by Renee Owen | Mar 3, 2011 | Director's Blog
When is your child old enough to make decisions on her own? At restaurants, it’s not uncommon to see a parent asking a very young child to decide whatΒ she wants to eat. Β What amazes me more, is when I see parents asking their child what they want to eat for dinner at home. I sometimes wonder how these mothers have theΒ time and money to operate a free restaurant out of their home with children as customers. Β I very much appreciate the parenting notion that children should be given the opportunity to make decisions and not have everything dictated to them (such as the authoritarian parenting style of the past). However, there is a lot of security in having a parent who is gracefully in control and doesn’t expect their child to make decisions before they are ready.
Think about how much stress decision-making causes us as adults. Β Early childhood should be as stress-free as possible.Β Ideally, a rhythmic flow operates throughout the young child’s day — from waking up, to getting dressed, eating breakfast, and so on.Β If this flow is constantly punctuated with, “Which shirt do you want to wear today?” or “What do you want for breakfast?” or other such decisions, that beautiful, rhythmicalΒ flow is lost.Β This can lead to behavioral issues. Β If the child perceives that the parent isn’t wise enough to pick out clothing orΒ decide what’s for breakfast, how can the parent be trusted with bigger decisions?Imperceptibly, the child loses respect for the parent, andΒ can begin to question the parent’s every move, becoming defiant.Β This can become a negative loop, where the parent asks even more decisions of the child to avoid getting in a battle of the wills over simple decisions. There are other emotional and behavioral implications for children when they are asked to be decisions-makers at too young an age.Β They can develop nervous tendencies, become over-active, or dis-attentive.
I’m not suggesting parents be domineering.Β But consider that young children are very different than adults.Β As adults, we don’t want someone deciding what our every move is, but for a child there is security in predictability and strong parenting.Β Ideally, when our children are babies (and therefore, can’t communicate their desires with words), we can sense when they need to eat, take a bath, or go to sleep.Β Even after our children have words, they still depend on the parent to have that sixth sense — knowing what the child needs before the child himself knows. That’s the ultimate inΒ love and security.
It makes sense for children to begin making decisons when they are old enough to learn from mistakes.ΓΒ Before the age of seven,ΓΒ however, the child has a limited capacityΓΒ to learn fromΓΒ his own poor judgement.ΓΒ ΓΒ Reliable cause-and-effect reasoning develops later on. By seven, the child is ready to start making a few decisions on his own. By nine, even more so…and by age 12, he’s capable of understanding theΓΒ hard lessons from the natural consequences of poor decisions.ΓΒ ΓΒ ΓΒ Adulthood –where the privilege to make decisions comes withΓΒ other responsibilities– will come soon enough.ΓΒ For now, allowing your young child to bask in the security of your wise parenting is a privilege he is fortunate to have.
by Renee Owen | Mar 1, 2011 | News
This Thursday, March 3, from 6pm – 8pm is your opportunity to talk with Rainbow Mountain’s teachers.ΓΒ At Rainbow Mountain Chidlren’s School’s open house you can visit multiple classrooms, find out more about the approach and curriculum at each age, and askΓΒ each teacher and the director questions.ΓΒ Feel free to bring your child(ren), as each classroom will have activities for them to engage in.
by Renee Owen | Feb 25, 2011 | News
Introduction to the Transition Town Movement.
Today almost every aspect of our civilization has become dependent on the use of cheap, abundant oil. As global supply of cheap oil declines, our local economy becomes increasingly vulnerable. The Transition Town Movement was started in the U.K. as a grassroots movement to re-localize communities. Come to find out how Transition Asheville is initiating the process of building the resilience needed in our community to face todayΓ’β¬β’s greatest challenges-Peak Oil and Climate Change. (a 30 minutes video followed by discussion)
Wednesday, March 2, 2011
7:00 pm
Rainbow Mountain ChildrenΓ’β¬β’s School
574 Haywood Road, Asheville 28806
by Renee Owen | Feb 17, 2011 | Director's Blog
“Holistic” is becoming a buzzword, but we have used it to describe the education at Rainbow Mountain Children’s School since 1977.
From Wikipedia: The concept of holism refers to the idea that all the properties of a given system in any field of study cannot be determined or explained by the sum of its component parts. Instead, the system as a whole determines how its parts behave. A holistic way of thinking tries to encompass and integrate multiple layers of meaning and experience rather than defining human possibilities narrowly.
Holistic education is a philosophy of education based on the premise that each person finds identity, meaning, and purpose in life through connections to the community, to the natural world, and to humanitarian values such as compassion and peace. Holistic education aims to call forth from people an intrinsic reverence for life and a passionate love of learning….The term holistic education is often used to refer to the more democratic and humanistic types of alternative education. Robin Ann Martin (2003) describes this further by stating, at its most general level, what distinguishes holistic education from other forms of education are its goals, its attention to experiential learning, and the significance that it places on relationships and primary human values within the learning environment.
For more on the meaning of holistic education: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holistic_education
by Renee Owen | Feb 14, 2011 | News
Last Tuesday, Rainbow Mountain held it’s annual, school wide Science Fair. First through Eight graders focused on the scientific method while they explored various topics such as; which species of rabbit is the fastest, rebound rating of different balls (basketball, tennis ball and a ping pong ball) at different temperatures, can humans walk a straight line while blindfolded, what if they heard a voice guiding them?, and what is the best way to learn and retain information.
First grade worked in groups and constructed a small model ofΓΒ the three main African biomes. They then planted peanuts (a major African crop) in each of the binomes. The children made predictions about which biome would best support the growth of a peanut and made a hypothesis. They also planted a control group of peanuts in plastic cups and recorded their procedures. They really loved the feeling of being real scientists!
Second grade set up different science stations to encourage as much curiosity about science as they could. They experimented with magnets, flashlights, bi-focal glasses, and taking apart an old telephone, toaster and a TV! This is the type of curiosity that led Benjamin Franklin to his many wonderful inventions.
The upper grades worked independently or with a partner on their science fair projects. In the classrooms they discussed data tables, display possibilities, bibliographies and provided inspiration for those that needed it. When all was done, in true Rainbow fashion, the students completed self-assessment rubrics.
On the big day, the entire school, including preschool, rotated from class to class and shared their projects with each other. Parents were invited to join. It was a festive day of science.
