Greetings Forestgarten Families!
This week was again filled with extreme weather! Monday felt like spring, Thursday brought a
monsoon, and on Friday it snowed! Perhaps due to erratic weather patterns, many students
were home sick throughout the week. We are making every effort to keep our classroom
sanitized and to encourage frequent hand washing.
The children have created several interesting work and play stations in the forest. Digging
tunnels and creating mini waterways is a popular activity. Students have been extra busy in the
mud kitchen, working together to create perfect “cake batter” and “dough” for cookies. There
is also an area set up with tires and wood planks that serves as a place where students play
“house” and other imaginative scenarios.
Ki Ieva gifted some new blocks to our class this week and the children had a wonderful time
creating tall towers and knocking them down. Thank you, Ki Ieva!
Ki Holly shared a beautiful story this week about kindness, courage, and love.
Brigit and Alex, a young sister and brother, ask the Goddess of the sacred well and living fire
when the long bitter winter will end and spring will return. She answers that spring will return
when there is a warm fire on every hearth and the sacred well is full of clear water. Brigit and
Alex bundle up to visit their neighbors to see if everyone has a warm fire in their hearth and ask
if anyone knows where to find the sacred well. Everyone in the village has a warm fire, and no
one knows of any wells. This leaves the cottage of Old Man Maddog, a grumpy old man from a
far away land, to check on. The children are afraid of Old Man Maddog, as the adults in the
village tell them he is a dirty foreigner and they should stay away from him. When they do not
see any smoke coming from his chimney, however, Brigit and Alex decide to check. They find
their neighbor sick in his very cold and dirty cottage and no fire in his hearth. They make a fire,
clean the cottage, and make soup to help him feel better. In return he tells them about an old
well in the forest. The children find the well broken and full of trash, but as they start to clean it
fresh water appears. The goddess also appears and teaches them that each child has a sacred
well of love and kindness in their heart they must keep clean, as well as a fire that helps them
be strong and brave. They promise to remind the villagers the law of kindness to strangers and
to keep the well clean.
We celebrated Nanalee’s birthday as she took her sixth trip around the sun. We heard sweet
memories and enjoyed pumpkin muffins and fresh strawberries. Happy Birthday, Nanalee!
We were so very proud of the children as they proudly recited our winter circle during First
Friday assembly.
If you have not yet signed up for a conference, please do so through the sign-
up genius link in the Monday Messenger. We look forward to speaking with each of you this
week!
Kindly,
Ki Fatima
Ki Holly
Ki Amy
