The Cottage Garden Daily Rhythm

• Arrival
• Inside creative-free play and artistic activity
• Tidy up time
• Toileting
• Snack
• Story/circle time
• Toileting
• Outside Playtime
• Lunch
• Dismissal for the half- day children
• Nap
• Toileting
• Playtime
• Snack
• Dismissal for the full day children

Arrival • 8:00
Children and parents are greeted and welcomed. My door will be open at 8:00. Please come in through my porch door-it will be open. When you arrive please help your child hang up his/her coat and put on indoor shoes.  We will be there to help with the transition into our playroom.

Inside creative-free play and artistic activity • until 9:00
As the children get older each day will have it’s own activity, such as baking bread, coloring, felting, cooking, painting or cleaning. Play is the most important time of our morning as this is the children’s “work”. This is when they learn to be together and socialize, to learn about out sharing, taking risks, role modeling for each other, and resolving conflict. These are all worked out and explored during free play under the watchful guidance of their teachers.

Tidy up time and Toileting • 9:00 - 9:15
Every toy, cloth, soft animal or pinecone has a place in the room and the children soon learn that tidying up is just as pleasant a part of the day as any other. We sing all the toys back into their baskets and sing the dollies to sleep and we sing ourselves to the bathroom for hand-washing etc.

Snack • by 9:15
We eat organic, vegetarian foods in our program. For snack we may have oat porridge, rice porridge or millet porridgewith fresh fruit. Milk, herbal tea or spring water will be served. We will clean up all together, with the children participating as much as they are able.

Rest/story/circle time • 9:45-10:00
The foundations for literacy are laid through circle time and storytelling. Circle time is a group activity using nursery rhymes, songs, and games, brought to life with movement and gestures. Stories are told in the oral tradition, creating pictures in the mind of the young child. Both circle time and storytelling develop vocabulary, memory, and creative imagination.

Toileting " 10-10:30

Changing diapers and potty time before we go out

Outside Playtime • until noon
Our lovely, fenced in backyard has a sandbox, cut logs for climbing and balance, and a small slide. We will garden in the spring and grow some vegetables for our lunches. We go outside in most weather: the children find joy in the vibrant colors and windy days of fall, the snow and ice in winter, the blustery breezes of March and the lovely colors of spring.|

Lunch • 12:00-1:00
As stated above, we eat organic, vegetarian foods in our program. Lunches may be either a grain and steamed vegetable or a hearty soup and homemade bread. Milk, herbal tea or spring water will be served. We will clean up all together, with the children participating as much as they are able. Morning cjildren will be picked up at 1:00

Nap • 1:00-2:30
Each child will have a cozy down quilt and mat or a playpen to curl up in/on while the teacher sings lullabyes and plays the kinder lyre.

Toileting "

Changing diapers and potty time before we go home

Playtime •
We will play quietly until all the children are awake and then play some more either inside or out depending on the weather. We will have a snack all together upon awakening.

3:30 • Dismissal for the full day children. A goodbye song will be sung to bid farewell to our friends for the day.