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Celebrating Birthdays in the Acorn Nursery
by Mia Reed, Acorn Nursery Teacher
As I sit here sewing gold trim onto a beautiful hand dyed blue silk, I ponder the gifts that the recipient of this particular birthday cape has brought with him. I think of the child in question, remembering moments we have shared at school, consoling tears, comforting after a fall in the grass, looking at birds in the sky, laughing together over silly words, watching proudly as they master a task. I think of the family. I think of the love they have for their child to bring him or her to us. I think of conversations we’ve had, chit chatting at festivals and potlucks.
Birthdays are favorite moments in the Acorn Nursery for me. There is so much love in the room as we gather in our circle to tell the birthday child’s story. Leading the child by the hand to their parents, singing our special song, “in Heaven shines a golden star, an Angel led her from afar, from Heaven high below to Earth… and led her to her House of Birth”. Some children get shy and hide behind my legs, others run ahead with joy. The teacher tells the story of the Little Angel and the Big Angel up in the Heavens, doing good work together, work that results in gifts that the Little Angel tucks into their back pack for when they will travel down to Earth. There’s a part in the story that I find so beautiful, that tells of the Little Angel handing their wings to the Big Angel for safe keeping upon their return…
As the birthday celebration goes on, I watch as the candles get lit, I watch the child open their gift, I watch as each child hands over their chosen treasure, and my heart is filled with love and joy.
And then to top it all off, there’s whipped cream : )
We are excited to share a new documentary about the work the Neighboring Tree Project did with a neighboring Head Start and the creation of an outdoor forest program for the children in their care. 🌿 Over the past months, Elia Gilbert , one of Acorn's kindergarten teachers, has been working with the Agri-Business Child Development Center team of educators to produce a 30 minute video which documents their collaborative process in creating an outdoor forest program for the children in their care. We hope this will inspire future Neighboring Tree Project collaborations, as well as other Waldorf educators to reach out to their neighbors in similar ways. We are now looking for more "branches" to our NT P work, as well as more Waldorf teacher people-power to work on the ground with our neighbors. After seeing the video and getting a sense of our work, please get back to us with any inspirations or feedback. We'd like to hear from our community! We hope you enjoy this film!
Let's Celebrate Together! Acorn Waldorf School is celebrating its 10 Year Anniversary! We began this wondrous journey with 8 intrepid families who took a chance on a tiny new program and, with their support and the support of so many families in the decade since, have grown into a vibrant center for Waldorf Early Childhood Education in the Hudson Valley. I can’t think of a better way to mark this auspicious moment in our school’s biography than making a meaningful contribution to the Sunbridge Institute Diversity Fund . During the entire month of June, for each donation to the Sunbridge Institute Diversity Fund, Acorn will give another $25. In the line where it asks, " My connection to Sunbridge is? " Please write " AWS 10 Year Anniversary ". Our hope is to inspire at least 50 individual donations but we will happily go above and beyond! If you or your family has benefitted from, enjoyed or simply appreciate what’s happening at Acorn, please consider joining me in support of this all important endeavor. This wonderful fund supports BIPOC individuals in the Sunbridge Institute Waldorf teacher education programs, creating a more diverse pool of Waldorf teacher education graduates who will be fully prepared to take on educational and leadership roles in Waldorf classrooms and schools. We are grateful and awed by Acorn’s continually star-strewn journey. May the next ten years continue to be blessed. Together we can make a difference! 🧡
The Neighboring Tree Project (NTP) is an AWS initiative that aims to create community partnerships with our "neighboring trees," i.e. local early childhood educators, schools and centers who are doing the important work of caring for children from underserved, migrant farming or inner-city backgrounds. In building these relationships, we are working collaboratively to bolster the programming offered, taking individual needs and current staff into consideration. The goal is to empower our neighbors with tools and pedagogical enrichment. We also hope to learn: we want to get to know our neighbors, the children and families in our region, and learn from whatever is brought to the group together. The forest offers nutrients to all its trees, and one tree shares with another for mutual health of the whole. Read on to learn about our first two endeavors, Agri-Business Child Development in New Paltz, NY and Meagher Pre-K in Kingston, NY.
