The Garden School Tattler

Every week seems to bring new things. I have a plug in door bell because we live in an ancient house that was built before doorbells were invented. It works pretty well provided it's plugged in and the battery is charged. It's all doable; it just needs to be thought through. Thanks for all the input and the care.

Locking doors is a concern for younger people, so I'm not as involved in this as they are, and I intend to let the younger people manage this. I'm claustrophobic, so anything closed locked or finalized is a frightful subject with me. But I will comply with what all of you want.

This is fire safety week and we have been fought over by the fire department. Two teams arrived, one last Monday and one this week to do basically the same thing. I think they were trying to outdo the other. It was hilarious. We are talking about eight firemen who arrived on both days - different men! They really love coming to the school. We need to do this more often. One of them asked me about sending his child. We were delighted. Friday is the adventure out to the Stay Alive House.

Miss Sandy is seriously ill. She's our bus driver. Please keep her in your prayers. She has been with us as long as the school has been in service. Please pray for her.

We have been asked nearly every day about the children helping in the kitchen. Interestingly this year the Fire Safety theme is "Kitchen Safety." We encourage children to help keep the school clean by picking up and putting their toys away. One afternoon we let them do the dishes and the "helper" bug never left. So this week we are adding a "kitchen brigade." It allows the kids to help with lunch clean up. It's strictly volunteer and yesterday we had a trial run and the place was ship shape in ten minutes. It's about clearing and wiping tables and using the swiffers to sap the floors. The kids are delighted with the chores. Learning to contribute, to do, to help, to understand need, to finish a big task, to understand how work fits into the day is a really good thing for very young children to accomplish mainly because they often think housework and care is something that "just happens."

Please watch your child's outfit. Today will be 78 degrees and we have children coming to school in layers of winter clothes. We have this problem every year. Please use the following as a guideline: short sleeves and shorts when the weather is in the 70s or above. Long pants when the weather is in the sixties. When the temp will be 65 or lower, begin with long sleeves. Please send a light jacket. Children play hard. They run, they climb, they slide, and yesterday they had running races and bobbed for apples. In long sleeves and long pants, they were so miserably hot, and then wet, we had to change some of them.

We will be covering Columbus this week on the 12th. Please ask your child what he has learned on that day.