Welcome to a new year at Children’s House everyone! It is so great to be back, surrounded by these incredible children every day! After 37 years, I still am in love with what I get to do each day and that is because of the wonderful friendships that your children and you bring to my life.

     Last Thursday, 9/21, was International Day of Peace and if the world heard your children sing, it would have brought world peace for sure. We were joined by 150,000 people from 65 countries around the world. Montessori schools, among others, sang the song “Light a Candle for Peace” during their designated time according to their time zone. It went from New Zealand to Hawaii in 24 hours. Please ask your child to sing “Light a Candle for Peace” for you and, together, please visit the website www.singpeacearoundtheworld.com  where you can watch children from around world singing!​

     
















     As part of our Peace Day ritual, we announced our Children’s House Buddies! Every elementary student was paired with a younger buddy. They got to know each other a little bit already but they will meet throughout the school year for events, activities and just to read a book or draw a picture. There is nothing more special than a Children’s House Buddy. Please look for our adorable Buddy Bulletin Board in the foyer, coming soon!
     In peace,
               Korey

Cooperation, compromise, communication, adaptation, improvisation, awareness, and inclusivity are just some of the tenets of good teamwork! A new year brings a newly configured Lower El classroom team and we must hone our skills and master the art of team-building if we plan to share the environment and shelf materials. Our weekly team challenges address these skills in a noncompetitive format (“you can’t help your own team if you are keeping tabs on your neighbor’s”) that involve every team member and require the team to articulate a shared vision, use foresight to devise a plan before engaging, and utilize the various strengths of the team members to achieve a common goal. And when every team gets pretty good at these skills, we mix them up and form new teams. Tantamount to the team game philosophy- no grown-up intervention or assistance allowed…EVER! Last week’s challenge was “the Bridge Over Hot Lava” with 1 “Safety Square” removed after each crossing. Last week we introduced these skills to our younger buddies as we tackled the team challenge at our Peace Day celebration.