Here's Jake ready for action, climbing up into the sky fort with his binoculars for some birding. All the children love watching and learning about the many bird species we have on the grounds. We try our best to keep up with feeding them all year round to keep them here. Many of the children in the 3-6 classroom can identify several species of bird. Next time you want a fun activity for your child to do at home, ask them to find the birds outside your window. It's a great eye spy game as well if you have a bird feeder. The picture keeps changing on you as you play!














When we opened in the Spring of this year, we used to have "morning meeting" where the children would all get together and have show and tell, discuss the calendar and the weather, but we noticed how much time this activity interrupted the work period. The most involved part of their day is from 9 a.m. to 12 noon during their three hour work period. For those of you who are not familiar with a Montessori curriculum, this part of the day is essential to the very success that a Montessori program provides. At any rate, we switched our morning meeting to an "afternoon meeting" where eveyone gets together after nap to do the same things we did in the morning meeting. The best part about this change is the children love keeping their work period in the morning and they still get to have their show and tell, a much loved public speaking activity that we do every single day. Children stand up, tell us what their show and tell is, and why it is so special. It's wonderful to see 2, 3, 4, and 5 year olds, speaking to a class of 16 of their peers and doing it well. I am so proud of their achievements and how they improve over time. It's amazing what they can do when we give them the opportunity to do so.













Today, during afternoon meeting, there was a big discussion about thunder and lightning. I was very surprised by how many children were afraid of this natural part of our weather. Madison reassured everyone that maybe their grandma could make them feel better about thunder, just as hers did. Babe let us know that it really could kill someone and so did Adrienne. All of the children expressed their concern when it was thundering very loud today so we had a discussion about what it actually is and why we don't need to be afraid of thunder, but we do have to be very cautious about lightning. It was a very entertaining afternoon meeting to say the least. Oh, and Grace and Ellie reminded everyone that they could just jump in bed with their parents when they get scared!