Summertime!

Every morning, lately, one of the first things we hear from the children is, "Can we go to the dam?" They love to go to wade, swim, fish and explore.
The few hot days we've had were perfect excuses to abandon our usual schedule and just hang out at the rock on the water's edge for hours. We bring along our food, water and towels and have a blast!


Israel is our resident lifeguard. He's enjoying teaching some of the children how to swim.

This is the view from the top of the dam looking down at our crew.




Just one of our lovely mermaids.






















Time for lunch.


Taking a break from the water and making tall grass forts and playing hide and seek.





















Mr Shaw, the sneaky tall grass monster, has been found and properly restrained.



Three cheers for sunshine,
~*Grace

Jumping for joy!

Yeah - weather for swimming! Some of the children really enjoyed doing come cannonballs off of Charlie's shoulders. There's nothing like a big splash in the hot summer sun - especially when the sun has not made too many appearances. We're taking advantage of every ray.

Spring into Summer

Of course we've been so busy with ending the school year and beginning the Summer, that writing blogs has been put on the back burner. Our plan is to have regular weekly updates. We're still adjusting to the new routine and new children. There's so much to appreciate about Summer, but one of our favorite parts is that most of the children stay all day. It provides a smoother more relaxed schedule for all of us. We have hours to explore and work and play.
One of the boys found a dragonfly on a tree. It had just emerged from the water and shed his nymph skin. It was very cool to see!

The ducks have matured enough to go out to the pond. We don't want them to be eaten by anything, so at this point we are leading them out to the pond in the morning and back to their pen at night. This is the first time we've tried it, so all the children are prepared to herd them back if they decide to wander. It was great, because they faithfully followed their "Mama" all the way in to their new swimming hole.

The summertime woodland work has begun. There are villages, forts, trails and hideouts being organized and equipped throughout the Laurel Woods.

Shelter overhead. Ferns,

stumps and rocks below for resting upon after all the work.

How can you help but be happy out here?????

A group of our Kindergarteners and Pre-schoolers gathered before the Summer break.

Another group of Pre-schoolers posing for the camera.
Some children will stay all Summer, others are off. We'll miss them so much!

This has been the rainiest season ever! We've had wet clothes hanging from the rafters. The children come in and pour the water out of their boots - hopefully outside, but not always ;0)

Every day we get to sing our song "We love rain, we love to sing and dance in the rain, jump in the puddles and splash again, we love rain!"

Now, finally the sun is shining this weekend. It is glorious! Maybe this week we'll shed the rainsuits and be back to wearing sunscreen and bugspray. Whatever we put on, it will be fine, because it's a "Wonder-Filled" world, rain or shine.

Until next time,

~*Grace

Still More May ~*

May is such a wonderful month. Peepers and baby birds and ducklings and bright new green shoots breaking through the old brown earth at every turn. There's excitement and newness all around. Of course there's plenty of needed rain too. After one particularly gray and gloomy school day, one of our afterschool girls was feeling particularly gray and gloomy, so we went out for a misty walk into the newly greening woods. I happen to love gray, misty days in the woods; the scents are pungent and the sounds are especially clear, so I was more than happy to have good reason to go off alone with one who needed alone time. How can you stay down in such beauty? You can't! And she couldn't either -hurray! It didn't take long before we discovered our first ladyslippers and then 16 more and more trillium than I can remember.

The next morning I eagerly took the morning group out to recount those lovely wildflowers. They too, appreciate the wonderful month of May.

~*Grace

Busy Spring

Spring on the Farm is busy indeed. Caleb took the past two weeks to focus on getting the garden planted. He made a lot of progress - and still has lots more to do. But now I have the privilege of having two weeks to try to rest my back which has not responded well to chiropractry or physical therapy. Summer is just around the corner and I really want, and need to be in full form. We have trails to clear, gardens to weed and pens to build among many other things that require strong backs. Now my daughter-in-law is trying cranial sacral therapy on me - it should cause the fluid around the spinal column to function at it's best, which should really help my entire body. I hope!






So, although I've been doing some work from home, I have two weeks away from the usual busy routine and it amazes me how much I miss those kids! I thought I'd love this break, and actually I do, but it's all I can do, to keep myself from visiting them, maybe have lunch or go for a hike after school! I won't do it though, because I know myself, and 1/2 hour will turn into 1 hour and then 2 and 3 and aw heck, I might as well stay all day, and then I'll be sorry because I really do need to take advantage of the opportunity to get better.





One thing I've been doing is working on our Summer and Fall Schedules. Our roster has filled right up. We are working on a waiting list now, except for a few part time openings. It's so encouraging to know that parents value the outdoor farm environment. Children are healthier, happier and smarter the more they are exposed to the natural world. Check the blog and website we follow, The Children and Nature Network. It is full of information that supports the benefits of the outdoor world. Anyone who is concerned about all the troubles that children are having with ADD and ADHD and overuse of video games and other screen activities should check it out. Oftentimes the simpler way is the better way ; )


~* In Simplicity,

Grace

Important Work To Do

As most of us are all too well aware of, the December Ice Storm left us with quite a lot of clean up to do. It's difficult for us to walk leisurely through the woods these days. We're learning a lot about bushwacking! Fortunately, at Ebenezer Farm, we've got plenty of strong and capable hands. We load up with our bug deterrent and head out to tackle the branches that block our trails. It's a very satisfying feeling to untangle the mess covering our "playground" and make it beautiful and spacious again.

Our hardworkers come in all shapes and sizes. This is a great job with the marvelous benefit of the most fragrant scent of pine and the background choir of peepers, chickadees, robins and cardinals.

We are more than ready for a hearty snack break on one of the best seats in the place!

New Ducks

Baby Ducklings have come to Ebenezer Farm! They are just the cutest and most fun little creatures. We decided to start with 4 Khaki Campbell Ducks. They are supposed to be excellent egg layers and we're curious to try eating duck eggs, but mostly we need ducks to complete our pond atmosphere. We so enjoyed visiting the Mallards who stopped by in the early spring, that it seemed like a good idea to bring in some who would stay. At this point they are living in a nice pen with a plastic pool during the day, and put to bed in the barn at night. I keep singing "La la la la lei" as the duck master in the story of Ping, but so far they're not running toward me like I'm their Mama. ??? I should probably make sure the neighbors know the story and why I'm singing my way over to my ducklings, or they'll think I'm a little quacked!

The first day I put them into their little plastic swimming pool, I got really nervous because they kept diving under the water - they obviously had no Mother to teach them, and I was worried that they were gulping too much and would drown themselves! They were absolutely ecstatic to be in this new environment- it was so much fun to watch. They zoomed like little torpedoes criss-crossing each other through the water. They barely came up to breath!

Their beady little eyes were bulging open as their little webbed feet paddled speedily and their tiny little wings flapped as hard as they could. It was the most delightful experience to witness. Ah, my little baby ducklings...

~* Mama Duck,
AKA Grace

Rising Star Award

Caleb and I have worked very hard for the past couple of years to get Ebenezer Farm up and running and just a little bit after our first year of operation, we were invited to attend the 2009 Eleventh Annual Celebration for Early Childhood Professionals sponsored by the State of NH Child Development Bureau.

The event was held on April 21st in Concord NH. At the ceremony we received the "Rising Star Award", because we are "professionals who excel in creating a quality environment for children and families." and we "offer a unique program that gives children the opportunity to experience the world through nature."

We are very pleased of course, but especially in light of the fact that we are well aware that our program is really testing the limits of the acceptable regulations ordered by the state, and here they are enthusiastically supporting our work!

The speaker, who shared her knowledge of us and our Farm, as well as other members of the administration that we spoke with, were abounding in praise and agreement of our philosophy, structure and activities. Wow! We can't ask for more than that! Here we are feeling that we're being a bit revolutionary - only because of the astounding reports of typical Child Care environments throughout the country and the world actually, and they award us. As Caleb told the audience, what we would like to see, is many more Child Care facilities like ours.

There was a write up about us in the Celebration program. In it they quoted both Caleb and myself from some things that we had written for them about our Child Care. I'll share what they printed, just to give a feel for what they appreciated.

From me, "Caleb and I have a passion to expose our children to the 'wonder-filled' world that exists within this nature and farm centered environment. We want them to discover the peace and contentment and goodness that is within their grasp. So, we spend all of our time with them, encouraging them by our example to explore life away from television and pressure, and find joy in simple things." "It all boils down to us just sharing what we treasure. And treasuring those we share it with."

And from Caleb, "It is when a child arrives upset that the effect of the environment we offer is most striking. I cannot claim any credit for the beauty of the sky and trees, or the antics of farm animals. I can only say that, when a child has been exposed to something upsetting, often the antidote is to expose them to something beautiful. It allows them a time in a sort of sanctuary, and allows a healing which I don't fully understand to occur. Just as we ourselves usually feel a lot better after a day at the beach, I've seen chldren healed by an afternoon among sunny pines."

In closing I remind you, as Caleb said and has said many times - we're really not doing anything special - it's the woods and the wind and the sun shining down on us - it's so simple and so perfect. I hope you make time to experience that too.

~*Grace

May Day

Today we talked about the custom of collecting wildflowers to place on a neighbor's door on the first of May. It wasn't practical for us to do this, but we were able to set out on a hike through the woods to search for flowers to bring home. We had seen buds two days prior, so we hoped to find blossoms. It was a gray and misty day, so flowers were shut tightly. Still we did find dandilions, wild mustard flowers, strawberry and cherry blossoms. Plenty to fill the baskets we had made before heading out.



There's such a mysterious aura in the forest. We found clues throughout of someone else having been there before us. It's fun to try to guess who it might be. Upon nearly every tree stump, we found the remains of pine cones that have been torn apart in search of the little seeds that taste so good to someone. We call it the squirrel's dinner table. Every new stump we come upon, is as thrilling as the one before - it never seems to get old. We also search the upper part of the trees for holes made by pileated woodpeckers or others and we hope to get glimpses of someone peeking out at us. Today we discovered a very interesting home, low in the tree. There was all sorts of shredded wood and droppings on the ground.



We took our turns guessing just who it might be. When we returned to the Farm, Mr. Shaw suggested it might be a flying squirrel.
It sure would be wonderful to catch him soaring through midair. Unfortunately they only come out at night - and we're all tucked in by then!

~* Grace

VACATION?

Back before I became a "Child Care Professional" I was a "Child Care Amateur." What is a "Child Care Amateur?" It is another word for "A Parent."

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As a parent I, of course, received no pay for caring for my children. Nor did I earn any sort of vacation from caring.

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To be honest, what many call "a vacation" involved a doubling of the time I spent caring. No longer could I count on school teachers to help me, because teacher's were taking a well-earned rest. What a "vacation" meant was I cared for my children every hour they were awake.

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Even a parent who earns two weeks vacation a year knows that children are "on vacation" far more than two weeks a year. However I was self-employed, and tended to work 52 weeks a year. I was faced with a conflict between time-for-the-kids and time-for-the-job.

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It was exhausting, and at one point I was tempted to take a job in Kuwait. The temptation was that I might make $100,000.00 in six months. As I toyed with the idea, the temptation whispered to me that the money would make up for the fact I was basically abandoning my wife and children. It stated abandonment was not really abandonment, because I'd have pots of money and could make up for the abandonment "later."

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However back in the the 1980's I lived with Navajo and Zuni who used to leave their homes and communities to make huge wages walking I-beams 80 stories above city streets, far from their home villages, (home villages where not a single house was even two stories tall.) When, after six months, these men returned home with fabulous paychecks they were treated with the respect a wealthy philanthropist gets. They stated it didn't feel all that good, because they would rather have been treated like a Dad.

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Remembering these men, I decided against making $100,000 in six months. To be honest, I didn't even make $100,000 in six years, because decided I really ought care for the lives that my wife and I created, and, as things worked out, this involved Home-schooling.

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Often, rather than going to work, I found myself teaching reading, writing and arithmetic. I had to be done by noon, (because I still had to hustle up some work and "bring home the bacon,") however, (judging from test scores,) my children received a good education.

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I had to work locally, but I could drive a battered pick-up truck that cost $500.00, while my friends drove far finer vehicles that cost $25,000.00. My wardrobe was jeans and t-shirts, while their wardrobe cost thousands. They had far more status than I did. However they spent most of every weekday away from their children, as I enjoyed something money can't buy: Being a parent.

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But vacations were not part of my life. Even before I had any farm animals, I was in some ways like a farmer who must milk and feed animals 365 days a year.

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This is not to say I didn't need breaks. I did. However the breaks tended to be things that fit into my week. Things like watching a sunrise, going to listen to a local concert, spending an afternoon blueberry-picking or fishing or skating or swimming, or even an entire day skiing or at a beach. And also little breaks, time spent simply contemplating this thing we call life, (contemplation which some call yoga, and others call philosophy, and others call art and poetry and music, and others call prayer.)

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My breaks took hours, rather than two-weeks, but they were enough.

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When I look back across time, I doubt our forefathers had the ideas we have, concerning vacations, (or even Saturdays.) They worked, as farmers, in a manner that burned an average of 4000 calories per day, yet managed to be more serene than us. With less "time-to-relax," they were more relaxed.

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This concept was driven home to me last week when I watch how deranged things became, locally, when school let out for spring break. Some parents whisked their children off to places like Disney world, while others had to work and had to ask others, (such as my wife and I,) to keep their children all day, (rather than merely before school and after school.)

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I then noticed something I've noticed before: Often children seem to expect that, because it is vacation, they should have some sort of sensational experience. In a sense they demand a Disney world.

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I disappoint them, in that respect. Instead I attempt to teach them about the simple breaks. Watching a sunrise. Listening to birds. Going for a hike. Or, (and this was Grace's idea,) simply making and flying a kite.

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It may not be Disney world, but its surprising how swiftly they forget all about Disney world.

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Caleb