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Summer Camp update
Acorn WS Summer Camp Update!
At Acorn WS we are committed, first and foremost, to the safety of our children, community and faculty. As we attempt to see into the future and determine how to proceed with our beloved Summer Camp, we are also aware that families would like to have some idea of what we are considering.
Our school program has been closed since March 13th and our families have been managing without the important support of a school day for their little ones. With this in mind, we have decided that if NYS allows a re-opening of schools and/or summer programs, we will be offering a Summer School program with enrollment open to our school year families first. We will then keep a wait list for summer camp families from the greater community and if there is space, open enrollment to that wait list on a first come, first serve basis.
Timing for the start of this new offering is entirely dependent on NYS guidelines, so we have no way of knowing when Summer School might begin. How far into the summer we might continue is decided on staff availability and the unfolding pandemic situation. Cost may also be different than the usual summer camp pricing and will be decided once we have permission to open up again.
If you are interested to be included on our Summer School wait list, please fill out this FORM
or email us at camp@acornws.org. Once space opens you would be contacted and required to pay your program choice in full.
We hope this helps clarify our summer possibilities and appreciate your patience and understanding!
Stay safe, be kind and we miss you all!
🧡
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.
