Party of Nine: Sunflower Seedlings

Showing posts with label Sunflower Seedlings. Show all posts

Friday, September 30, 2016

Sunflower Seedlings Preschool

I am having so much fun teaching preschool. I ended up with 6 students. It's a young little group, but they have already made so much progress in adapting to school. Just look at these sweet little faces. The things they say are hilarious. And they are clumsy, like newborn kittens. It makes me realize just how young this age is, in a way I never realized with my own kids. This is so much fun!

These are the toys in our toybox. Ha ha! I might need to step it up.

Tizzy gets incensed when she finds out what fun things we did at my preschool without her. Sometimes she has to do what they did. Meanwhile, though, she loves Miss Sharla at her school.

Our first field trip was to "Farmer Kenzie's Farm!", AKA my friend Kenzie's back yard. It went so well. Kenzie was great with the kids, and they were astonished at her chickens, dog and all the vegetables Kenzie showed us. The perfect outing for our band of babies.

Campfires, deconstructed. Some of those fires are ut of control!

Second field trip, the pumpkin patch, or Borski's farm stand and Bowman's for donuts. Little things are plenty for this group. They delight in everything. They make small things seem magical, and indeed they are. Everyday life is extraordinary.

Wednesday, May 25, 2016

Come to Sunflower Seedlings Preschool!

Yes! I am doing this. Next school year, in addition to teaching preschool at the Refugee and Immigrant Center, I'll also be teaching at my home. Teaching preschool this year has inspired me, and given me a desire to teach outside the parameters of the immigrant community. Teaching both classes, one English-speaking and one with let's say nascent English skills, will help us at the refugee center identify areas where the immigrant kids are deficient, and where they are strong.

So please bring me your three- and four-year-olds, and let's learn. The curriculum will be heavily centered on literacy and JOY. Everything we learn is based in the fine arts, and it is FUN! School is Tuesday-Thursday from 9:15 to 11:45, and it is $75 a month. Class will be small, and is almost full, so let me know if you or anyone you know wants to secure a spot. Thanks! 801-726-8685

Welcome to Our Blog!

We are a family of nine. We live at the foothills of the Rocky Mountains. We belong to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. We love life, learning, dancing, music, family time and traveling. Join us! We'll laugh, we'll cry, we'll try to figure it all out together. I'm the mom, Circe, and I do the writing here. I am a teacher of ballet and violin, and I run a violin shop, but mostly I just enjoy being with my kids and helping them do what they do. Scott, the dad, does crowd control, undermines my authority with irresistible fun and works as an attorney to keep everyone in beach trips and ballet shoes. And the seven kids provide the entertainment. Come on, let's go!

Quotes I Love

“Happiness doesn’t mean that everything’s perfect, it simply means you decided to look beyond the imperfections.” - Audrey Helpburn

“What it means to be human is to bring up your children in safety, educate them, keep them healthy, teach them how to care for themselves and others, allow them to develop in their own way among adults who are sane and responsible, who know the value of the world and not its economic potential. It means art, it means time, it means all the invisibles never counted by the GDP and the census figures. It means knowing that life has an inside as well as an outside. And I think it means love.”
― Jeanette Winterson, The Stone Gods

“The educated differ from the uneducated as much as the living differ from the dead.”
― Aristotle

Your beliefs don't make you a better person. Your behavior does.

“If you want a happy family, you are going to have to tolerate a lot of unhappiness.” Dr. Haim Ginott, child psychologist

"Rivers know this: There is no hurry. We shall get there someday." -from A. A. Milne

"Other people's problems are not my problems." -Me

"Dance is surely a most extraordinary fusion of thinking, doing, feeling. If we are concerned about the health of a child's mind, body and spirit, then how can we ignore the educational force of an art form which addresses all three at once?" _David Rockefeller

"Strong families require effort."
-Elaine S. Dalton at the Young Women General Meeting

"The function of study is to build character."

And a quote from my dad: "Successful people do things they don't want to do, when they don't want to do them." Thanks, Dad. That's been a great motivator!

"It was a result of circumstance that he learned the violin. Whether he liked it or disliked it is not the question." -Shinichi Suzuki

Good Quotes

You must be the change you wish to see in the world. -Gandhi
You know children are growing up when they start asking questions that have answers.
Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry and narrow-mindedness. -Mark Twain
Tomorrow is often the busiest day of the year. -Spanish proverb
The secret to having it all is knowing you already do. Or my dad's version: The key to happiness is wanting less.
Sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. - Arthur C. Clark
Nobody ever became poor by giving. -Anne Frank
No one should ever underestimate the power of the arts. -Sheila Johnson, founder of BET
Life gives to the givers and takes from the takers. - a guy on The Big Give