Mystic Connecticut

This article to follow is a wonderful idea for a preschool. It's the kind of early education that leads to lives spent on science whether in the work world or the private sector. It's going to be hard to keep up. This kind of curriculum is a real joy to do, but it's exhausting.

At the little school where I teach, we have a pet room with guinea pigs, rabbits, hamsters and birds. Just gutting those cages is tough. Running animal errands, feeding, cleaning, tending, running animals to the vet is a lot of work. We don't use cages - we use pens or runs made from bricks. The rabbits simply live in the room going from pen to pen.

Summer is our toughest time to maintain a curriculum because there is a go go go intensity that after eight weeks is simply exhausting. This year we are looking at a safari theme. I've been watching "Going Native" on the discovery channel.

But no matter what kind of curriculum a place chooses, the idea of discovery really makes a place special. Children will get such a wonderful start from people who initiate discovery rather than the day care mill that doesn't even distribute crayons.

From Cottage to School: Nature center preschool opens in January

By Erica Gradecki
Published on 12/30/2005

Mystic - Two-year-old Fisher Macklin led the way from the Denison Pequotsepos Nature Center to the newly renovated cottage next door.

Where is he leading us?

“Come on!” the excited toddler urged. “We go to the preschool!”

Even though Fisher will not be able to join until the fall of 2006, other young ones, ages 3 to 5, can attend the Nature Center Preschool beginning Jan. 17.

Renovations for the school, run by the nature center, began this summer, said Kim Hargrave, Fisher's mother and the center's director of education.

“This was the former director's residence,” Hargrave said about the cottage.

What makes the Nature Center Preschool different from other schools is that students are expected to be outdoors for 50 percent of their time there, year-round.

“We want to incorporate nature,” Hargrave said. “Each week we have a different nature theme such as frogs, habitats, et cetera. It's seasonable appropriate.”

There are three instructors total, with two classes running weekly on either a Tuesday/Thursday block or a Monday/Wednesday/Friday block. Each class will have a maximum student ratio of 16, with at least one volunteer per day to help out.

"I'm very excited to be there (at the preschool). It's so healthy for the kids. Not a lot of kids get to be outdoors and I think this is a great opportunity for them," said head teacher Deborah Kreyssig.

Teacher Davnet Schaffer agreed. "Our current early childhood programs at the nature center are very popular. We think they'll respond well,” she said.

In the preschool, three rooms create the foundation of the cottage: the forest room, the meadow room and the pond room.

The forest room is home of the “dry activities,” where children can draw and color or play in the treehouse. The meadow room is a room for story time, where kids can sit in a circle on a comfy carpet or play with wooden animals or trees. Last, there is the pond room, located in the basement, where all the wet, messy and muddy activities occur. There are sand tables and water tables, as well as a future pond that will be painted in the center of the room. The stairs going down to the basement will look like stepping stones to lead to the pond.

According to Hargrave, most of the furniture, including desk tables and chairs for the children, the treehouse and the animal and tree blocks, are all made from natural wood.

“Even the snacks are all natural,” Hargrave said. “The snacks are organic.”

The children will not only be able to take advantage of the three rooms in the cottage, but will also have other hands-on activities including cooking in the preschool's kitchen, and music with local musician Jill Maurer-Davis. Maurer-Davis will be visiting weekly for both classes with a “music, movement and nature” theme.

The Nature Center Preschool will be open 9 a.m. to noon, starting Jan. 17. Parents can drop their children off between 8:30 and 9 a.m. For more information on the preschool, contact (860) 536-1216.