• I LOVED reading this!!!! Thank you!!!

  • Lacy commented on the post, Back to School, Year 4!, on the site Nancy's Blog 7 years, 3 months ago

    Thank you for sharing about your week, Nancy! I so LOVE the updated spawn point spaces!!! Yay!! I enjoy the idea of putting love into our current space with potential move on the way- it feels like this just calls to the universe for even more beauty wherever we are located!

  • Rachel, Thank you for this beautiful narration of our camp week! I am so grateful for all the details you have noticed and documented.

    I was really happy to get time to connect with your kiddos through the week! Especially by the last couple days I felt like I got some fun connection with each of them 🙂

    I would really enjoy talking more…[Read more]

  • Thank you for sharing, Rachel! This felt very fresh to read – I felt like we were sitting chatting on the lawn and I was really gottimh to see the week through your eyes.

  • Lacy commented on the post, Inward Dive, on the site Nancy's Blog 7 years, 7 months ago

    Thank you for sharing, Nancy! I love the idea of an inward dive 🙂 I have been trying to notice more lately how through the moon cycle and season changes and with the changing ages of the children in my household my desires for various engagement changes, too. Anyway I enjoyed reading about your inward dive and news about what has been alive…[Read more]

  • Hello out there!!  Lately I have been finding my writing mojo through micro-blogging on Instagram.  At this moment in my life I can pretty smoothly produce a couple short and I hope meaningful tidbits each week a […]

  • I like the simplicity here, too! Thank you for sharing.

  • Thank you for sharing here, Nancy! Someone asked me the other day how we prepare kids at Roots for the self directed environment at Branches. The answer is, we don’t. We are not preparing anyone for anything. We are joining children in living in the present to the fullest capacity.

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  • Lacy commented on the post, Rose, Bud, Thorn, on the site Nancy's Blog 8 years, 1 month ago

    Wow, I love reading this detailed write-up! I feel like I am at Branches with you.

  • ThumbnailPlay in the stream at Hideaway Woods was definitely a highlight for many kids on our field trip to the Museum of Life and Science in Durham this week.  Hideaway Woods is a fantastic new exhibit within a really […]

    • Lacy, I love your post. Such an important topic. It seems that in general,in our society, many adults have lost a true understanding of what play is. We think kids are playing, if they run around a structured school playground for 20 minutes or participate in after school sports. True play is very different and you outlined it so beautifully in your blog. Thanks!!

  • Thanks for reading, Abby! Yes, I often think of this as my main work, or the work from which everything else unfolds- seeing kiddos in their true light. I am grateful for the first teacher that did this for my own child. It’s hard to describe sometimes, but I knew it and understood it even then, which was a long time before I had any of these w…[Read more]

  • Thanks for reading, Abby! Yes, I often think of this as my main work, or the work from which everything else unfolds- seeing kiddos in their true light. I am grateful for the first teacher that did this for my own child. It’s hard to describe sometimes, but I knew it and understood it even then, which was a long time before I had any of these…[Read more]

  • I am so grateful to one of our families this week for bringing up a question and concern around supervision!   This kind of open communication with each other supports our thrive at school.
    I was reminded of this […]

    • What a beautiful way to define the word SuperVision! I love this. I feel so strongly that the best gift a child could have is trust. I want to teach children to trust themselves & their intuition. I also value safety. I really enjoy reading about how you’ve seen the question of supervision as a fun opportunity to open up new possibilities for how you see SuperVision as aligned with knowing and trusting ourselves.

      When I make decisions at school regarding safety, I have to do a lot of my own work to make sure I am coming from a grounded and centered space as well (as opposed from a fear place). I’m getting better at doing this with ease and reading stories like this help me to remember how important it is to do my own work. The best way to support others to listen to their inner guidance (or intuition) and to trust themselves is to model it!

    • Thanks, Lacy! This is really beautiful and clear.

      So often when asked about what I do, I use words like “witness” and “see” (in the Thich Nhat Hanh act-of-love sense). And so often when communicating with concerned parents, I share observations and reflections…signs that I’ve been paying attention (etymologically related to “being present”) to their child.

      Because bearing witness is what I do, and “Are you seeing my child?” is the question underneath many others parents ask. All this language points to a kind of loving watchfulness that I would never have described as supervision but am now glad to describe as SuperVision. Thank you! And thanks to the parents who asked what was on their minds 🙂

      • Thanks for reading, Abby! Yes, I often think of this as my main work, or the work from which everything else unfolds- seeing kiddos in their true light. I am grateful for the first teacher that did this for my own child. It’s hard to describe sometimes, but I knew it and understood it even then, which was a long time before I had any of these words to articulate 🙂

      • Thanks for reading, Abby! Yes, I often think of this as my main work, or the work from which everything else unfolds- seeing kiddos in their true light. I am grateful for the first teacher that did this for my own child. It’s hard to describe sometimes, but I knew it and understood it even then, which was a long time before I had any of these words to articulate 🙂

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  • Nancy, thank you for writing in detail here! I am really interested in this way of making reflections even more meaningful and purposeful by tuning into values and intuitive feelings. You have me thinking about where my intuition comes from. I don’t think they come from “me” in the Western sense of the individual. I think they come from a more…[Read more]

  • In this first week back at school I saw some kiddos new to school exploring the rain barrel and heard some returning kids sharing memories of rain barrel play from last year.  An interesting conversation ensued […]

    • Ah! This is so beautiful to read, and has me remembering my days at the Roots campus. Rainy days weren’t days to be sad about – they were the canal & boat making days! Play is how humans learn, especially smaller humans. And learning happens best when it is relevant to our lives. Your descriptions in this post highlight how that happens so organically through the rain barrel 🙂

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