The Garden School Tattler

Good morning!

It's a lovely rainy day, and do we ever need rain!

As you have probably not noticed, we have had our front garden FINALLY done by Miss Amy's family. It looks marvelous, and it's guaranteed to stay put! We are trying to get the garden tilled and a new place for the strawberries for next spring. That will do it until next spring.

Looking ahead is an important part of running the school. Looking at the children and what they will need in the immediate future as well as the long range future is the only way of managing their education and their young lives away from home.

Manners, appropriate responses, the ability to listen, the ability to put the right appropriate answers with a question, and the ability to understand the rules and follow directions are things that a child will take with them into a very unfriendly world!

One of the things we have had problems with this week is a failure to use the bathroom at assigned times. We have eight assigned times to use the toilet and to wash our hands. Children are welcomed to use the bathroom at any time with the exception of being out on the playground. If they must use the bathroom, they may, but they must turn in their medals for the privilege. Here's the problem. We all line up to USE the bathroom, and they play and never get the job done. They are all asked, "Did you use the bathroom," and the answer is always yes, and then about five kids will get to the playground and say, "I have to go to the bathroom."

A teacher must take the child to the bathroom and leave only one teacher watching the kids, or send the disobedient child to the bathroom hoping that the teacher indoors will stop what she is doing and keep an eye on the child. Mostly, it's a "fool around" problem, and the child sent is only interested in the new toy.

We eat in a very orchestrated manner. We all wash our hands, we sit at our table with our hands in our lap and wait for everyone to be seated. We take roll for the food program, we are told what is on our plates, and we pray and then we eat. The kids are wonderful at this and it makes table time such a joy. We have increased our eating and our manners by 100%.

In the afternoon, we have a fast an furious French class. The children again go to the bathroom and wash their hands after eating, and then straggle into French class. I start teaching when there are five children present. We start with hellos and then move to song or prayer or animal identification. When everyone is gathered, we count, or review vocabulary. This straggle in method of organization keeps the stragglers from disrupting the class. They come in and sit and start right away. But this doesn't work for every class.

Yesterday we did a world social studies and world map thing with both the little group and the big group. Some of the children in Miss Amy's class were able to identify North America, South America, Africa, and Asia. It was amazing how much they have learned. The younger children loved the map and are learning to color, so it was not a waste of time for them.

Today is a fine arts day in the PM. We will do theatre after lunch. The kids really like this. I think today we will do the story of The Little Red Hen.

We are writing the Thanksgiving play now, and it looks really cute. We will cast it next week, and begin our practice shortly after Halloween.

Have a great day!