monday.

I feel a tad bit overwhelmed these days. I want to open my own child care centre, but I don't quite know where to start. And there are so many places to start that I feel stuck ... maybe even apathetic. So I need to get myself organized and kick my butt into gear. My biggest obstacle [in my mind anyway]  is space. I feel really discouraged or worried or stressed that I won't find the right space. I've found lots of places that I'd love to be. But I need outside space for a playground. That makes things tricky. Or maybe I'll start looking too early, I'll find it, but I won't be ready to move on it. Destructive thinking? yes. But I really don't know how to start. So I may use my space here to get a bit organized. First things first: I have a name. Big check. I have so many ideas in my head of how I want it to look, feel, operate... so I should write these down. I need a mission statement, I need policies and procedures. I need lots of stuff. I need a plan.

Have you heard of Waldorf schools? I'm a big fan of them. I"m kind of shying away from branding my centre as following one strict philosophy, I don't typically adhere to that. But I do like to draw from different theories, and Waldorf is right up my ally.  Read about it right here. Interesting stuff.

What I can tell you is that my centre is going to be beautiful. It will be filled with natural materials, light, beautiful art and simple furnishings. There will be little to zero plastic. There will [hopefully] be a small vegetable garden, or at the very least herb garden planted in an outside garden that the children will have access to and be a part of. Mindful and healthy eating habits will be incorporated into our philosophy. Children will learn about what they are eating, why they are eating it, and where it came from. There will be beautiful music all the time! We will explore outside, every day. We will go for walks and know our neighbours. Children will have time to explore, imagine and create every day. Every day.

Okay. Well that feels a bit better. Helps to put my mind back in the right space.

And on another note... here are some drawings from the classroom that I used to teach in. The kids are phenomenal. I love that classroom so much. Right now I'm helping to organize a few conferences/workshops that we'll be hosting in the spring [I'm presenting! exciting!]. And we are using some of the children's artwork... here is a sample. These are all 'human bodies'. The title of the project that we'll be presenting is, "It's not a Skeleton. It's a human body". There was much exploration in the preschool room about our bodies, how they work, what they look like. Really great conversations and art work came out of it.



Can  you handles these? Because I can't.