October Arrives

Greetings, All!

We're glad to see October arrived at last, and, with it, hopefully some cooler weather.

At the end of September, though, we started our rock climbing program. The students did a great job bouldering and being harnessed in to go higher. Our expert student got a chance to lead others and be on belay. We are lucky to have him with us.

 Here is J bouldering:

 E bouldering:

 And L bouldering:

Everyone was excited and spent after an afternoon in the gym. Before the next session this Friday, we'll review the safety words and watching out for others. Rock climbing is also going to be a great way for us to learn to encourage friends working at all different levels of comfort.

This week, we headed to the Wildflower Center (though we were sad A couldn't join us due to a stomach bug).

 Everyone worked on drawing plants in their nature journals (American beauty berries were the popular specimen) and before we left, we were lucky enough to catch sight of this guy (though we gave him a wide and quiet berth).

 In the classroom, we had a number of really productive days (as usual). Here's what a busy time can look like.

And here's A with noun work:

And J taking a yoga break.

 Friday was a dedicated research day, on which children concentrate on research projects for the morning work cycle. Beginning our family timelines was a popular activity, though many worked on making fish prints as well.

Last, as I'm sure you've heard from your child, we experienced a loss this week. Our mouse Ragweed passed away unexpectedly sometime Wednesday night. Here he is peeking out of E's shirt collar:

We processed Ragweed's death as a community. The children made mementoes (drawings and origami mice and more) and we placed these alongside Ragweed in a little box before burying him in the courtyard under a tree. The children painted rocks to decorate his grave and E read a poem by Lucretius titled "Departed Comrade." Here is the circle of stones marking his resting place.

I'm sure we'll continue to discuss the loss of Ragweed and I will keep reminding the children as I did this week, "It's okay to feel sad. Feeling sad means Ragweed was loved."

I hope you all have a had a lovely and restful weekend. See everyone soon.

-Sunni