Welcome to a new friend!

Last month, one of our families moved to Ireland. Unfortunately they not only had to say goodbye to their preschool friends, they also had to leave their cat behind. And if that wasn’t hard enough, they had been unable to find a foster home for their beloved pet. At both our preschools we have several pets and animals, and it didn’t take us long to decide that we would adopt the cat and re-home her at one of our preschools. We organised a back up plan and an alternative foster home in case the re-homing did not work out.

And so it was that Jas, the cat, walked into the lives of our preschoolers, and teachers, at Tawa Montessori Preschool. And what a joy it has been. Those who meet Jas for the first time may think she is a cousin of Garfield, as that is what she looks like, huge and fat! She is also the most gentle natured cat I have ever met and she couldn’t be more perfect for a preschool setting.

Jas took to her new home like a duck to water. After two weeks of inside supervision, she ventured outside, and never looked back. Our covered deck is Jas’s new home. She sleeps on the verandah couch,  or wherever she can find the warmest and sunniest spot. Sometimes she disappears for some quiet time underneath the deck, where it is cooler and the only company would be the odd brave mouse! She prefers to sit on the teachers chair, to great hilarity of the children. Sometimes she wanders inside, finds a spot in the middle of where all the action is, stretches out and goes to sleep.

Jas has added a whole new dimension to our preschool community. She absolutely loves cuddles and pats, and she makes sure she gets lots of them throughout the day. After all, there are twenty pair of little hands available to stroke her at any time! She will stretch out where ever she pleases, as if she is the queen of the castle, be it on top of the stairs, in a doorway, or in the middle of our deck.

The children are absolutely great with her. While some little ones, at first, were reluctant to go near Jas, as she is big, they now are so used to her presence, neither one blinks an eye. One of our children was rather reluctant to go near Jas until one day he came running up to us and excitingly announced that he had “patted Jas and was not scared anymore”. The look in his eyes and the grin on his face was priceless and no well planned early childhood programme can cater for that sense of pride and self-esteem that comes with overcoming fear.

Jas, and our other animals, bring a unique dimension to the programme, one that only animals can do. Caring for animals  fosters a sense of responsibility and compassion. It encourages a respect and reverence for life and other living beings. Our children have learned to walk around Jas, to not chase her around and never pull her tail, attitudes that foster a sense of inner discipline and empowerment. They feed and give her water, and gently move her away when she is trying to eat the chicken pellets. They alert the teacher when Jas shows a more than curious interest in our free roaming guinea pigs. They have developed a communal sense of responsibility that comes with taking care of an animal like Jas.

Caring for animals in an early childhood centre should not be taken lightly. Animals do need special care and attention. Close supervision is needed to ensure the safety and well-being of both the animals and the children. Done well, keeping animals can be a most rewarding addition to your programme.

- Anja

A new home for our turtle

Animals play an important role at our preschools. We have many pets. We try to give them an environment as natural as possible. At Tawa Montessori, for many years now, we have a turtle inside our classroom, living in a tank. We also have fish, living in a small pond outside. With the warmer weather arriving, we thought we would combine the two and move the turtle into the pond.

We tried to home the turtle, named Harold, in our pond last year, but turtles are actually good climbers and, in no time, Harold had climbed out and went for a runner. Turtles are actually fast runners too and luckily one of the children spotted Harold just in time before he could disappear under our deck. So this time we thought about the move a bit more careful. We have put some "fencing" around our pond, hoping this will prevent Harold from climbing out.

For several weeks now Harold has been living in our small pond. We don't know for sure, after all how do you tell, but Harold seems very happy with the move. He spend his first days in the pond hiding under the rocks, making us wonder whether he was still alive. Now he spends most of his time basking on the rocks in the sun, to great delight of the children. Harold "begs" for food as soon as one of the children walks up to him, and the children feed him worms they find in the garden or compost.

We made the pond a few years ago. We filled a regular children play water trough with rocks and stones and planted water plants from the local creek. Amazingly these water plants transferred well and soon started growing. Time has done the rest. Fish seem to live happily in the pond. The pond is very shallow, enough water for the fish to swim around in and for Harold to totally emerge himself and have a swim.

We may sit on our deck and watch our pond from a distance, observing the birds taking a bath, some damselflies visiting the plants and Harold having a lazy bask. A precious moment of stillness, treasured by all of us during this busy time in the year.
- Anja

Spring is here!

Officially Spring doesn't start in New Zealand until the first day of September, but no doubt it has arrived. One of our youngsters arrived today at our preschool with a baby lamb, born at five o'clock this morning. The lamb needs around the clock care as its mother has rejected it. There certainly were enough helpers at hand to help with the feeding!

Animals play an important part at our preschool. While we home rabbits, guinea pigs, chickens, birds, mice, turtle, snails, fish, and frogs, we also regularly host visitors. Lately we have had a dog, a cat, a pair of geckos and a baby goat visiting us.

Cultivating relationships between children and animals is an important part of our preschool programme. Young children are naturally drawn to animals, they talk to them, they bond with them, and they relate to them. Animals play an important role in a child's development as they help the child to make sense of their world and foster a caring attitude and a sense of responsibility. You can read more about the animals at our preschool in the post about "baby animals at preschool".

In addition to regular contact with nature, one of the best ways to foster empathy during early childhood is to cultivate children's relationships with animals.
- Anja

Honeycombs and queen bees

After a 6 week summer break we opened our doors at preschool this morning for the start of a new school year. A group of preschoolers was eagerly waiting to come into our classroom. We all greeted each other, sat together for our first morning meeting of the year and listened to each others holiday stories. We listened to exciting stories about going to the beach, family visits, camping trips and overseas travels. But one story was a bit different. Here is Connar's story:

At Te Horo, papa keeps bees. The bees are down near the pond, near Rhys's jungle. There are three thousand bees, but not too much. I'll ask papa how much it is.

The bees get the nectar of the flower. They make it in their bodies, the honey. Papa gets the honey. He wears his bees suit and gets it. The bees try to sting him, but they can't. Papa sees the queen bee. The queen bee is big, it is a big bee. Papa pinches the honey. Papa looks like buz.

The honey is yellow, it looks like the sun. They are honey combs. Honey combs look like this. They feel sticky.

The bees are about this big and the queen bee is about this big.

I saw one of our bees dead. Papa stressed one of our bees. -- as told by Connar (3 years and 10 months)

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The children at our preschool usually see honey bees or bumble bees in our garden that are foraging on flowers. The bees gather pollen and nectar from flowers. The nectar they drink is stored in the "honey sac". Back in the hive the nectar is mixed with enzymes and deposited. The water in this mixture evaporates and the nectar becomes honey. The pollen is used to feed larvae and other members of the bee colony. The bees carry the pollen on their hind legs, in pollen baskets. Our children sometimes observe these yellow or green balls of pollen hanging from these pollen baskets. They know the bees are pollinating, transferring pollen from one flower to another flower. Honey bees are needed to pollinate a variety of fruits, berries, vegetables, and tree nuts. Survival of many of the food plants that are part of our human diet depends on bee pollination. In that regard, honey bees truly are king of the castle.

Sadly, bees are disappearing, as is the age old craft of beekeeping. Dennis van Engelsdorp, State Apiarist for Pennsylvania's Department of Agriculture, gave a very interesting TED talk about the disappearance of the bees. You can watch "Where have the bees gone?", here or below on a You Tube video.



Listening to Dennis' talk may make you look at your lawn with different eyes ...

The National Honey Board of the US has a great website for children about bees and beekeeping. Especially interesting is "Honey and honey bees, the incredible story".

Discovering new life, baby animals at preschool

Last week, one of our preschoolers, who is feeding our animals during the holidays, arrived one morning to discover four newly hatched chicks, a memorable moment. It is not the first time we have a broody chicken and baby chicks, but every time again, discovering the wonder of new life is just an absolutely awesome experience for any child.

At our preschool our children learn to care for a wide range of animals, in an atmosphere of love and respect for life. These animals are all well taken care of. They are petted, but not carried, by the children. They have spacious day and night shelters, some are able to roam free around our garden, curiously checking out the children's activities while the children curiously observe them. Our children grow carrots for the rabbit and silverbeet for the guinea pigs. They collect fresh eggs from the chickens and feed seeds to the birds. Our pet animals are friendly and used to the children. Many of them are born and raised at our preschool.

Young children have a natural kinship with animals who are an endless source of wonder for them. The children at our preschool have regular supervised interactions with our animals, guided by safety guidelines. Our focus is on promoting positive relationships with the animals. Many times we have had a inconsolable youngster suffering from separation anxiety on their first preschool day who cheered up once they met Roger our rabbit or Hector our rooster.

According to a study by Gene Myers, professor of Human Development and Environmental Education at Western Washington University, animals play a critical role in social, moral, and cognitive development, particularly in a young child's developing sense of self. Children interact instinctively and naturally with animals, they feel a natural kinship with animals. Developing positive feelings about their relationships with animals can contribute to a child's self-esteem and self-confidence and aid the development of trusting relationships with others, developing compassion, and empathy.

-- Care about individual animals develops "naturally" out of relationships. It involves being open to the other’s needs, truly putting the other’s needs first, and perceiving the other's response to care. When children also have information about ecological dependencies, they discover that caring about animals means caring about habitat and ecosystems. This environmental caring involves the formation and transformation of values, and a type of "ethical" caring that is generalized beyond particular relationships. Challenges to environmental caring include the need to balance different recipients of care, to resolve conflicts, and to consider the health of whole systems. But these challenges do not exclude care for individuals, and bear a formal resemblance to those of intra-human moral development. When care eventuates in taking responsibility for human action in nature, it offers life long opportunities for connection and making a difference. --

(Myers, Jr. O. E. & Saunders, C. (2002). Animals as links to developing caring relationships with the natural world. In P. H. Kahn Jr. & S. R. Kellert (Eds.), Children and nature: Theoretical and scientific foundations (pp. 153-178). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.)

Animals are an endless source of wonder for children, fostering a caring attitude and sense of responsibility towards living things, as well as offering memorable experiences. Children who have positive relationships with animals develop a sense that they are part of nature. Where the relationship involves a wild animal, for example the birds your child feeds in the garden, or the caterpillar your child observes on the swanplant, you can share with your child the intriguing world of these animals. Explain to them the importance of their natural habitat, observe the animal for a while, take a picture and then release it in their natural habitat. This will help your child develop a lifelong appreciation for all living creatures.

Our pet chickens and wild ducks share our garden.

IMPORTANT
Keeping animals in a preschool setting is a big decision. Not every preschool is set up or suitable for it, and not every teacher is willing to take on the responsibility that comes with looking after a pet. Strict guidelines and policies need to be developed and adhered to, including safety guidelines for the animals and the children. The Youth Humane Society of the United States has several download pdf files about the relationships between animals and children. You can also download the article "Growing up with Animals" from this website.