Changes Afoot at Joyful Garden

Dear Friends,

It is with many powerful feelings that I am writing to let you know that the school year ending at the end of July, 2014, will be the final year that I operate Joyful Garden as we have known it for the past six years. I am currently working toward transitioning into teaching elementary age kids, and plan eventually to pursue an advanced degree in education or counseling. I aspire to transform Joyful Garden into a summer day camp for kids, and a resource for parents wanting to learn and practice new parenting skills--quite probably years from now.

The span of time that I have spent immersed in the work of creating a community for young children at Joyful Garden has been a particularly sweet season of my life. I am grateful for the time spent with the children every day, for the world that they share with me, and for all that they teach. My thanks to the families who entrust their children to me, and who contribute so generously to the Community’s betterment, are boundless.

I also owe a great debt of gratitude to family and friends who have supported my vision, and the execution of it, in creating Joyful Garden. My daughter, India, has given up personal space for, and shared her mom with, younger children for ten years now. My grownup family, and many other loved ones, have strategized, and planned, and sweated alongside me to mold the Joyful Garden property according to my ideas and ideals. Anyone who has done the smallest thing to support the effort to realize my vision for Joyful Garden has my undying thanks.

Joyful Garden will continue on its regular schedule through the end of its calendar year, in July. Most of our kiddos are poised to age out and move to new schools in August 2014. If you would like advice or assistance in identifying the best school for your child’s next phase, please contact me. I am happy to be of assistance.

Each day, each passing week, is more tender, and more treasured, now that I know it is the last such that I will savor with the children; these children. I am more fully present than ever as I welcome them through the gate each morning and pull up a tree stump to sit in on their world. It is a beautiful world. Thank you.

I wish you all the happiest of holiday seasons.

With love, respect, and boundless gratitude,

Katherine Patton, Founder and Guide

First Day Back, August 13, 2013

What a beautiful day we had at Joyful Garden! We welcomed Catalina to her first regular session, and she was a trooper! All in all it was a peaceful, focused, hard working, and hard playing day here at the JG.

While the children played, they learned about their senses: the taste, feel, smell, look of things; they strengthened their muscles: pushing, pulling, walking, running, scooping, lifting; they refined fine motor skills: placing, dressing, undressing, putting on and fastening shoes, stacking, connecting, turning pages; they learned social skills: asking permission before hugging, touching, or disturbing someone's activity; they expressed curiosity and empathy: coming to see what was wrong when they heard a friend cry; they classified the objects around them: food/not food, things we throw/things best not thrown, things that go, things that stack, things that fit in this puzzle board...

Catalina explores mulch.

Choosing our own work; some work together. 

Building.

Cash climbing up.

And standing.

Some lap time.

“We are barefoot together, Katherine!”

Coming back from visiting the chickens.

Working. Playing.

Gorgeous lunches! And gorgeous lunchers!

This week, Joyful Garden welcomes Beckett, Catalina, Edie, and Ellis, our brand-new members! I can’t wait to greet all our members, new and old, after our lengthy break.

Here are my thoughts on transitioning smoothly into the school year.

Lots of rest. Well-rested children are less anxious about transitions, and more able to adapt to the new setting and routines at Community. If your child is not sleepy when you decide it is bed-time, try an earlier time. Sometimes, we are just missing the open window for sleep!

Ample time. Get up early enough that you and kiddo do not have to rush and can enjoy a leisurely breakfast. Get started with tooth-brushing, shoe-finding, and other “out-the-door” routines five or ten minutes earlier than you think is necessary. Use these last moments at home to really focus on the tasks you are doing together, and to connect with your child.

Protein for breakfast. Protein will fuel your child through a morning that can seem very long, until they get to crack open those beautiful, new lunch boxes/tins. If your child dislikes eggs and other traditional high-protein breakfast items, try serving them a bit of last nights leftover supper, some cold cuts, cheese sticks...

Pause for a moment. When you arrive at Community, take a moment to come into the playground with your child, set his or her bag down on the wooden steps, engage in some play. They want to share their experience with you!

Goodbye routine. You have thought about a goodbye routine--that phrase you will use to let your child know that you are going to go now, then the final thing done together (sing a short verse of a song, gate kiss...). Then you leave. If your child is expressing strong emotions, it is due to the distress of the transition--that moment when you are neither here nor gone, but going. When you linger, you prolong that state of limbo, and your child will respond accordingly. When you go, your child has an opportunity to re-center in his or her new state of “here without my parent.” And, if he or she does not re-center, please rest assured that I will call you.

Our pre-visits all went so beautifully; I think our group is well on the road to adapting to time at Joyful Garden in which they will work and play happily, and thrive. One thing to be aware of: sometimes the third or fourth time a child comes to Community is much, much harder for them than the first or second time. Perhaps a child feels that coming to Community was fine, as a lark, but now that she sees that you mean this to be a regular thing, they have something to say about giving up the time at home with parents... In any case, I hope that being forewarned of this possibility will assist you in accepting your child’s feelings and behavior, and walking through the gate with confidence that his or her needs will be met, in that moment, and every moment that she or he is at Joyful Garden.