Love Water

At Spring Hollow, the children experience "Love Water" which was created as a follow up to the Green Circle Program.  If you want to purchase the authentic "Love Water" bottles, they can be found on my etsy site, springhollowstudio.etsy.com.

Circle Green as you grow
All your love will overflow
Show love for the world to see
Thatʼs the way it ought to be”
(Sung to the tune of "This Old Man")

"The Green Circle Program: Its Effect on
Altruism And Social Relations Among Kindergarten Children"
Dr. Katherine Ratliff Vanderbilt University 1989

Years ago, I sat in a circle of three and four year olds singing the Green Circle Song as I had done with children for over thirty years. But this particular day, the word “overflow” brought to my mind a vision of water overflowing from a glass. Taking advantage of a teaching moment as all of us in the education field have been taught to do, I invited my co-teacher to bring to me two clear containers, one filled with water. As I poured water from one container into the other, I asked the children to think of a time they showed someone love or someone had shown love to them. As they named these kind acts, pushing a friend in a swing or giving or receiving a hug, I poured a bit of water from one container into the other until the second container overflowed spilling water on to the floor as the children squealed with joy. Ever since that day, we have made this activity a daily part of our curriculum.

"Everyday, think as you wake up, today I am fortunate to be alive, I have a precious human life, I am not going to waste it. I am going to use all my energies to develop myself, to expand my heart out to others; to achieve enlightenment for the benefit of all beings. I am going to have kind thoughts towards others, I am not going to get angry or think badly about others. I am going to benefit others as much as I can."
Dalai Lama blog.gaiam.com/quotes/authors/dalai-lama/47951

How to Create a "Nothing Without Joy" Environment

                         How to Create A “Nothing Without Joy” Environment 

                                    Narrative for Spring Hollow Movie 

                                              by Katherine Ratliff 
    (The movie can be found on YouTube Spring Hollow Movie Part One and Part Two) 

All movie and photo clips chosen for our movie were taken from the constant documentation that is our curriculum.  We take movies daily and at the end of the day, review our movies and select still photos from them, writing notes on them to highlight the many big ideas from the day to display them on document boards.  These ideas are shared with children through viewing and group discussions of the movies and photos.   During these group times, children share ideas and tell stories about their experiences with the revisits of their visual images.  No photos/movies in our dvd were set up, all were spontaneous and part of the daily routine.  The song choices symbolize Spring Hollow goals.                        

     

The Three Teachers 

Spring Hollow’s three people logo symbolizes diversity and the three teachers:  child, environment, adult. 

                                          

An artist goes over to the dress up shelf and dons a cowboy hat, travels to the music area to pick up the guitar,  moves to the middle of the room to sit in the chair and sings “Home on the Range, a song his father taught him the night before.  Upon reflection of this documentation, the adults realized the words to the song fit the concept of what Spring Hollow strives to be.  With a few changes, it could go like this: 

“Oh, give me a home 

Where the children of Spring Hollow play 

Where seldom is heard a discouraging word 

And the sky is not cloudy all day”

                                        

“This Old House” by Bette Midler was chosen to signify the value of “old” to give children a sense of history.  The word  “home” and “house” are significant words to symbolize that our school life should be as much like our home life as possible.  All of life, school and home, should be collaborative and integrative so that the Dewey philosophy that life and school are not separate is withheld and a love for learning is fostered.  The words “rang with laughter” in “This Old House”  symbolizes that joy is important in a learning environment.  Where there is joy, there is learning. 

                                     

Kenny Roger’s “The Gambler” is a song that the Spring Hollow teachers keep embedded in their minds to remember that sometimes holding back is the most beneficial tool to enhance and not stifle the child’s natural ability to learn.  It is important for the adult to know when to step in to scaffold learning by helping the child over a hurdle or stand back to allow children to be independent in their learning.

                                        

                                       The respect from the adult as capable 

the security from the environment 

and the acceptance from others 

encourages creative symbolic expressions from the child.

Teachers create an environment wherein the child is valued as being full not empty 

   naturally kind and intelligent.  

A warm environment is created  with beauty and history. 

History provides an understanding of ourselves. 

A beautiful environment gives 

the child trust and security to create. 

The adult is a facilitator 

creating think starters not think stoppers, 

maintaining the balance of knowing 

“when to hold and when to fold 

when to walk away when the dealings done”               

    The adult balances didactic teaching (intended to instruct) with 

socratic teaching (method of repeated questioning to elicit truths 

that are assumed to be implicit in all rational beings) 

inquiring or transmitting 

stepping in or out 

talking or listening 

asking or telling 

teaching or learning 

The children learn how to think rather than looking for what the adult 

wants them to say.  The importance is not that the child learns facts but 

learns to express his thoughts in the process of learning facts. 

The photo of the children pulling hay off the truck symbolizes our community, the history of our rural Tennessee lives.  The view of hay blowing in the wind in open pastures, hay bailed in large rolls or loaded on the back of trucks is a common site in our community.  This photo of a parent bringing hay to us in preparation for our annual campfire get together depicts our community. Howard Gardner states that “We must plant the seed in our own soil.”  We can not transplant the Reggio Emilia Approach, we must plant the seed in our own community.   We must bring our histories into the lives of our children, the history of our own surroundings, our own families, and our own teachers who make up our school communities.  When we allow children to naturally discover and explore their interests in an environment full of their own histories, curriculum topics emerge related to these histories.  Children can better attach their new knowledge to old knowledge from their experiences.

                                       

Such history related topics we have extended upon have been camping out, gardening, creek walking, and catching craw dads.  The photo of the children lined up along our creek bed role playing “goin’ fishin’” is a beautiful symbolic representation of learning related to the history of our community. 

                                         

It Is All About Relationships 

Circle Green As You Grow 

All Your Love Will Overflow 

Show  Love For the World to See 

That’s the Way It Ought to Be 

Carlina Rinaldi’s words 

“It is all about relationships” are significant because it connects Spring Hollow’s Reggio Emilia inspirations to another important Spring Hollow curriculum,  The Green Circle. The Green Circle Program was a nonprofit organization which marketed and held training and sold Green Circle curriculum materials.   I have used the Green Circle concepts as part of my curriculum since the early seventies.  My dissertation research tested the effects of eight weeks use of the Green Circle Program showing significant increases in social acceptance among Kindergarten children.  Our movie shows the Green Circle flannel board presentation being used to give children an outlet to talk about their feelings of acceptance and rejection.   The Green Circle is used as an outlet to discuss feelings daily.  A large green circle symbolizing the child’s world is placed on the window containing moveable symbols for each child.  When the child feels left out, the child can choose to place the figure outside the circle to symbolize and initiate discussion of his or her feelings.  The Green Circle curriculum includes follow up activities and a song about sharing love which is sung daily at Spring Hollow. 

                                        

Rod Stewart’s “The Very Thought of You” symbolizes the importance in our lives of “the other.”  It is through this sharing of ideas with each other that fosters the child’s scaffolding of knowledge.  

Love is like a mirror 

When you love another 

You become his mirror 

And he becomes yours 

Reflecting each other’s love 

You see infinity. 

(Leo Buscaglia)

                                       

The Arts 

The value of relationships extends into the arts.  Art is one of our many languages of expression.   When materials interact with each other forming relationships, they become art:  paint with paper or the combination of collage materials.  A creation in clay, collage, dance, or story becomes more significant to the creator when shared with an audience.   The audience is the validator.    

                                      

The slide and movie of body painting symbolizes the need for the young child to explore all senses though art activities.  This “messing about” stage of the art experience is necessary for the adult to accept in order for children to reach their full potential as artists.

   

                               

Clay is a daily choice in the environment.  A Spring Hollow child fulfilled her goal of making a clay pig like her older sister and Spring Hollow graduate created and is displayed in the Spring Hollow environment.  This choice of photos shows the importance and value of the environment holding pieces of the child’s creations, not only from present students but students in the school’s history. 

                                      

One day, a child announced about her creation, “It is a hat for all seasons” and explained how she used the dots to be snow for Winter, the leaves for Fall, the sun for Summer, and the flower for Spring.  The magic of this creation was that there was no adult present to encourage her creation, the creation evolved from the natural creative abilities of the child.  The child was encouraged by the support of acceptance from others and an environment where there are no wrong answers. 

The child gives the cues for the adult to know when it is necessary to step in to help the child over some sort of hurdle.  One artist was having difficulty drawing a dolphin so the adult teacher helped her to find a photo of a dolphin in a book to use as a model. 

                                       

Another artist was able to complete a symbolic representation of the people in her story about her Dad teaching her to ride a bicycle but expressed to the adult teacher that she did not know how to draw a bike.  So the child with the help of the adult searched for an art model for a bicycle and found one in the dollhouse. 

Performances are spontaneous unlike practicing for a product performance.  There is never as much magic in a pre-planned activity initiated by the adults with a pre-set idea of how the activity should evolve.  It is important that the adult gives invitations to scaffold knowledge based on the child’s expectations, not only on our adult expectations. 

                                          

The bus story was spontaneous with the small invitation of a pop up bus in the environment.  These spontaneous performances inspired by children making sense out of their worlds are revisited by showing the movie clips in our collaboration meetings.  The children collaborate to create a written story, and extend the topic with literature, drama, dance, music and visual art.  This spontaneous performance can invite other stories about a bus and school, a bus dance, a song made up or already known e.g. “The Wheels on the Bus,” and a creation of a clay bus, etc.

Symbolic representations are not only the visual art which children create,  they encompass all the art forms:  dance, music, drama and a fallen tree that represents “the African monkey place.” 

                                            

Collaboration and Negotiation 

A child realizes she needs collaboration from a peer to place the tire where she wants it for a project.  This movie clip shows the give and take of collaborative “problem solving” or in more positive wording “dream catching,”   The two peers go through the natural collaborative brainstorming technique of trial and error with solutions: rolling the tire, picking it up, and pulling it.  It is significant to note that the teacher is close by taking the movie but there is no attempt by the children to ask the adult for help, knowing that there is more joy and desire to independently “dream catch.”   The children know they are capable of this independence to complete the task at hand.  There is a rule for adults in our environment, “Do nothing for the child, the children wish to do for themselves.” 

                                           

One Hundred Languages by Loris Malaguzzi (founder of the Reggio Emilia Approach)

The movie of the two children with no verbal language communicating expertly with non- verbal language reminds us that we have many languages. 

No way.

The hundred is there.

The child 

is made of one hundred. 

The child has a hundred languages               

a hundred hands 

a hundred thoughts                                  

a hundred ways of tinking 

of playing, of speaking.

A hundred always a hundred 

ways of listening 

of marveling of loving 

a hundred joys 

for singing and understanding 

a hundred worlds 

to discover 

a hundred worlds 

to dream. 

The child has 

a hundred languages 

(and a hundred hundred hundred more)

Integrating Basic Skills 

The learning of basic skills is a small percentage of the languages we should pay attention to in our schools.  If we build our curriculum around the knowledge of letters and numbers, we are limiting learning.  In its stead, we should begin with the interests of the children and the validation of all their languages.  Basic skills can be integrated into the stories that unfold from the play of children. 

                    

“Slow Down, You Move too Fast, 

You Got to Make the Morning Last” 

by Simon and Garfunkel 

gives us all an important reminder that slowing down to follow what interests the children will bring joy.  When there is joy, there is learning whether or not it can be assessed by the adult.

   The Italian educators in Reggio Emilia have a phrase: 

“Niente senza gioia,”

translated “Nothing without joy.” 

Gene Autry’s  “Back in the Saddle Again” symbolizes 

The ending to each of our stories at Spring Hollow 

Brings us to a new beginning of a new story,                      

New Knowledge Connected to Learned Knowledge.   

New Questions to Old Answers 

    

The Journey Continues 

Creek walking is what our grandparents did for joy and this is a favorite 

activity for the children at Spring Hollow.  We have a small creek behind the school which children visit frequently.

“Nothing Without Joy” 

Our Journey Continues                       

  “Out Where A Friend is a Friend”

Resume

Katherine V. Ratliff

Spring Hollow Community Early Learning Center 4207 Arno Road, Franklin, Tennessee 37064
Tel: 615 5576799 email: katherineshclc@gmail.com
PROFILE
Katherine has committed her life to the field of early childhood education opening her first school at the age of eleven in the back yard of her home in Davidson, North Carolina, setting up easels for children of need in the community and holding after school art classes. She spent four years of her younger life in Lahore, Pakistan, where as a senior in high school, discovered from her fa- ther’s Pakistani professor colleagues that Peabody Teachers College in Nashville Tennessee had the best international reputation in those years as the premier college for teachers. She began fulfillment of her vision as a teacher and her life in middle Tennessee based on this recommenda- tion and has always believed in the goal of friendship and the arts as the basis of her education philosophy. She began an early childhood school in Bangkok in 1981 that continues on as Bangkok Early Learning Center, http://www.elc-bangkok.com/school/city.htm. She stumbled upon the Reggio Emilia Approach through her granddaughter’s attendance at a Reggio Emilia inspired school in St. Louis and began her journey attending workshops stateside and in Reggio Emilia, Italy in preparation to begin another school in Franklin Tennessee, Spring Hollow Community Learning Center, www.springhollowschool.com. Through her Reggio Emilia journey, she discov- ered that the Early Learning Center in Bangkok now follows the Reggio Emilia Approach which she feels is a validation of her own life long education philosophy based on fostering friendships and the arts. Presently, Katherine is a consultant to Spring Hollow, facilitating workshops for teachers and parents, presenting at nationwide early childhood conferences, and creating in the field of writing, clay, and beaded jewelry, www.springhollowstudio.etsy.com. and www.obscurityarts.com.

EXPERIENCE
Davidson County Public Schools, Nashville, Tennessee Kindergarten Teacher, Glengarry Elementary School
Bangkok International School, Bangkok, Thailand
Kindergarten Teacher
Bangkok International School, Bangkok, Thailand
First Grade Teacher
American Method Early Learning Center, Bangkok, Thailand
Founder, Teacher
Singapore American School
Kindergarten Teacher

Houston City Schools, Houston, Texas
Kindergarten Teacher, Warren Wilson Elementary School
Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee
Research Assistant, Observer Trainer for State Class Size Study
University of Houston, St. Thomas University, Houston, Texas
Adjunct Professor
Vanderbilt University, Belmont University, Tennessee State
Adjunct Professor
Epworth United Methodist Young Children’s School
Director
Spring Hollow Community Learning Center, inc., Franklin, Tennessee
Founder, Director, Teacher
Spring Hollow Community Learning Center, inc., Franklin, Tennessee
Founder, Consultant
EDUCATION
Lahore American School, Lahore, Pakistan High School Diploma
Peabody Teachers College, Nashville, Tennessee
Bachelors of Science in Elementary Education with Kindergarten Endorsement
Peabody Teachers College, Nashville, Tennessee
Masters of Science in Early Childhood Education
Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee
Education Specialist Degree in Early Childhood Education
Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee
Education Doctorate in Early Childhood Education

THE TEACHER AS THE RHYTHM SECTION SUPPORTING THE CHILDREN AS VOCALISTS
Katherine V. Ratliff
Founder of Spring Hollow Community Learning Center

It is the moment that can not be measured in time, the moment wherein two musicians play from each other, it is not the past or the future which dictates this magical moment, it is that one present moment, the beat is intuitively felt between the players The drummer and bass know when they are in this moment because it is felt by each of them within their whole being, the two beings are combined to create this moment of combined sound. This rhythm supports the other band members and vocalists to freely express their music and lyrics. The reciprocity of the band members reverberates through out the audience. The audience responds in this moment with their whole being individually and as a group in dance and rhythm to create this magic of combined unity between the sound of the performers and the audience. Everyone, musicians and audience, breathe a satisfying feeling of joy from the feel of this moment.

It is like any relationship, not looking or putting expectations on what the other is going to do or say. If we go into the relationship analyzing what the other is 
going to do or say, we lose this magical moment, this moment that takes us to a place beyond what we could ever imagine with our analytical expectations.

As it is with our relationship with children, teachers are in the moment with the children, if we pre plan a curriculum with only our point of view of the outcome, we lose the process, the moment that is far more magical. The teacher and child relationship can be compared to the relationship between the bassist and the drummer. Their rhythm gives support to the other band members and the vocalists to heartfully and freely express their voices.
We as teachers, give support for this magical moment to happen in the

lives of children and their relationships, child to child, child to environment, child to adult, and adult to adult.

THE THREE TEACHERS
There are three teachers in the child's world. The children are their first teachers. There is the child and there are the child's peers. Next, there is the environment. And following the children and environment as the first teachers, last but not least but of equal importance, there is the adult: the teachers and the parents.

THE CHILDREN
The children are autonomous. Children are intelligent, kind, make choices, discover, explore and invent. When the environment and teachers accept their roles, children's autonomy is fostered. Children are able to exist to their full potential. Children are given the right to freely express symbolic representations to clarify existing theories. With an inviting environment and an environment which depicts the journey of children through displayed symbolic representations, children can connect new knowledge to old knowledge and better extend upon theories. Children obtain ownership of the environment through helping to create the environment and then are able to revisit, study, and expand upon accomplishments. Children and adults collaborate with each other in the role of teaching and learning partners to research theories. Through discussions and revisits to documentations of their journey, children gain a higher understanding of their existence. Children learn best by recreating the world children already know and have experienced.

THE ENVIRONMENT
The environment is beautiful and inviting for the children. The environment contains history, art, mirrors, documents, and photos to enhance the

exploration of the study of self, social interaction, and the understanding of others for the students as well as for the teachers. The environment invites hands-on exploration so that the children's symbolic representations of their theories can be expressed, and valued through drama, drawings, collage, clay creations, story telling, sound effects, and most importantly , an invitation to interact with nature, creek walking and digging in the dirt. No list is exhaustive of materials and their purpose to be used; such as, recycled material, clay, paint, blocks, water, dirt. These are the materials necessary for the children to express theories beyond verbal communication. These are their communication tools. The environment is inviting for all the languages of communication and provides private spaces for privacy and solitude. The environment is easy for a visitor to read. It is a visual representation of what the children experience in the environment with or without the children present.

THE ADULT, THE PARENT AND THE TEACHER
The parents are a vital part of the school. They are the thread that holds it all together. In a curriculum which works toward accepting the whole child, it is necessary that there are strong connections between the home and the school. It is necessary that parents step beyond focusing on their individual children and see their children's connection to others, the school environment, and understand the relationship between home and school. It is important that the parents be involved in some way so that their children feel that school experiences are valued by the parents. Ideally, it is beneficial for parents to spend volunteer time helping within the classroom. If this is not possible, parents can accomplish tasks that benefit the school outside of the classroom; such as, preparing document boards and materials for creations and inventions by the children. The parents' point of view is respected and a valuable addition to the evolution of the school. Once the parents understand and value the goals of the school, their point of view and suggestions are a valuable part of accomplishing these goals. Tools for open communication are available. Such tools as a private website, meetings, and get-togethers are important toward mindfully building a strong community to support our children. Since the parents are invited to spend time in teacher roles inside the classroom, it is important that parents understand the role of a Spring Hollow teacher. This is achieved through study, observation, experience in the classroom, reflection, and role modeling the teachers.

The teachers respect the whole child. Within training to become teachers, they have heard over and over again that they must teach the whole child. In Loris Malaguzzi’s words in his poem “The Hundred Languages”: “They cannot “separate the head from the heart.” Everything is connected in some way although this may not be visible to the adult point of view. Children not only have outlets to express academic theories but outlets to explore emotions. Teachers openly discuss feelings of social inclusion and exclusion with children in order to actively teach social skills and acts of altruism. Teachers create opportunities to celebrate all differences, those which are visible and not so visible. First and foremost, they create an environment so that all points of view are valued. Teachers pay close attention to the child. Teachers use all forms of listening skills: attentive, door openers, reflective, and active listening. Teachers ask questions, clarify, give specific encouragement, and explore children's existing and evolving theories. Teachers pay close attention as like a detective to children's discussions, actions, behaviors, and conversations to uncover all the clues to understand the meanings behind the actions. Teachers intervene only after thoughtful consideration. Teachers document by recording observations of children, theories expressed by children about their creations, personal reflections, and photos.

When entering into the process of learning, teachers enter as an equal partner to the child, helping the child to the next level of thought. Teachers do not disrupt the child's natural evolution of learning. The role of the teacher is that of a facilitator. Teachers trust the children to follow their interests, respect children as equal partners in the learning process, and accept children as teachers as well as learners. They allow children the right to solve problems. Teachers evaluate and reflect upon their own values and prejudices so that these will not non-consciously be imposed onto children. Teachers propose and invite, and do not impose and limit solutions to challenges. Teachers accept negation as well as acceptance to their academic invitations. Teachers think before acting, know when "to hold and when to fold" (words from the Kenny Rogers song, The Gambler), when to intervene to enhance exploration or for a need of discipline and when to let the children proceed with their problem solving with peer collaboration. In this way, "think starters" and not "think stoppers" are created. Teachers separate behavior non-choices from academic and emotional choices. Teachers let the children have continuous input as to how the subject is studied and allow the direction to emerge from their questions and theories, real or imagined. In the words of Carlina Rinaldi’s, Reggio Emilia educator, teachers "project only in the sand, not the stone". Teachers respect where children are, not where they want to take them. Teachers allow the children to be "gatherers" of knowledge.

Teachers help to dissect information along the path of knowledge growth so that children are not overloaded with information. The key to constructivist curriculum is to allow the children to research with teachers as learning partners, most of the time allowing the child to take the lead role. Teachers slow down. Teachers do not teach in segments, nor are regulated by a predetermined time frame. Teachers avoid being on a straight path, but are aware and honor all the different ways to get to the same point which then becomes a beginning to another destination. There is no final destination. Teachers value the process more than the product. Teachers will be confused, ask questions, dig deeper, and make their own symbolic representations of the knowledge they are learning with various materials. Teachers reflect and collaborate with their peers, as like the children do with their peers to gain a deeper and more meaningful understanding of life, the learning process, and our teacher role.

UNRESTRAINED ART
Considering the word "restrained" provides a context to understand an emergent curriculum. Defined as the action of limiting or hampering the activity or growth effect of something, this word aptly describes what adults often do when interacting with children about their creations. We limit children when we impose certain values and expectations upon them.

An example of such a value is the importance we place upon finished products. How often do we find ourselves questioning and acknowledging

the product of creating rather than focusing on the process? For the young child, the exploration of mediums, colors, and shapes in the creative process is of great importance. Of greatest importance is the child's real life and imagined experiences. These experiences are the motivation behind the child's symbolic representations within all the art forms. An example of an expectation that can restrain a child is our fixed point of view as to what we think something should look like. To a two year old, the simplicity of one line may represent a tree. How often do we remind the child of the necessity of adding branches and leaves instead of validating the choice the child has made? Young children are going through the very important process of identifying what they think a tree looks like from their point of view. To encourage their creativity and freedom of expression, it is important that we validate each step of their journey in process. We can extend their work by our acceptance and careful suggestions.

Our goal at Spring Hollow is to give the child unlimited resources to create. In order to accept all the many artistic languages of children, the environment must invite the expressions of all these languages and ways of representing life. Materials that encourage dramatic play for acting out life, blocks for building, and clay for sculpting are always available. A variety of collage material, paper, paints, and drawing utensils are displayed invitingly for children.

At Spring Hollow, a major goal is to encourage collaborative, not individual, work. In a sense, it would not be fair to give full credit to the person holding the paint brush without giving credit to the person sitting close by observing and extending upon the painter's process. “The other” influences who we are. Many children find their medium of creation in outlets which do not produce permanent visual products, such as dramatic play, singing , dancing or digging in the dirt.

Spring Hollow has an “emergent curriculum.” This means that we encourage the children to guide us as adults in their choice of topic for exploration and research. The seed may be planted for these topics by a child or an adult. The topic is encouraged to grow by invitations from children as well as from adults. Seeds may grow or may not. A study evolved to explore crabs and subsequent interests in what one might find on a desert island from a story telling of the movie, Cast Away. But then, one of the new hermit crabs was named Elvis, and a seed was planted and interest from the children was tapped, as to “Who was Elvis?”

We have found that topics may last for years or for a few minutes. Topics may be buried for some time and then resurface. One day, the teacher set out a creation made years ago. This was a child's symbolic representation for the study on burrows. Another child noticed this seed of the clay burrow and began to explore the concept of burrows once again. Interests and creations of bird nests continue to resurface. This study began years ago with the nesting of a robin on our front porch. The study of trains is another example of a topic that keeps resurfacing. Perhaps in some way that may not be visible, all these topics are related to each other in the child's mind.

An important art we encourage is the art of friendship. As we extend upon the child's ability to create naturally, we extend upon their natural ability to be kind to each other. As we model this acceptance of diversity in creative expression, we reach the goal of acceptance, appreciation, respect, and love for each other. At Spring Hollow, our goal is to provide an environment that permits unrestrained expression and creation.

LOVE WATER
Circle Green as you grow
All your love will overflow 
Show love for the world to see 
That’s the way it ought to be.
Years ago, I sat in a circle of three and four year olds singing this song as I had done with children for over thirty years. But this particular day, the word “overflow” brought to my mind a vision of water overflowing from a glass. Taking advantage of a teaching moment as all of us in the education field have been taught to do, I invited my co teacher to bring to me two clear containers, one filled with water. As I poured water from one container into the other, I asked the children to think of a time they showed someone love or someone had shown love to them. As they named these kind acts, pushing a friend in a swing or giving or getting a hug, I poured a bit of water from one container into the other until the second container overflowed spilling water on to the floor as the children squealed with joy. Ever since that day, we have made this activity a daily part of our curriculum.

My first attraction to the Reggio Emilia Approach was Carlina Rinaldi’s words in a lecture, “It is all about relationships”.

BEING IN THE MOMENT
I am drawn to looking at the faces of children because the concentration of their focus and their hands used for a purpose, a purpose that is far more important to them because they have made the choice of how to spend the moment.
Not believing we can ever be perfect gives us an excuse not to strive for perfection. Perfection is inside of us, most of the time covered by our imperfections, it becomes visible to us through our meditations and creativity. Our perfection comes straight from the heart, when we explore our creativity, we can only be in the moment when we touch this creativity, this heart, this moment.
I remember my mother enjoyed ironing clothes. I asked her one day why and her response was “Because I see a difference”. But did she see a difference in the straighter fabric after the iron pressed it, or was she referring to the feel of being in the moment as her satisfaction, being in the heart, letting go of all worries from past and and fearful predictions for the future?
The value which emerges when we trust the child to know where they want to be in the moment. This is fulfilled by fostering the child's creativity and love for one self and one another. In this way, we find:
Nothing Without Joy!
Niente senza gioia
The core of
who we are
is in this moment 
words written

paintings painted 
dances danced
music played
take us into the moment
to see our core
our essence for living
our essence of being
the scent of perfume
it is in this moment
of this scent
the essence
of this moment of smell 
this moment of touch
this moment of the dance step 
this moment of the sound of the music note 
this moment of the paint stroke 
this moment of reality

• as to who we really are.