Day 29: May Faire

On May 2nd, we celebrated May Day with Claire's school in what will be an annual May Faire celebration. Guys. It was so fun. And magical. Why don't we have May Day as a real holiday like the English do? 

There was wand-making:

Blake is not actually waving his cute little wand. He is lobbing it at me and the camera. For real.

Avery and I cut almost 200 sticks from the piles of trimmed branches in our backyard for this project since Claire's class was in charge of the wand-making station. I also ended up cutting 500 pieces of ribbon. Who am I even? This is so NOT like me to volunteer to do the stuff.

Also, I just want to clarify. When I say Avery and I cut the sticks, I mean it 100%. She cut at least 50 of them herself. What a cool little sidekick.

By the cold, rainy weather now, you'd think this day was last summer or something. We were sweating it out and it was probably only 78 degrees. We don't even know how to be hot anymore.

The hour-long face-painting line was completely worth it with wands in tow:

A beautiful unicorn:

A sea turtle:

Claire is REALLY into all sea creatures, but lately it's sea turtles. She picked the location on her face.

One of the teachers:

Are you jealous, yet?

Blake feeding the goats. He knows exactly where to go on the farm now and doesn't care one bit if I come with him or not.

The first graders had been working for weeks on the May Pole dance. Claire did not want to do it. You know, the whole 'people watching me' thing. And, there was also something about skipping being difficult, but she did it!

We were proud.

And, she was proud. I love when she is proud of herself.

Avery was proud of her, too. Here she wanted to give Claire a kiss. Spirits were definitely high. Claire was confused by the kiss, but she accepted it.

The fourth-graders were in charge of the flower crown table. they had been finger-knitting these yarn crowns for weeks, and the day of, we all got to choose one of the yarn crowns to decorate with real flowers. It was a highlight for the girls. And for me, too.

Except Blake didn't think so:

Sometime in the merriment, the girls discovered that the baby chicks were out on the farm. They excitedly told Claire's teacher here:

And, simultaneously, they all took off running to go see them together.

I couldn't have staged it any better.

At the beginning of the year, Claire's class studied the fable (parable?) of the stone soup. You know the one? Where the soldiers convince the villagers to add just one ingredient each to the soup that only contains a stone, and ultimately they have a delicious soup to feed the entire village? Well, her teacher found an actual cauldron:

And, everyone in the community brought something to share and a bowl to eat out of, and we all got some 'stone soup.' It was awesome. I really loved the day and kind of feel like it should be worth several days worth of reasons to love it here since it's an annual thing, but I will just call it Day 29 and look forward to it next year.

Day 2: Mountain Song - Even the Name is Awesome

Claire's school is called Mountain Song. For my child who always has a song on her lips and is most at home on a hike in the mountains, the name couldn't be more fitting. This might be the number one reason for me to love Colorado Springs, and unlike the blossoms, it is unique to my town. It's a Waldorf charter school so instead of being a $6,000 - $10,000 a year in tuition, it is . . . . dun, dun, dun! FREE!

I mean, I'm not going to lie, there have been some roller coaster moments in this new school's life, but I feel beyond lucky that we have this option. I don't even know everything about Waldorf methods, but what I do know is that learning feels magical at this school and with this teacher. What I want to know is, why not? Why not choose magical over mundane?

This was Claire's class play performed tonight - The Root Children. It was 20 first-graders giving a group recitation of about 7 - 10 minutes with two songs interspersed. Below, that's Claire's very amazing teacher in the background congratulating another student on his performance as a snail. This teacher is completely genuine in his enthusiasm and love for the kids. He has fostered love, support, and trust between the kids in his class.

 We have met many like-minded families by participating in this community school. Claire has sweet friends, and they more than allow Avery and Blake to tag along in their adventures on the playground and farm after school. Yes, there is a farm at the school with pregnant goats, a gaggle of chickens, and several bunnies. The kids all participate in an agriculture arts class where they are up close and personal with the animals and the plants. Claire learned to finger knit this year in her handwork class. She made her own knitting needles. She comes home singing enchanting songs that they sing throughout the day - not just in music class. She, my bashful butterfly, performed in a class play.