely find a parent or two (or three) on school grounds.

There's no great rush to leave school behind, so you'll always find people sprinkled around. Bringing a thermos of tea and pushing the younger siblings on the swings after drop-off. Getting to school a little early and cozying up in the community room to nurse an infant. Spreading out a blanket and sharing a snack with another mom to discuss upcoming school events or weekend plans.

If you're looking for community, for other families that like to kick up their heels and roll up their sleeves and really become a school family, then this is the place to be. It's pretty impossible to feel lonely when you're always surrounded by such warmth.

Symbols

Every child at Apple Blossom is given his or her own symbol. It may be an apple, a rainbow, a dolphin, or a sunflower. A rooster, a turtle, a rose, or the sun.

This handmade label is placed on the child's clothing bag, cubby, sewing basket, and chair. Without letters or words, the children are easily able to find their place in the classroom. What a beautiful and gentle guide for each day.

Artwork at Apple Blossom

An Apple Blossom 5-year-old's drawing of St. Michael's dragon

At Apple Blossom, the children use beeswax crayons to color and high quality watercolors for their paintings. The paper is thick and sturdy and the children know you can't burn through 100 pages at a time. They learn to take their time and respect the materials, slowly mastering the fine motor skills needed for artwork.

Twice a year, the children bring home a folder of their pieces. It's a fun surprise to see what they've been working on, the drawings often inspired by the stories the teachers have been telling, or from the puppet shows they've watched, or the games they've invented on the play yard. There are dragons and gnomes, rainbows and trees. The watercolors fill the paper with rich tones of yellow or pink or red. They are gorgeous.

Instead of oodles of papers sent home everyday, parents receive a selection of beautiful and quality pieces to treasure. I have loved, especially, framing the beautiful watercolors to brighten up my home's walls. How proud the children are of their work!