December Cold

The holiday vacation is just around the corner, and with that comes joy and a lot of excitement, and maybe even some angst. December is a month where children often experience big emotions!

I want to pass on a couple of good and interesting resources as you're thinking about gift giving for your children. The first is from the National Association for the Education of Young Children, and lists good ideas for toys - scroll down to find the 3-6 year old group. The second is a short news report titled Too Many Toys - watch to learn that "less is more" applies to the number of toys we present to children for play time, and can have an impact on the quality of their play.

We've had a fun week and are starting to settle into our winter routines. We've gone inside for some short play times to warm up, but have managed to continue to eat all our meals outside. There will certainly be times this winter when we'll need to head inside for meals, but at this point we'll take it a day at a time!

We're looking forward to our Solstice Celebration on Wednesday the 22nd, and have managed to secure dinner for everyone from a Brattleboro Restaurant (still not sure which one!) through the "Everyone Eats" program. We'll be happy to send you home at the end of the short celebration with dinner to-go.

Enjoy some pictures from the week!

A little afternoon painting time.

We had a fun expedition to Mt. Everest again - everyone climbed the rope and cheered their friends on. Look at these strong kids!

Our farm to school coordinator Sarah ("Farmer Sarah") is starting some nutrition work with us. This week we tried some red foods - strawberries and peppers. Next week we're on to orange foods. Eat the rainbow!