The Beginnning

The house and adjoining school space have now been purchased!! The real work can now begin. I look forward to keeping potential students and families up to date throughout the process of becoming a licensed child care provider and setting up the beautiful new classroom.

Nourishment

Om Puush-Ne Na-ma-ha

(We pay homage to the One who nourishes all)

 The children at Alpine Children's House will thrive on the nourishment they receive from eating food they prepare themselves while recognizing all parts of life great and small that gave their energy to make this food possible for them.

The food we will prepare at ACH will be of high quality-- I will buy local grains and beans from Cayuga Pure Organics, grow vegetables in the school garden, buy from local CSA's (like my brother's Muddy Finger's Farm) and local suppliers (like Regional Access), serve only local organic cow and goat milk, pick local fruit at its peak of freshness, and preserve it through drying and freezing to use throughout the school year. We will learn to love sprouts as we watch them grow from seed.  We will alternate the use of animal milk with freshly made nut milks. There will be absolutely NO corn syrup, refined sugars, artificial colors or flavors, or hydrogenated oil in any of the food that is to nourish the children. We should only be putting whole, natural foods into our beautiful little children.

Eating lunch out of a box or bag creates the need for packaging into individual servings.  All those individual servings either have to be thrown away or cleaned and used again. Packing a lunch is a lot of extra work for the parent  As a parent, I know how unnerving it is to have lunchboxes come home still half full of food. I have seen so much food wasted in the packed-lunch scenario. I also see a LOT of garbage that comes from this way. At ACH we will strive for zero waste from our program, constantly searching out ways to reduce our footprint.

By having lunch be a real meal, enjoyed with friends while trying out new tastes and practicing grace and courtesy at the table, the children will experience the joy that eating should be.

Dream of the Good

In October of 2009 I attended a workshop at Elizabeth Ann Clune Montessori School of Ithaca, called the Dream of the Good. It was promoted as a multi-age curriculum developed in Sweden that teaches peace.
 
Through experiences in Stillness, Movement, Reflection and Peaceful Touch, children learn skills that allow them access to wells of strength and wisdom deep inside themselves and guide them toward peaceful means of expression.

I will be integrating this methodology and including activities such as Qi Gong, meditation, yoga and gentle touch as naturally flowing parts of the daily program at Alpine Children's House. 

Please follow these links to learn more about the Dream of the Good Organization.

Dream of the Good Homepage

Preschool Methods

Stillness Through Land Art

To Belong

I have always been a teacher.  I have always felt a special connection to young children, even when I was young myself. My special ability to relate to small children has grown more refined with knowledge and experience, as I strive to be the kind of person I would have admired as a child.
  
I feel that the most important education we can give our young children involves showing them that they are directly connected to the earth and they are directly connected to one another. Through this process, they learn to trust in the natural cycles of the earth, and live in harmony with them. Through these experiences, they learn to trust in one another, and to live with the spirit of cooperation.

From this place of peace and belonging, a true love of life is born.