Daily Rhythm

Morning Outdoor Playtime

Morning playtime is an essential part of our program, as it provides children with the opportunity to develop their imaginations, relationships, and problem-solving skills through creative, free play.

Upon arrival, children can choose to engage with the mud kitchen, sand-pit, swinging on the swings, playing with other children, or helping the teacher with meaningful work.

After a morning of playtime, we transition to going inside by modeling the importance of putting our toys away. This helps children develop a sense of responsibility and prepare for the next activity of the day.

Circle Time

Circle time is a special time when we celebrate the season with stories, songs, and creative movement.

Once the playroom has been cleaned, we will invite the children to a game of Ring-Around the Rosie to encourage everyone to join hands in a circle.

Once settled in, we sing our seasonal circle time songs and then introduce our story of the week.

Once we’ve finished circle time, we transition to lesson time by taking hands and singing our Come, Follow Me song as we lead the children to the classroom table.

Snack Time

Snack time is a delicious and nourishing part of our day. We rotate between warm whole grains like rice pudding, oatmeal, and porridge, fresh fruit, vegetables, and cheese (which the children often cut themselves during lesson time), and baked goods that the children made themselves.

As we eat, we also enjoy stories from the Gnomes of The Linden Tree House, building a strong foundation for literacy, sequential thinking, and a rich vocabulary through the tradition of oral storytelling, accompanied by engaging visuals and puppetry. As children finish their snacks, they’ll begin clearing their dishes, clearing their place at the table, and getting dressed to go outside.

Nature Walk

Morning walk is an essential part of our program, as it provides children with the opportunity to wake up their bodies, interact with the world around them, and move!

We walk through the neighborhood to a nearby field where the children can run, roll down the hill, climb under the trees to a secret garden, and learn to navigate social relationships with their friends.

As we walk, we gather items for our seasonal nature table. In colder months, we sled down the hill!

Lesson Time

During lesson time, we rotate between three different types of activities: life skills, baking, and artistic experiences.

On baking day, children get to pour, mix, knead, shape, and prepare a variety of baked goods for the season, which we’ll enjoy as our snack the following day.

For artistic experiences, we rotate between wet-on-wet watercolor painting and other seasonal crafts.

When our lesson time is finished, we clean up and prepare the table for lunch time. Children are welcome to return to play during this interlude, but we encourage everyone to help clean by modeling the behavior.

Outdoor Playtime

Outdoor playtime is a highlight of our day, and we spend at least an hour outside each day, rain or shine, to build resilient bodies and a strong connection to the natural world.

In our garden, the children enjoy watering plants, weeding and raking, planting seeds, collecting eggs, and harvesting fruits and vegetables. This helps them connect with the earth and develop a reverence for where our food comes from.

Around our backyard driveway, the children enjoy riding in the little cars, pulling wagons, playing out stories of trains and rucks. When it’s time to go home, parents come to pick up their children from outside, and our day comes to an end.

Weekly Rhythm

We follow this weekly rhythm during lunch time:

1. Monday is Rice + Beans day
2. Tuesday is Millet day
3. Wednesday is Soup day
4. Thursday is Break Baking day
5. Friday is Porridge Day

Yearly Rhythm

These are the festivals we celebrate:

1. Michaelmas
2. Harvest
3. Lantern Walk
4. Thanksgiving
5. Advent Spiral Garden Walk
6. Christmas/Holy Nights/Winter Solstice
7. Spring Equinox
8. May Day