The Annex is dedicated to providing superior childcare, in an in-home setting, to children ages 2months – 3years.

The ChildRoots Annex will follow the principles of ChildRoots Way. Embracing elements of RIE and Attachment Parenting, our teachers are dedicated to creating strong, consistent and healthy bonds with the children in their care.

The Annex will also follow many of our current eco-mitments including the use of cloth diapers, reusable hand towels and maintaining a bleach and aerosol free environment.

Located in NE just a few blocks from the McMenamin’s Kennedy School, this remodeled home has a large fenced yard with ample space to explore and garden.

Slated to open June 2010, we look forward to welcoming infants ages 2-8months into the inaugural ChildRoots Annex cohort!

To learn more about the Annex, tours, and rates visit the Annex blog for more details.

The basics: As you know, we now commute to nap rooms where the individual needs of
your child can be best met. After nap we return to our ‘Homerooms’ for snack and
afternoon centers. Starting in mid-February however, we will break back up into
small groups after snack (3:30-4:15).

The groups will include children from all three classrooms. There will be seven groups corresponding to seven new specialized
classes or ‘ateliers’ that will take the place of afternoon centers. The groups will range in size from 6-12 children depending on the class.

The ateliers will be: Baking, Science, Art, Mechanics, Cooperative Games, Dramatic Play, and Movement.

Ateliers will last for one week and will be led by one or two teachers giving lots of opportunity for focused learning and one-on-one interaction. Although groups will be teacher assigned (based on our experience of each child’s current interests and
learning style), every child will have the opportunity to experience every atelier!

The big picture: The main goal of this new program is to create more opportunities for children to creatively explore the learning topics that are the focus of their morning circles throughout the remainder of the day. The new ateliers will facilitate
this goal by creating more small group time and lending more focus to our afternoon work and play. Importantly, although the activities that take place in the afternoons will now be more structured, they will still be child-directed, consistent with our overall philosophy.

This balance will be struck by using the “Research-Plan-Do-Reflect” strategy of education. This means that each week long atelier will begin with children and teachers sitting down together to decide on a common interest related to one or more of the ongoing learning topics in the preschool homerooms. Together they will then do any necessary research, plan an activity or project and execute it.
The last day would be spent reflecting on their endeavors (the focus should remain on the process rather the final product) or sharing them with another group. This final stage of the process will allow children to internalize the experience and encourage community spirit.

Additional benefits of ateliers: In addition to expanded ‘academic’ opportunities, ateliers will provide lots of opportunity for social/emotional growth and development. Preschoolers will now be able to form meaningful bonds with like-minded
children (and teachers) from other classrooms. With each new atelier (i.e. each week) they will also be challenged to communicate, cooperate and compromise within the context of a new group dynamic. The social and emotional skills that this will exercise will be invaluable preparation for the larger class sizes and more frequent teacher and peer group shifts that children will encounter in school beyond childroots.

Most importantly, because children will be taking the lead in directing their own work -playful but purposeful learning- they will develop not only independence but a sense of empowerment as they become capable and confident self-educators.

click here to read about Ateliers in action.

So we began to observe and investigate the root of the problem – what we found was that in each preschool classroom there are nappers, sometimes nappers, and never nappers.

We thought – hey, what if we let all the nappers nap and all the never nappers not nap and gave all the sometimes nappers more support – each in sepperate environments designed to meet there needs!

So now, just before nap time you will see groups of children being escorted down the hall to their “nap rooms.” All the nappers sleep peacefully in the darkened East classroom. All the sometimes nappers receive the back patting they need to help them fall asleep in the West Classroom. And the non-nappers are allowed to wiggle through their state required 20min rest period and are then offered quiet activities such as reading, writing in their nap journals and engaging in quiet provocations.

Nap time is now a much more restful experience for all.

The purpose of my role in the preschool is to support our community’s inquisitive and expressive development. In our science curriculum, I aim to create an environment that can challenge and support each individual child’s observational skills, their ability to follow cause and effect, and finally to draw conclusions about their observations. There is a beautiful simplicity and clarity in these skills that supports our child centered theory at Childroots and allows for a great explosion of joy and curiosity in our scientific exploration.

The movement curriculum is different. My purpose in the movement curriculum is to support each child’s opportunity and ability to express their own story through the first tools they have, their body and their voice. Story is how we understand the world; how it works, where we belong in it, and what kind of power we have to change this world. In order to support that story telling, I aim to create an environment that helps support their strong growing bodies and enhances their understanding of all of the different ways their body can move. And, eventually this facility with movement will be the tools they can refine in games that incite their great storytelling capacity.

It excites me that my consistency as a part of the Childroots community allows for the provocations for both my movement and science curriculum to come out of what the children are already exploring with their primary care teachers.

It excites me that we as a community have the resources to offer this kind of focused curriculum in respect of the children’s inquisitive and expressive potential. Thank you all for the love and support you offer these fantastic little individuals as they go about figuring out how to be people in this great big world. I wish you all the best in the coming New Year!

Here is an excerpt from West’s recent exploration of storytelling.

I am a firm believer in the magic of wooden and hand crafted toys. One setback I face each holiday season is the dreaded onset of what I usually like to refer to as the “crap toys.”  The plastic, overwhelming, noisy, manufactured by the millions, toys usually delivered to us, from well meaning relatives. It is an artful struggle keeping battery operated mechanics and inappropriate video games out of our house, but in this season of giving, the struggle often feels like a battle. As these undesirable items infiltrate my home disguised in brightly colored wrapping paper, tinsel bows, and tagged: Love Grandma and Grandpa.

But how do I teach my children thankfulness for items I normally wouldn’t touch with a 10ft pool? How can I teach them to love the gifter while hating the gift…

Over the years I have devised a few strategies to intercept bad gifts before they happen. I share them here in the hopes that, if you are like me and wishing for uniqueness within the gifting frenzy, that you will find these tips useful in your quest for a quieter, more personalized holiday season.

Ten ways to discourage “crap toys”:

1. Scare them with the statistics: lead, phthalates and PVC, chocking hazards, small parts, pesticides, fertilizers and other chemical used on conventional cotton… oh my!  The list you could give for possible risks related to most mass marketed, commercial toys could fill a book.  Educate your relatives prior to the gift-giving season! Instead of sugar plum fairies, fill their heads with recalls and hazardous warnings so they think twice before hitting Toys R Us .com.
2. Remind them of their childhood. Ask them about their favorite toys, games, books from their youth.
3. Ask them for time instead.  Time is always more important than the toy.  Set up a special play-date with grandpa, or ask the neighbor to take your son to the park instead of gifts this year.
4. Talk about what your child is doing. Tell them how much she likes to color, dress up with your olds scarves, or play family games.
5. Make them a list from a favorite store. Some stores do have a place to keep a gift registry, but for those who don’t, you can usually ask them to keep a list behind the counter.  The smaller the store, the more inclined they will be to help.
6. Ask them to visit our school. Perhaps seeing the things they use here will be inspiring.
7. Group goal. Choose a larger gift that several people might help purchase:  bed, bike, fancy stroller, etc.
8. Start a new tradition. Ask them to draw a picture, paint a cup, plant a tree.
9. Inspect the gifts first. Unwrap the gifts before the kids get it.
10. If all else fails, just GET RID OF IT… This is a last resort, but sometimes I still do it.  It’s a busy time of year and the kids get lots of presents… the occasional “hmmmmm… I don’t know where your Buzz Light Year lazer gun went?” won’t ruin their year!

For the past seven weeks, the preschoolers and I have been engaged in a new scientific exploration. The passions of the children and the changes in the environment around us guide our course. While I often start our weekly exploration with a plan, I am always discovering new ways to explore the concept we are discussing, through your children’s innovative perspectives…

For example, the other day, I brought in an experiment on sound, but before we even got started on it, the children where so excited by the vibrations they felt when banging on the table, that this became the natural segue into our exploration of sound. We clapped and sang a welcome song.

The weather has transformed again and as the clouds come to stay we have the opportunity to observe the clouds, measure puddles and even make clouds out of hot water and ice in our classrooms. Their experiences outside offer an opportunity to test, confirm and own the new knowledge they are gaining inside the classroom.

The teachers and children invite me into their classrooms and I hope to use that time to support your child’s ability to observe the world around them, organize the information that observation provides them, and then make predictions about how the world works. This continuing process calls upon the children’s passion, their growing awareness of their sensory experiences and their skill at distinguishing between those experiences, and their individual problem solving skills.  It is incredibly exciting for me to approach ideas like the water cycle and air pressure from the beginning again. I am grateful for the opportunity to play with sand and parachutes and rubber bands and share how cool the world is with your children.

Every class, every week, every topic, everyday is different. Every classroom has a different style and different needs; it is a game I play working with them, for them. As we explored the water cycle in East last week, we used song and story as a part of the fun of understanding. I think that music and song can really serve my younger friend’s understanding in that classroom.  I feel that the get-their-hands-in-the-dirt method is important for my friends in South, so South’s exploration of rain included practicing measuring puddles. In West, the children’s imagination is the most powerful force in the room, so I am looking for ways to allow us to use that imagination to fuel science exploration. As they discover the power of air in small spaces this week,  they will have the opportunity to design and make their own sand blowing devices and create sand designs. We will see will see what the children lead me to next week! Keep your eyes open for my weekly documentation boards outside the preschool classrooms. I will leave ideas there to help you take the experiments home where more joy and learning can abound!

Rain or shine! We will be staging this favorite community event tonight at Fern Hill Park.  We hope to see you there – Rain gear and all!

Top 5 reasons to brave the weather:

1) It truly IS magical…

2) You’re already rockin’ your rain boots and coat!

3) Your children are REALLY looking forward to it!

4) It might stop raining!

5) Your teachers, who have been working SOOOO hard to put this whole event together, will be there waiting for you!