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Simple pleasures….
Fall brings memories of grade school and the smell of new school supplies.
There are no traditional school supplies to get yet for Finn, but we did go shopping for some new rain gear, which he enjoyed trying out in the store a day or two before his first day of kindergarten.
“I have to see if I can run in it!” he said, taking off across the store.“And I might lay on the ground so I better test that out,” he said, lying down on the floor and rolling around. Thankfully there were few customers in the store at the time.
On the first day of school, he walked gingerly onto the grounds holding onto my hand, then tightening his grip when he sensed it was time for me to go. I looked around at the other parents, some making the separation easily, others not. Last year we had a few difficult dropoffs.
I wondered if this would be one. Then a couple of his friends came running up, asking Finn to come play. Suddenly I could barely get his attention enough to say goodbye. He gave me a kind of over-the-shoulder glance and off he went.
The next day, Erin took him to get his first professional haircut. I didn’t go, but she sent me pictures. He sat perfectly still and she said he was so serious. The change was dramatic. I’m still kind of mourning the wavy locks. He looks so much older and about an inch taller. “Who is this little man?” I thought.
While he was at school, l had begun working on a new painting. A few months ago, I sketched a peony on a canvas and it was just sitting on the easel. I guess the creative feeling in the fall air inspired me to add some color to it—and when Finn got home, he noticed it immediately.
“Hey Daddoo, you haven’t painted in a long time,” he said. “How come you haven’t painted?”
“I’ve been busy with other things,” I replied.
“I like it,” he said, pausing to looking at it. “Yeah. I like it… But where are the thorns?” he asked.
“It’s a peony,” I said
“Are you sure?! I think it’s a rose,” he said. Then he proceeded to show me where the thorns should go.
He’s only a few weeks away from turning five, so I’ve noticed an increase in his confidence and dexterity lately. I guess I can add “opinion” to that list as well.
Anyway, he’s right. Whatever. I have artistic license. It’s a rose peony.
I’m happy to see Finn take changes in stride. Tonight he asked if he could go to school “a hundred times a week.” That’s a desire that I’m pretty sure will change as he gets older. But the tinge of excitement and possibility mixed with the cooling temperatures will likely stick around for the duration, if he’s lucky. And I think he is. Even if he is a little opinionated.
David Dewitt is an artist, blogger, and painter who lives with his family in the Rondout Valley. For more, visit daviddewitt.com.
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.
