Winter Comes

Originally published December 28th

Hello everyone,

We had a small group at school the last couple of weeks before vacation, but we still managed to have a lot of fun and do many interesting things. For the last month we have been talking about darkness and light in preparation for the solstice. We explored darkness through talking about sleep, rest, nocturnal animals, and the night sky. Then we explored the ways that we bring light into the darkness at this time of the year through talking about and making gifts, sharing kind words, decorating a forest tree with edible treats for the creatures of the woods that live in our forest play spot, and building an evergreen spiral of light to celebrate the winter solstice. We made calendula salve as gifts. We had a small solstice ceremony at school and journeyed into the center of the spiral and each lit a candle and welcomed winter by talking about the ways that we find joy and light in the dark and cold. Some of the bright, joy giving things that the children shared were: hugs from mommy, my house, my woodstove, snow angels, sledding, hot chocolate, and my family. On our last day of school before the break we headed back into the woods and did some adventuring, and we happily found that the treats on our forest tree had all been discovered and enjoyed by some forest creatures who managed not to leave any footprints. We think they visited on wing

Get your gear ready and make sure to get everybody outside during the break to keep in practice. In January and February we will undoubtedly be facing our most challenging temperatures yet, and we are committed to spending as much time as possible outside every day. It is safer and healthier for everyone. When we are facing daily highs in the single digits or teens, we will start the day inside and venture out for shorter periods as the day warms up.

Enjoy this week of vacation and we will look forward to seeing you in the new year! We will start the year off by talking about animals in winter, and learning about and playing hibernation, migration, and camouflage.

A very happy new year to all!

May you be happy, may you be healthy, may you be peaceful, may you be filled with joy,

Jessica