Escuelita: Nature, Spanish & More Education Group

n immersion experience for children (or families / all ages), please contact me to discuss various part time or possibly even more full time opportunities! Would love to re-open preschool / afterschool programs in the fall with IMMERSION Spanish opportunities!

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This is what we WERE doing and might do some version of this again Fall 2013-14:
Escuelita Preschool & Daycare was a program in North Amherst focused on providing part time and full time options for toddlers and preschoolers to join in a community of friends! We focus on the outdoors, nature, music & creativity, and Spanish exposure. Daycare: Year Round, follows ARPS.ORG school schedule September - June. Summer care, with up to 2 weeks vacation, with alternatives to care offered. 9-5 with limited early slots starting at 7:30 or 8. K-3 - Before and After school and vacation / summer care. K-6 After School Spanish Immersion program, Wednesdays. 1:30-3 or 1:30-5 options. I am a former PreK & Elementary Music teacher, MS Geography Teacher, and Infant Room Teacher. Though I started out doing licensed daycare as a way to spend more time with my own children while they were young, I'm excited that my educational ideas and passions are easily translating into the program. I have been inspired by Waldorf, Reggio and Montessori philosophies. The program is decidely natural, organic, "one-world" / anti-racist, & feminist! It is my hope that all children feel welcome here, that they have a safe and fun place to explore their full beings, and to explore the wonder of the world. By natural and organic, I mean that I aim to have as many natural materials here as possible, though I do not have a ban on plastic completely. I serve food that I aim to get from as many local and organic sources as possible, as well. Yes, your child eats 2 meals and one snack - for free - when s/he comes for a whole day! I aim to have the children outside as often as possible, as they will learn so much about the natural world, checking out bugs, helping with the garden, seeing, feeling, tasting and smelling the snow, leaves, air, watching animals, etc. We have a beautiful spot and our yard feels like an exciting place to explore for young children, and we sometimes take walks in the Summer to Puffers Pond as well. They have a sense of rhythm and creativity too! Our circle time games will have them up and moving, singing and using percussion, making instruments, etc. The older toddlers / preschoolers will participate fully in the song games, where a word is left out and they "make up" their own version of the songs. They will sing songs in English, Spanish, a few with sign language, and take part in a circle / sharing game where each child picks which animal they are for that moment and what mood they (their animal) is in, sing it out to the group and have it sung back to them. Xylophones, guiros and other percussion, keyboards and recorders, guitars and ukuleles will be out and about daily. Spanish - we will have "Palabra del Dia" or "Word of the Day." This may often be a "phrase" of the day as well. One new word, or at least one new word, in Spanish, will be introduced every day, and we will talk a little about it. Mostly, we will USE it in longer sentences. I would not expect your child to beome fluent just by coming to preschool here, but they will learn words, phrases, and songs in Spanish. When they have an opportunity to use it elsewhere in their lives, hopefully this will connect with them and I hope they will be excited to use it! I'm still searching for a fluent, native Spanish speaker to come for an immersion hour here and there - if you have any suggestions - pass them on to me! This will not be presented in academic writing form, it will mostly just flow with the day's events. I aim to keep more than 50% of my books in Spanish that are available for story time, or quiet time. As a "Zumbatomic" instructor, we will also do some of our dance / movement games to songs in Spanish as well! And latino culture will be represented a fair amount in the recorded music we will sometimes have in the background, or playing along with our instruments. Puppetry is another area of interest of mine, as I am a former Puppeteer for "Kids on the Block" puppetry, and have some ideas about doing a puppet making and intrument making workshop! We also have art projects - recycled art, drawing, crayoning, painting, etc. By "one-world" / anti-racist, I mean that children will see & hear images of people from all over the world in the books, dolls, music and materials I have here, and hopefully this will help them feel at home in the world, and not develop a sense of "other" as they might if their materials reflected a mostly caucasian population. By visiting local farms and gardening and cooking ourselves, as well as learning about farms and food from around the world, I hope children develop a sense of connection to the whole world. And, belonging to a larger human family that has magnificent diversity as well as the very unifying human thread of needing to grow food and eat. I also hope to someday put together some sort of community service project, perhaps from the interest of the children, or a family of ours. By feminist, I mean that young children identify through their gender expectations quite young, and I would definitely "let" a young boy wear pink and dress up, as well as encourage young girls to be independent, strong, and do hard work. I do not push children in any direction, but I fully believe they are meant to be who they are meant to be, and whatever spark they have in themselves, let it flourish! The books I have, stories I tell, and songs I sing will reflect these ideas as well. Traditional stories and songs may have some genders reversed in my re-telling of them (Old McDonald is a female farmer, "This Old Man" is "This Old Mom" in my version!) "That's just silly!" you may be saying to yourself. Well, maybe it is. In my quest to understand why kindergartners of 2012 still write their first stories ever largely about male characters as the lead character, whether they are female or male, it strikes me that something in their earlier childhood gave them the idea that males are the center of the action. And, the female lead character stories often have a princess getting saved theme. The last statistics I read, something like 95% of the stories fell into these two categories! At age FIVE. So, I call animals 50% he and she, and not all bunnies and kittens are "she," for example. I was raised Catholic, and still find inspiration in the teachings of Jesus, but do not belong to any church formally. I also find much inspiration from Native American spiritual teachings and feel that these two approaches, with some Buddhist influence, inform my spiritual beliefs and ethics. In our family, we like to say a blessing on our meal, and I have several ways of doing this through a simple phrase, song, or poem, with the preschool children. I'd like to see how parents feel about this, and see what everyone is comfortable with in terms of a possible blessing on our meal, as I would like to welcome all families of all belief systems. Raising children with a reverence for the world, for nature, for all people and languages, developing their own selves with self love and nurturing, these are the important points I'd like to touch upon with all the families that come here! BRAIN BENEFITS OF EARLY MUSIC AND EARLY LANGUAGE EXPERIENCES:
details and research links coming soon!