I was recently made aware of a touching story of service and want to pass it along to our school community. Read "Special Delivery," the August 5 post on the blog of Jill Nawrocki, a Peace Corps volunteer in Namibia.
The "two little girls" that Jill writes about are sisters Abigail (a rising first grader) and Catherine (who will enter pre-k this fall) and the unit on Africa that she mentions is one of the annual highlights of our kindergarten year.
Service indeed begins at home . . . and is nurtured at school . . . and extends around the globe. How heart warming to know that a simple act of kindness on the part of two young girls is helping so many more girls in Namibia. As Jill writes so well, ". . . even the littlest ones among us have the potential to do big and selfless things."
Thursday, August 7, 2008
Tuesday, August 5, 2008
Of Treehouses and Thoreau
I hope this post finds you all enjoying a fun and restful summer. This blog has been "quiet" since the end of the school year, although the campus has been far from quiet with all of the construction (I'll be writing more about that soon). With the start of the new school year only one short month away, I thought I'd get the blog up and running again.
The summer break offers so many opportunities for children to relax and have fun with friends and family, or sometimes on their own - especially out of doors - and, yes, it is also a time to learn. We encourage children to keep reading and to be read to (please remember to check out T. Kathy McAnelly's page on the school site for helpful links), and of course rising fourth and fifth graders have those math packets to complete! But there is also so much to learn from playing and interacting with the great outdoors.
Our family thoroughly enjoyed a unique outdoor opportunity this past weekend: Totally Terrific Treehouses at Tyler Arboretum. Sixteen "one-of-a-kind" treehouses built by Delaware Valley architects and artisans can be found throughout the arboretum. Several are accessible and great fun to play in, while others are artistic installations. It will take some time to see all sixteen (we saw about half in a two-hour visit), so plan on an extended stay or more than one visit. A set of hammocks are conveniently located midway (one of my favorite features!). A special event with story tellers and musical entertainment is happening there this Saturday, noon-4:00. The exhibit runs through September 28.
Walking through the treehouse exhibit reminded me of some of our recent All-School Units, particularly (and most obviously) "Trees" and last year's "Ecosystems and the Environment." The replica of Henry David Thoreau's cabin on Walden Pond, appropriately located near the arboretum pond, evoked thoughts of a healthy mind, body and spirit that will be the focus of this year's All-School Unit . . . and encouraged me to read Thoreau again. You can take the time to sit in the cabin and read one of the children's books based on Thoreau that are there, as we did, or to simply enjoy the simplicity.
The summer break offers so many opportunities for children to relax and have fun with friends and family, or sometimes on their own - especially out of doors - and, yes, it is also a time to learn. We encourage children to keep reading and to be read to (please remember to check out T. Kathy McAnelly's page on the school site for helpful links), and of course rising fourth and fifth graders have those math packets to complete! But there is also so much to learn from playing and interacting with the great outdoors.
Our family thoroughly enjoyed a unique outdoor opportunity this past weekend: Totally Terrific Treehouses at Tyler Arboretum. Sixteen "one-of-a-kind" treehouses built by Delaware Valley architects and artisans can be found throughout the arboretum. Several are accessible and great fun to play in, while others are artistic installations. It will take some time to see all sixteen (we saw about half in a two-hour visit), so plan on an extended stay or more than one visit. A set of hammocks are conveniently located midway (one of my favorite features!). A special event with story tellers and musical entertainment is happening there this Saturday, noon-4:00. The exhibit runs through September 28.
Walking through the treehouse exhibit reminded me of some of our recent All-School Units, particularly (and most obviously) "Trees" and last year's "Ecosystems and the Environment." The replica of Henry David Thoreau's cabin on Walden Pond, appropriately located near the arboretum pond, evoked thoughts of a healthy mind, body and spirit that will be the focus of this year's All-School Unit . . . and encouraged me to read Thoreau again. You can take the time to sit in the cabin and read one of the children's books based on Thoreau that are there, as we did, or to simply enjoy the simplicity.
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