The sun was out all week, a rarity for an Asheville spring, and Kingsley Pugh took full advantage of it. He invited any interested Rainbow students to paint, outside, on paper parasols. And although the kids thought it all great fun it was more than that. Kingsley will be selling the colorful parasols at this weekend’s earthday festival. Proceeds from the sale will fund four solar panels on Rainbow Mountain’s “new” building. Kingsley’s company Harvest The Sun  is donating the labor.
Author Maureen Healy came to Rainbow last week for a discussion with parents about how to foster a child’s happiness. Maureen has recently released her new book, “365 Perfect Things to Say to Your Kids” which she shared with us. It was a real pleasure to be there and learn from Maureen and the other parents. We hope Maureen will come back and share more of her wisdom.
From Maureen’s web site:
Maureen’s groundbreaking book, 365 Perfect Things to Say to Your Kids, is making quite a splash in the world of conscious parenting.  Her unique background blends Eastern and Western thinking so that parents, grandparents, childcare specialists and any adult can learn simply yet powerful tools of fostering a child’s joy.
With 20 years of experience, Maureen has traveled the world fostering children’s positive emotional health. She has even lived at the Base of the Himalayas and been named a “Creative Activist†by Creative Visions Foundation.  Maureen also contributes actively to the field with a popular Psychology Today blog and more.
Additional information: http://www.growinghappykids.com/
Three schools come together with three service-learning projects and one idea: to learn to change the world.
By doing a good turn, known as “tikkun olam “ in Judaism, change in our corner of the world can lead to change around the world. Hands of Hope consists of a several month service-learning project in partnership between a school and local non-profit and concluding with a community-wide benefit concert.
The Hands of Hope family concert will feature Billy Jonas at The Orange Peel on Sunday, March 21st 2010. Tickets for the concert are available in our office, at our partner schools; Odyssey Community School and Maccabi Academy or at the door.
Each school will share their community work at the event so come early to visit tables and see what they’ve accomplished. Local businesses sponsoring Hands of Hope will be present as well.
We hope you will join us in this community-wide event to be a part of changing the world!
Every year Rainbow first-graders explore Africa through a large thematic unit which includes animals, food, biomes and stories and dances of its many cultures. African music was the focus when two members of the Asheville based Toubab Krewe visited the first and third graders to talk about their own experiences and play music they learned on their many travels to Africa’s Ivory Coast.
Toubab Krewe is an instrumental band which fuses the music of Mali with American musical styles. Drew Heller, a Rainbow Mountain preschool alumni, and band mate, Justin Perkins, strummed the guitar and plucked the Kora, a string instrument made from a large gourd. Justin learned to play the kora while in Africa and it was the stories of their time there that they shared with the kids.The children watched in awe, swayed to the rhythm and asked all sorts of questions like, “What does Africa smell like?â€
Drew said it was great to come back and share music with the students.
A special thanks to Andi Morrell who contacted Toubab Krewe and encouraged them to come visit our school.
Approximately 75 children and adults from the Rainbow Mountain community enjoyed a fun-filled day on the slopes skiing and snow-boarding at Cataloochee in Maggie Valley, NC. Participants rose early to carpool from the school parking lot at 7:30 a.m. After arriving and suiting up, students, staff and parents had the opportunity to take an hour-long skiing or snow-boarding lesson from the Cataloochee staff. Afterwards, everyone hit the slopes for the next four hours, challenging themselves, learning from one another and sharing fun times with family and friends. The annual ski trip for 4th through 8th graders and their families has been a tradition at RMCS for 12 years and was organized this year by After-School Coordinator, Andi Morrell. The tired – but happy – group wrapped up the day by swapping ski slope stories over dinner at Garlic Knots in Maggie Valley before heading home to Asheville in yet another winter snowstorm.
Author Maureen Healy came to Rainbow last week for a discussion with parents about how to foster a child’s happiness. Maureen has recently released her new book, “365 Perfect Things to Say to Your Kids ” which she shared with us. It was a real pleasure to be there and learn from Maureen and the other parents. We hope Maureen will come back and share more of her wisdom. 
