Finding Rhythm Together

The culture of our community and school, starting from Preschool, is centered around creating “a place of belonging.” Finding our rhythm together is the first step towards creating an environment which honors the child at the heart of everything that we do. During the first few weeks of school, our focus is on simply being together, allowing relationships to blossom within that time and space.

Whether by proximity or similar interests, working beside each other soon leads to interactions, and interactions unfold into conversations. Conversations help to build connections, and over the year these shared connections turn into meaningful bonds that grow into friendships.

Throughout our day there are many different opportunities to connect with one another. In the morning when children first arrive, they connect outside in the treehouse, sandbox, on the bikes, and in the garden. This week, the preschoolers filled their buckets with a newly replenished supply of sand that overflowed our sandbox. We see this as a possible metaphor of abundance to hold onto throughout the year, that instead of just filling their buckets daily, these children will have buckets overflowing with wonder, joy, and laughter.

Group meetings cultivate our intellectual community where the children come to know that their ideas and voices matter. During our first group meeting this year, the children were asked, “Where would a cloud take a nap?” After the children took turns speculating and sharing their ideas, Axel asked, “did you get everybody?” The teacher replied, that we are taking notes and do want everyone’s ideas to come out. That all the ideas are now in the middle of the carpet! The children laughed perhaps thinking that we were trying to trick them, but as we revisited the ideas shared it validated the fact that we were indeed listening and that everything shared matters to all of us.

Work time either indoors or outdoors offers the children open-ended freedom to create, invent, problem-solve, pretend, and play. This environment honors the diversity of each child no matter what they choose to do, nurturing a sense of belonging through acceptance of differences, valuing individual interests, and discovering who each of these children who make up our community are as they work. Something we must remind ourselves when talking about “belonging” is that you don’t have to be with someone else to experience that feeling. Working alone is different from being lonely. Even time working alone helps us to find our rhythm together.