What Else Is Happening

The way I do this blog is to get up at 5 a.m. (which I did long before I'd even heard of blogging) and you read whatever comes out of me before 6:15 a.m. But that's not how I'm writing today's post. I'm sitting down to write this one some 12 hours earlier that normal because tomorrow morning is the start of a classic Woodland Park experiment.

We're a cooperative preschool. In fact, Woodland Park is four separate cooperatives, unified under one roof, with the same teacher, and knit together by the families who move through them. The defining characteristic of a co-op is that it's a "customer" owned enterprise.  In our case, this means that the parents also do most of the work required to run a school. Aside from working in the classroom one day a week, every family is also expected to assume responsibility for some aspect or our operation. This might mean serving as the school's gardener, field trip coordinator, or librarian. It might mean serving on the board as our health and safety officer or parent coordinator or treasurer. 

For me, as an employee, this means attending lots of parent and board meetings. This year, we're attempting to have our 3-5's monthly board meeting in the morning before class. I do hope this works for everyone: I would love nothing more than to shift all those evening meetings to mornings. (People just don't understand those of us who are climbing into bed by 9 p.m.) Still, it will be a challenge for me, since I've always done my curriculum planning when I arrive at school early each morning. This means that tomorrow (today) I'll be leaving home 45 minutes early so I can attend the meeting and still be ready to greet the kids as they begin arriving at 9:15.

Therefore, I will keep my post for today short . . .

There are some kids who don't care about what's happening; they think more about what else is happening. For the past two weeks, every day, these guys have been removing one of the adult-sized watering cans from where we keep them tucked away under a low table near the garden. Working together, they then methodically use the kid-sized watering cans, pilfering from our garden water supply, to fill the larger one. When it's full, they dump it out on the ground and start over.

That's all I've got between 5 p.m. and 6:15 p.m.

I put a lot of time and effort into this blog. If you'd like to support me please consider a small contribution to the cause. Thank you!

-->