The Garden School Tattler

What a delicious day yesterday. It was calm all day and that says a lot on an "occasion" day. OK, girls, the cameras were clicking, but Miss Judy doesn't have any of the pictures to post!!!

The school looked great, the program was wonderful and the kids were marvelous and sang with umph and joy. I think they really enjoyed this group of songs. I know I heard them reciting the names of the states at play, and that means a lot. Next on the agenda, so I've heard, is the Sound of Music songs. Love to try that puppet show again!! Maybe this summer. It's so nice to know that our teachers can create, practice and produce a show from scratch.

Miss Kelly's book fair was a real hit. We had parents in that room all day. I think we made a nice dent, and it looks like we will get some nice benefits for the kids. I bought this crazy book about a rabbit who sails the sea for Wilbur, and some Captain Underpants for Jack to read himself. I got some books about the ocean for my other grandchildren who live in Jacksonville. Then I discovered the cookbooks as we were putting the books away...

What I liked best about the book fair is how much the children wanted to look. These are their books - books for them, and they wanted to see and touch and smell, because new books really smell good. Curiosity about books is something that is taught, and our children have learned this well.

What's next? We will be working in class next week to finish out the school year. We have about a month before summer comes, and we will be coasting toward summer during that time. We will be exploring more of the world in geography. I had a discussion with my husband last night about the absence of literary criticism in the world today. Well one thing led to another, and we talked about how many new history books were best sellers every month, and I mentioned how much our kids love geography. He said geography was not history, and I said, that geography was a first step to history because you have to have a world view about places to understand what happened there. So we will be talking more about each area of the world and the countries within each area simply because the children won't get this again until junior high.

Yesterday while I was cleaning up, I came across our little flags, and I told the kids that they needed to find the country on the map that matched the name on the flag, and they did. That means they are not only able to listen to directions, they are able to read names like Tajikistan. Now remember, according to the powers that move and shake early childhood, these children are not supposed to know their letters yet! Edith and I would refer to this as "slam the window of opportunity on the child" theory of non-education.

Lots of parents ask us about donations of many sorts. We are always willing to take donations of the following: children's underwear, shorts, jeans, t-shirts and long sleeve t-shirts sizes 3-10.

Craft articles that you no longer use.

Toys and games without batteries.

Books - no old encyclopedias, please.

Science objects like animal skulls, dried pods and interesting plants.

Indoor plants if still living. Pond and vegetable plants.

Candy, and other packaged food if still in the original container.

Art supplies in any condition.

Kitchen supplies like foil, baggies, etc.

And anything else that you see we regularly use.

And parents are always welcome.