What a beautiful fall we're having (despite the other challenges and stresses it has brought for most of us)! The children of CMC are now spending even more time indoors. In the morning, all the children are now focused on developing their fine and gross motor skills, vocabulary, and growing understanding of the world around them. In the afternoons, some children spend time at home, others rest, and our oldest children spend additional time working in their Children's House (and occasionally outdoors). As we all prepare for Family Guide Conferences on November 9th (you may reserve a time to meet with your child's Guide here), we are happy to share these snapshots and short videos of the children's work and play at CMC in October.
As Rita and Warren clearly show, the glue box was a source of much artistic inspiration and opportunity for developing focus this month!
Dávid focuses on cleaning a pumpkin and takes a break from a favorite book of vehicles.
Maren shows off her developing yoga skills one morning.
Elijah moves water from one bowl to another with a sponge and Maren moves paint from pallet to paper.
Warren moves beans from one bowl to another.
Maren and Clara both spent considerable time and energy on our dressing frames designed to develop felicity with tying and lacing.
There is nothing like a little natural light to help keep Practical Life work going in a Children's House.
The artificial light of the family restroom in no way detracted from the excitement the children in After Care felt when asked to participate in some minor repair work. (A soap dispenser had fallen from the wall; we used a few screws and a quick coat of VOC-free paint to set things straight).
October saw the addition and use of many new Sensorial materials to Children's House East. These materials are designed to build awareness and discrimination around sense perceptions.
In the afternoons, our two five-year-old girls often engage work designed to enhance their phonemic awareness (i.e., ability to hear the sounds that make up spoken English), a crucial capacity in learning to read and write. The week Ms. Nash was out this month, the girls happily allowed their "substitute" (Ms. Taylor) to record a sample of their language work:
A "rainbow sound game" kicks things off one afternoon.
Maren poses with both girls' work later after they had matched each item of the rainbow to the sandpaper letter representing its starting sound.
Clara engages in the final stages of a game to help the girls associate sounds with letter shapes while recognizing the usefulness of such associations.
Mid-month, Children's House East happily welcomed a new child, Ms.. Ada's son, Bim Bim. Here he is enjoying the clay as so many new children before him. While Bim Bim is settling in at CMC, we've chosen not to focus as much of our cameras' attentions on him. We're looking forward to him getting more comfortable in the weeks to come. Our new Children's House West community is in a similar situation; new relationships benefit from a focus on process over appearances.
Here is a little bit of evidence that things are going well, Ms. Ada reading a story and song to the children late one morning before lunch:
And here are the little members of the nap crew in Children's House West just after waking up and reorienting one day:
We've also added a new blue couch to our hallway and it's been quite a hit, especially at pick-up.
We've also had a few opportunities to make use of our new reading cube in our Movement Room.
Meanwhile, in our time outdoors, the children continue to enjoy logs (especially in creating new "lava challenges"), dirt, and observing insects. They've also been happy to add some new wheels, leaves, and a toy that's been given the very accurate and functional name of "plastic lava challenge" to the mix.
Last but not least, we hope everyone had a very happy and safe Halloween this past weekend! Some of us from CMC were lucky to join Karl Road Christian Church at their Trunk or Treat on Saturday afternoon. We hope many more of you will join us next year!
