Protection of Childhood, by Rhoda Kambandu, KinderHouse Teacher

Happy spring to you all!  In Kinderhouse we are singing a song about all the spring flowers that have bloomed in our gardens and in the forest.  We are listening to a story about planting seeds and waiting for the plants to appear.  Bringing the children an awareness of the seasons and the wonder that each holds for us to marvel at, is truly one of the joys of working with young children.  Their appreciation and understanding of the natural world is boundless.  This is the magic of childhood, and it needs our protection. 

Sadly, many children are not being given the opportunity to simply enjoy childhood.  Young children are expected to master more and more academic subjects and skills before entering first grade.  Learning life skills such as getting along with peers, negotiating situations of conflicts, learning to controls one’s impulses and simply learning to tie one’s shoelaces, is often not seen as important as knowing the alphabet, shapes and colors by age 3.  Several well-meaning service-providers have recently asked me if my 2 year-old knows her shapes and colors, and then proceed to try and teach her these abstract ideas, when really I’d just like her to learn not to throw food on the floor, and not to put her hand into her cup, spilling water at every meal! 

My 11 year old daughter was singing a song she’d heard while with friends and which is now her favorite song.  The lyrics include a line about the singers’ friends who “are in the bathroom getting higher than the empire state”.  It was then that I realized it wouldn’t be long before the protective bubble my husband and I had created for her burst.  All the more reason to protect childhood for as long as possible so children can learn the skills that will serve them as they go through life.  There are so many lessons to be learned from playing freely with friends.  We must not underestimate the value of a childhood spent doing what children do best—playing, imagining, creating, with each other.  It is worth protecting.

I’d like to take this opportunity to let you know that I will be leaving LifeWays at the end of this school year.  I will miss being here and will always value and treasure the time I have spent with the children and my colleagues.  I am thankful to you for giving me the chance to work with your children.

Warmly,

Ms. Rhoda

A Time for Everything by Jane Danner Sustar, Caregiver

I AM GOING TO ASK YOU A FEW QUESTIONS.

 How old were you when you went to your first movie?

 How old were you when you got your first bike?

 How old were you when you got your ears pierced?

 How old were you when you got your first computer?

 How old were you when you got your first cell phone?

 How old were you when you played your first video game?

 How old were you when you played on your first organized sport team?

 How old were you when you first flew in a plane?

How old were you when you first slept over at a friend’s house?

 How old were you when you first wore high heels?

What do you remember of each one of these firsts in your life?

 My answer for almost all these questions is seventh grade or older. I remember each experience clearly. The only one I do not remember is my first airplane ride. I was two years old. My father was awarded a scholarship to study at the University of Paris for a year. My mother was either momentarily insane (all my memories afterward are of a reasonable and sane woman) or incredibly in love. For romantic reasons I prefer to believe the latter. She and my father moved me and my, then, 5 brothers and sisters to France for year. One argument for insanity was the fact that they brought one more sister back to the states with them. Really!

 I remember nothing of the trip. One whole year in France and I remember nothing…But I remember my first bike. It was a graduation present from high school. Being from a large family, it was unthinkable to even want a new bike when there were all those perfectly old trusty rusty ones in the shed. But for my 12^th grade graduation my mother bought me my first 12 speed bike. I remember the first ride on that bike like it was yesterday. . I remember the first time I played PAC MAN. I was in college! Carl has played so many video games I doubt he even knows what was the first one he ever played. He is 12.

I asked about these specific questions because for me they were all rites of passage, momentous moments in my life that I marked with awe and wonder.  

 Now ask yourself those same questions but ask them about your children.

 How old were your children when…

 Just imagine it, if they have had it already, they most likely will not remember it, ever. What might they be able to mark in the future as a momentous moment in their life if they have already experienced it? It is a question that is both frightening and exciting. What would you like them to experience for the first time when they are 12? 13? 15? 20? What will mark them as older, ready?

I challenge you to think of protecting your children from getting everything too young and too fast. It is a good experience to really want something or even to work for something. The first thing I got after saving up my money from my first job was contacts! I was sixteen and for the first time ever I could see my feet in the shower. I strutted down to the dinner table glasses “less!!” and batted my beautiful blue eyes at my astonished father. He stared at me for  a moment and then said “Where the h*** did you get all those d*** freckles!?”

Ah! Memories! I wouldn’t trade them for the world.

Protecting the Senses by Jaimmie Stugard, Caregiver

           I remember the first time I took newborn Elliot to the big grocer.  I needed some laundry detergent, so I tucked him into his pram and we strolled down the boulevard to the nearest supermarket.  Maybe it was the new mama hormones, but sensing the world through this tiny, brand new baby was an eye-opening and somewhat overwhelming experience.  Though I had walked that very street countless times before, this time I felt bombarded with the noise and fumes of the traffic.  The drivers seemed particularly distracted and dangerous as I pushed my sweet little bundle across the street.  My senses were assaulted as we entered the grocer.  The air conditioning seemed so be set to sub-arctic temperatures and the oddly cold flicker and glare of florescent lights was somehow more intense than the June sun.  The scent of the detergent aisle was so strong I felt I could taste the perfumes and chemicals contained in the bright plastic bottles.  Little everyday things that I never noticed before now seemed potent and powerful as they made their first impressions on my newborn son. 

            Walking through the woods a few days later, I was again reminded of the significance of the sense impressions I was sharing with my baby.  The colors of the trees and flowers were especially vibrant, their smells were fresh and alive.  The sun felt warm and comforting as it gleamed on us.  The wind, the flowing river and the birds all sang in harmony as my feet stepped out a rhythm.  Little baby Elliot looked up at me with eyes full of wonder, smiled and drifted into a peaceful sleep in his cozy sling.  My heart swelled with gratitude for the earth's natural beauty as I shared a smile with a hiker passing by. 

            It occurred to me that we may not always be able to protect our children from the harsh and hardening impressions of the material world, but we can seek out that which enlivens their senses and nourishes their souls.  I decided then to make an effort to limit our exposure to the glaring, shouting, stinking,  ugly and overwhelming parts of our world and to seek out it's subtle wonders. The world is full of beautiful, gentle, friendly, peaceful places to share with our wide-eyed and receptive little children. 

GRATITUDE

Our winter newsletter theme is "gratitude." It seems an important quality to reflect upon as we leave the holiday season and begin a new year. Rudolf Steiner, whose works inspired the LifeWays model of caring for the child, had this to say about the importance of gratitude:

"An immense enrichment of the soul is achieved through the experience of feeling gratitude. One should see to it that, even in a very young child, a feeling of thankfulness is developed. If one does this, a feeling of gratitude will be transformed into love when the child is older.

In every situation in life, love will be colored through, permeated with gratitude. Even a superficial observation of social life demonstrates that a valuable impulse for the social question can be fostered when we educate people towards a greater feeling of gratitude for what their fellow human beings are doing. For this feeling of gratitude is a bridge from one human soul and heart to another. Without gratitude, this bridge could never be built." - Rudolf Steiner

Lessons in Gratitude, by Jane Danner Sustar, LifeWays Caregiver

David came to us on a Saturday morning in the middle of September. He had been left by neighbors, who had moved to Iowa. He was an apartment cat and in the terror of moving had slipped out of the back door and taken refuge underneath the front porch. He refused to come out and so our neighbors had left. What else could they do? That had been in August. Now he was cold and he was desperate.

Mark and I were walking the dogs; Cody, an elderly gentleman of medium size and Sabyra, a feisty pit bull. Our black cat likes to make sure we are behaving ourselves and so she often accompanies us on our morning and evening walks. David walked right up to the lot of us, meowed once and collapsed at our feet. He weighed in at a whopping four pounds and was severely dehydrated. He was so malnourished he had forgotten how to eat and we spent the next three weeks smearing cat food on his face. Whatever he licked off was his meal. We tried everything to coax him to eat; Science Diet, Iams, Fromm, Natural Pet. He wouldn’t touch any of it. Finally, Walgreens had Friskies cat food on sale, what I like to call the McDonalds of cat food brands. I opened the can. David unfurled his face from behind his tail, picked his head up off the bed and sniffed a long deep grateful sniff. He collapsed off the bed in a single bound, staggered over to the bowl and ate like a pig. Now that he isn’t a bag of bones, he is quite the handsome cat, but odd. Unlike our other cats, who are privileged, David is grateful.

Gratitude is an odd thing in a cat. It goes against their nature. David knows he is supposed to be too proud to be grateful but I will catch him looking at me and I know he is smiling under his serious cat face. I know he is smiling, because I recognize him in me. I know that I am supposed to be teaching the children about gratitude. Like David, I am a fake. I haven’t a clue. Not like the children do. Before I worked at Lifeways, it had been years since I had last looked at a daddy long legs or listened to a woodpecker or clapped my hands with the first snow! Splashed in puddles? Oozed mud in my toes? Sat and just watched a duck sit on a rock? Climbed a tree? Watched a roly poly furl and unfurl it’s body? Carried a rock in my pocket? YEARS! But to Orion and Natalie and Otto and Amitai and Ava the world is an amazing and mystical place. Gaston and Rebeka and Anikka and Zoey and Leo think a log decomposing is really really cool and that a rock is something valuable and important. There is nothing that I can teach your children about gratitude. What I hope to do is expand it and expound it, feed it and foster it with a hearty resounding “Yes!” And to thank them daily for the eyes they see with. The world truly is a mystical and mysterious place!

Thoughts on Gratitude, by Tamara Treviranus, LifeWays Caregiver

As I have reflected on the concept of gratitude over the past couple weeks, it has become clear to me that this idea is one that, for me, evokes emotional, poetic images, vignettes of life. A life imbued with gratitude is a gift to oneself that radiates warmth both inwardly and outwardly. Each day I try to be thankful for the little things. Thank you to Spirit for awakening me each day and thank you for the opportunity to Awaken to each moment. Remembering to have gratitude for all that we have and knowing that it is enough provides a secure, satisfied feeling.

It is said in multiple spiritual practices that one should try to look at life through the eyes of a child. I’m thankful that my time here with the children at Lifeways gives me ample time to do that. This practice can be an exercise in inspiring awe and wonder at the simple natural wonders of the world. This simplicity in living encourages us to be more appreciative of our everyday routines; gratitude inspired mindfulness or vice versa. It seems they go hand in hand. Even the rhythm of Lifeways provides time to pause for a moment of gratitude before each meal. This is a practice that has carried over into our home life through my children and it has really enriched our mealtimes spent together.

Thank you to all of you for entrusting us with the care of your children. I am truly enjoying this time with the children of Ms. Jaimmie’s suite while she is on her maternity leave and am thankful that the connections with the children of the Woodland suite still remain.

Peace and Blessings,

Miss Tammy