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As we near enrollment each year our conversations with parents center around plans for their children’s next school year and, for some, that means making the decision of when they should move on to the academic environment of elementary school- either Pre-K, Kindergarten, or First Grade.  We are tremendously grateful for the opportunity to work in partnership with parents on this matter, and often take this time, then, to share some articles and research to help inform their decisions.

I recently had a conversation with a parent who was wondering about how her child will meet the reading and writing needs of elementary school.  She was a bit worried about the fact that many of their peers would already be “reading” and did I think that her child would have any problems “catching up”.  

Whenever I answer to this sort of inquiry, I consider and communicate about two main points.  First, where is their child in terms of physiologically readiness? Many of our parents are familiar with the observations and assessments that we use at Rose Rock to determine this aspect of readiness. Behavioral-Developmental pediatrician,  Dr. Susan R. Johnson has a fabulous gathering of articles about the importance of developmental milestones that we can observe in children to determine academic readiness and what drastic impediments can develop when early learning is pushed. 

Teaching Our Children to Read, Write, and Spell is an article we have shared previously that I encourage parents to review. She begins the article, “There is a widely held belief that if we just start teaching children to read, write and spell in preschool, they will become better at these skills by the time they reach the first and second grades. This, however, is false. The truth is that children should be taught to read, write and spell only when their neurological pathways for doing so have fully formed. ”    

A few of the major milestones that demonstrate this level of neurological development include:

• balancing on one foot for 10 seconds with eyes closed 
• walking on a balance beam without looking down 
• skipping 
• reproducing geometric shapes and forms that will be necessary for the formation of letters and numbers 
• paying attention and sitting still in a chair for at least 20 minutes

Dr. Johnson says “If children can’t do these tasks easily, their vestibular and proprioceptive (sensory-motor) neural systems are not yet well-integrated, and chances are they will have difficulty sitting still, listening, focusing their eyes, focusing their attention, and remembering letters and numbers in the classroom.” 

The second point I discuss is the capacities that are developed here at Rose Rock. When speaking to this particular parent I confirmed that there are explicitly taught skills that her child has not been exposed to yet.  Yes, her peers may be “reading”, in other words, reading very short sentences out of 10 pages books that were very repetitive and absent of a true story line and had been read to and with them over and over again.  They would not be comprehending much, if anything yet because they haven’t developed the capacity.  Her child, on the other hand, would be entering school with a burgeoning capacity for comprehension. 

Her child is currently sitting through 10-15 minute long stories that are building upon a previous story within a series, with a fairly complex story line and repeated characters who are developing throughout the series.  I have not repeated any of these stories, and yet her child is able to recall what has happened in previous stories, answer questions about those stories, and predict what may happen in future stories.  Her peers in elementary school will not be doing developing this capacity for understanding complex stories, and she will be quickly catching up to the explicit skills of reading sight words and handwriting.  This is not a unique situation either.  Every child in our care comes to this capacity when they are allowed to develop fully in their own time. 

Barbara Sokolov, who has taught in public and Waldorf schools, discusses this content in relation to her experiences in both of these school settings in her article, There is More to Reading than Meets the Eye. She states, “Besides the superficial process of decoding words on a page, there is a corresponding inner activity that must be cultivated for true reading to occur. Waldorf teachers call it “living into the story.” When a child is living into a story, she forms imaginative inner pictures in response to the words. Having the ability to form mental images, to understand, gives meaning to the process of reading. Without this ability, a child may well be able to decode the words on a page, but he will remain functionally illiterate.”

Lastly, one of the most rewarding parts of our job is experience when children receive the gift of turning six years old at Rose Rock and become the leaders of their classes.  They are flourishing and leading with mastery and confidence in their last year at Rose Rock before becoming one of the young ones again in elementary school.  A few years ago we wrote about this, too, in a blog post titled A year of Mastery and Confidence.  In this post we share an article from Standford Graduate School of Education, Study finds improved self-regulation in Kindergartners Who Wait a Year to Enroll.  

It really is a beautiful process to see the children develop, mature, and flourish in our care as they become ready for elementary school and it’s academic demands.  Our hope in this partnership is that in sharing our experiences and knowledge, and holding regular conversations with parents that we are able to help them determine the best path for their child’s development. 

Susan R. Johnson, MD, FAAP, Teaching Our Children to Read, Write and Spell, Pathways to Family Wellness, October 2017
http://pathwaystofamilywellness.org/Family-Life/teaching-our-children-to-write-read-a-spell.html

Barbara Sokolov, There is More to Reading than Meets the Eye, Renewal: A Journal for Waldorf Education, Vol. 9 #1, Spring 2000

May Wong, Study Finds Improved Self-Regulation in Kindergarteners Who Wait a Year, Stanford Graduate School of Education, October 2015
https://ed.stanford.edu/news/stanford-gse-research-finds-strong-evidence-mental-health-benefits-delaying-kindergarten

Summer camp is in full swing at Rose Rock School, and with it we welcome back some alumni “big kids” and siblings.  Outdoor projects, water days and lots of gardening in the hot sunshine will fill our summer months.  A new summer menu, including harvests from our garden, will be filling our bellies as well!

In May we said a bittersweet good-bye to our dear chef, Alicia Collins, and her family.  Alicia spent the past two and a half years with us imbuing the kitchen and meals with a bit of humor and a lot of love.

Her family has moved on to a new chapter in their lives and we have welcomed “Grandma Ann” as our new Head Chef.  Ann has been with us for nearly two years as well, assisting Alicia in the kitchen.  She is a most humble and talented cook, especially good at including our small garden harvests and adding a touch of comfort to the food that only a Grandma could.

We would now like to introduce the new summer menu, courtesy of Grandma Ann.   All of the food at Rose Rock School is organic and local, when possible, and most of it is homemade from scratch.  Our chicken and eggs come from pasture-raised hens.  This spring’s garden has provided us with an array of vegetables that have been lovingly prepared for our meals, including rainbow chard, turnips, broccoli, kale, collard greens, radishes, spring onions, lettuce and a variety of herbs.

Week A     

Monday:
Vegetable and Cheese Frittata with seasonal fruit
Avocado-Tuna sandwiches with seasonal veggies
Crackers with nut/seed butter and raisins

Tuesday:
Chicken Sausage with homemade yogurt biscuits & seasonal fruit
California Club Chicken Wraps with black olives
Pretzels with cheese and pickles

Wednesday:
Granola bars with seasonal fruit
Almond butter and banana sandwiches with seasonal veggies
Boiled eggs and seasonal veggies

Thursday:
Breakfast Casserole with seasonal fruit
Greek Pasta Salad with seasonal veggies
Seasonal fruit and nuts

Friday:
Homemade apple bread and mixed nuts
Sack Lunch
Popcorn and seasonal veggies

Week B

Monday:
Vegetable and cheese frittata with seasonal fruit
Southwestern Wraps with seasonal vegetables
Crackers with nut/seed butter and raisins

Tuesday:
Chicken Sausage with homemade yogurt biscuits & seasonal fruit
Waldorf Salad with crackers and black olives
Pretzels with pickles and cheese

Wednesday:
Granola Bars with seasonal fruit
Green Chili Quiche with Cucumber-tomato Salad
Boiled eggs and seasonal veggies

Thursday:
Breakfast Casserole with seasonal fruit
Pico de Gallo Chicken Quesadillas with Rainbow Salad
Seasonal fruit and nuts

Friday:
Homemade muffins and seasonal fruit
Sack Lunch
Popcorn and seasonal veggies

LifeWays North America recently put out a call for submissions to their latest newsletter inviting graduates and affiliates to write about “The Many Faces of LifeWays.” In reading the newsletter, one gets a sampling of the diversity of ways in which the LifeWays training relates to life, families and children, beyond the typical child care home. We were invited to participate in the newsletter as the featured program because we currently operate as the only LifeWays affiliated child care center and home in the nation, quite possibly by any other affiliation as well. We were happy to participate and are proud to share our article with you now:

The Art of Extending Families

by Shanah Ahmadi

“A warm and hearty hello from Norman, Oklahoma! In keeping with the theme: “The Many Faces of LifeWays,” I would like to describe our childcare center, Rose Rock School. At Rose Rock, we are not a center or a home, we are both a center and a home. This means that Monday – Friday, 25 sparkly children ages 2-6, play, laugh, storm, grow, and explore at 1515 W. Main St, the address of our center. The very same address is also home to a lovely family of five–where baths are taken, Sunday pancakes are prepared, sibling squabbles are heard, and evening prayers are said. It is a dynamic, sometimes complicated, ecosystem that we have created, and a wonderful one that I would like to share with you….” (read more)

You are cordially invited to this year’s Ringa Singa Ball! This party is our end-of-the-year fundraiser, with all proceeds benefiting Rose Rock School’s maintenance and expansion. In the coming months, we plan to renovate our outdoor bathroom, and, in a year or so, we hope to add another classroom, enabling us to care for 15 additional children. Please join us in generating funds for these worthy and much-needed projects!

What is there to do at Ringa Singa? We will have many lovely prizes up for raffle, so you could win a gift or a certificate. We will have a huge cake walk, so you could win an entire cake! There will be someone present to guide us through some simple folk dances that are easy enough for all children and adults, so you could learn a jig or two. In other words, there will be many fun and exciting things to do at Ringa Singa!

A BBQ dinner, including vegetarian options and dessert, will be included with each entry ticket. Beer, wine, and cocktails will be available for purchase. If you haven’t received a individual invitation, please RSPV at the following link so that we can be sure to have enough food and drinks for everyone. We hope you can join us!

We recently came across an article posted to the website of the Stanford Graduate School of Education about some recent studies that give significant weight to the argument for a delayed start for kindergarten.  It’s not a new revelation that kindergarten is the new first grade.  Some veteran teachers even venture to say it’s more like first grade and a half. The hefty academic, behavioral, and social expectations that are placed on these five-year-olds makes headlines for good reason.  Many teachers, researchers, and parents have reached the point of questioning whether these “standards” are truly preparing young children for a healthy academic career and whether these expectations are serving their development at all.

It is due time that more studies are being conducted to explore all of this and shine a light the fast-track life that is waiting for our children once they turn five.  Here, at Rose Rock School, we find that five- to six-year-old children often benefit greatly from a Kindergarten experience that protects their childlike impulses and nurtures their growing sense of self, rather than hurrying their cognitive development.  We can note a plethora of reasons why parents may consider waiting to expose their children to the rigorous academic standards and social expectations that schools reserved for First to Second graders in the not-so-distant past.

We have noticed that our five- to six-year-old students have the opportunity to experience a feeling of mastery before moving on to a new and more formal style of education, when they enter First Grade.  They are strong and confident from previous years of attending at Rose Rock, and they both consciously and unconsciously lead their younger peers by example. They help the younger children understand rules of conduct, both school rules (Once you set a toy down, someone else has the opportunity ask to play with it.) and life rules (Hurting a person’s feelings on purpose is harsh and unwelcome). They also possess and display masterful skills of daily life.  They show the younger children how to set the table, bring food from the kitchen, put on their shoes, watercolor without making a mess, resolve an argument, and listen to instructions.  The list can go on and on, and all of these skills that they demonstrate to younger children give them a sense of confidence and self possession that, from our perspective, is beyond value and outside standardized measurements.

As our oldest students leave Rose Rock, they will have a confidence in their abilities that will serve them strongly as they become some of the youngest and newest students entering First grade in a big, different school.  As adults, we are continually given opportunities to be the humble “apprentice” steeped in learning and the self-assured leader that shares knowledge and experience with others. Why not give our children this spectrum of learning to leading experience, as well?  At Rose Rock, we see little value in urging a child through a developmental threshold that they have yet to master, when damage to their inner security could be a possible cost.