Changes

Yesterday, Lucy and I went to meet with a Waldorf homeschool co-op group. Cool people; Lucy loved playing with an almost-eight yr. old boy who is homeschooled this year, and will continue to be next year. He was so open and sweet and totally at ease with the grown-ups and kids. Most of the kids of the group weren't there and I left J. home too, with Grandma Gloria, who we have REALLY enjoyed having back in town after her month-long absence. Anyway, around ten families are involved and they seem like a good group. I think we're going to meet every week at Carkeek Park Environmental Center starting in the fall.

I was really glad I had that experience in the afternoon because in the evening, Rob and I went to Kinderhaus for our last parent evening. We sat around as usual over tea, and discussed our children. Parents each brought a flower and then added it to a bouquet and recalled some anecdote about the year at Kinderhaus. Mary and Kelly told stories about the children. Teacher Mary said that Lucy uses the materials in the classroom more inventively than any other child she's seen and described some of Lucy's creations. Kelly talked about how Lucy oohs and aahs over her sandwiches when she has her most favorite bread (dave's killer bread). There were lots of tears as parents described how their children have grown and changed over the year(s) they've been with Mary and Kelly and in some cases, cried over the changes happening in their own lives and how it is affecting their children. The most moving moment for me came when one of the moms who is also an artist, pulled out a rolled cloth. She laid it on the floor and slowly unrolled it to reveal tons of sticks that had been wrapped in it. Then she emptied a couple of bags of rocks onto the cloth. Then she pulled handfuls of small objects out of her pockets - chestnuts, acorn tops, rusty nails. She arranged everything on the golden velvet cloth and then said these were all the things her son had brought home from Kinderhaus this year. I know all of us could relate. On the children's long walks every day, they all bring pocketfuls, if not armfuls, of treasures back to school. Some of it makes its way to homes, yards, gets forgotten or dumped along the way. But it was incredibly poignant to see the treasures of the year all collected and arranged together. It was a very moving evening and I would have been sad to be leaving Waldorf school and community had I not just had the co-op meeting and been reassured that we will not be alone on the next leg of our journey.

And this morning, Jasper and I celebrated spring with a hike at St. Ed's with Meta and Kate. So beautiful; the forest is such a brilliant green right now, the birds are furiously singing, the motorboats are on the lake again, the trail is muddy only in spots, tiny wildflowers are blooming, stinging nettles are everywhere, the salmon berries are forming, slugs and snails creeping along. I really needed that and am looking forward to lots and lots of forest and beach time this summer.