Growing Together Blog Archives

Deciding to become part of larger whole is a big commitment. Every parent must consider this before they take that leap to join a parent cooperative. Understanding and accepting other people’s children is the biggest and best take-away a parent cooperative will give to their member parents.

We do not have day-to-day, moment-to-moment plans. These would run contrary to our philosophy of education. We do have thematic units with flexible beginnings and endings. The way is open enough for the journey to wiggle and zig and zag along the way.

When a teacher poses questions during story time or during play, she or he is not quizzing the children. An answer or response is not always expected. Teachers are helping make connections and extensions. Children benefit from wait time and the look twice, so that they can reflect and enrich their understanding.

Lesley Romanoff, director of the Cooperative School, explores the idea of how emergent curriculum changes from year to year, group to group, for both child and parent.

“Rather than getting children ready for school, we need to get school ready for them.” a quote from Docia Zavitkovsky, President, NAEYC 1984-1986, Founder of Play Matters, and lifelong supporter of parent cooperative schools.

Signatures tucked away and hidden under freshly painted and repaired baseboards. A carefully engineered rain drainage system buried under 10 tons of specially-selected and shipped sand in the sandpit. Gentle and informed support during difficult times. We leave our marks, we shape and care deeply for the environment, we take care of each other.

Let’s consider the walls of a classroom; if the walls could talk, and they certainly should, they would tell the story of what the children have been doing, what they have been researching, and the concepts they have been investigating

At our parent cooperative school, we have “boiled down” a handful of essentials for helping children navigate social situations. We believe that by making these cues a pervasive part of our conversation, conflict resolution can be “owned” by the child.

Teachers challenge themselves to find new ways to teach and new materials to offer children. That is an important process. Teachers are open to sharing and adopting ideas. We may lose sight of the “why” we did something in the first place. A teacher considers this as she looks at one “regular” activity in her classroom.

“No two children on the spectrum are exactly alike; even among those who are high functioning, their strengths and challenges are unique and varied.” Melanie Costello shares her journey to the “other side of the spectrum.”