Las fotos de cada clase, tomado en febrero. Los primeros dos son nuestras clases de Kinder…

y despúes, primer, segundo, tercer, cuarto, y quinto/sexto grados. 

In February, Escuela Caracol was fortunate to host a group of Waldorf students and parents from the state of Vermont in the US. The family who organized the visit is a Caracol alumna family, the Devoe Tallutos. Their family of five spent a year at Caracol in 2009, and since then they have returned to visit us many times. This year they decided to invite members of their community at the Lake Champlain Waldorf School in Vermont come along with them. In total, they were a group of 14 students and parents who were interested in both Guatemala and Waldorf education. While at Escuela Caracol, the group worked tirelessly on a number of projects: they built a new coop for our chickens and a small pond for turtles, they designed and made costumes for our class 4/5 play, and they refinished the doors on the primary grades classrooms (which were in a sad state from the extremities of sun and rain here). They even took their break times to play with our students and show them how to make jump ropes. During their weeklong visit, they also found time to pour the foundation of a local home, climb a moutain peak to watch the sunrise over the lake, attend a dance class at La Cambalacha, learn how to make tortillas, kayak on the lake, take in many sights, and of course go swimming. Their work was a huge help to Escuela Caracol, and the visit was equally meaningful to the group. Many of the students are already talking about their next visit to Guatemala. Escuela Caracol sends its thanks to this group, and especially to the Devoe Talluto family!

Guest post by Colleen Donovan, a Kindergarten Teacher at Escuela Caracol:
This month, I’d simply like to share a story with you. It is a story I wrote for my class during our first few weeks together, after watching the children come to class day after day tired, cranky, and fussy. Think of how you feel when after a few nights of bad sleep a colleague says something to you that gets under your skin (something that likely wouldn’t have bothered you at all had you been well rested). I’ll bet that you have said things under these circumstances that you later regretted.

Now think of 15 children, ages 3 to 6, who feel like this. When one of them is irritated by a classmate, a sarcastic remark is not the only reaction. At that age impulse control is still hard at the best of times; when you have a group of overtired children, impulse control goes out the window. After about two weeks of this situation, I admit that I was nearly at my wit’s end. This clearly wasn’t just a blip on the radar, my students were really struggling to get through the morning. What could I do to help them?

Naturally, there isn’t just one solution. Talking to parents individually, having a class meeting on the importance of sleep, and changing our daily rhythm to include rest time have all helped to alleviate the burden these children were carrying. Another way we can help our young ones is through stories.

Storytime can be one of the most magical moments of the day. In Waldorf kindergartens we often tell fairy tales—so rich in language and imagery—or seasonal tales, related to the cycle of the year. We also tell “therapeutic” tales, which can help a whole class or an individual child to overcome a struggle by presenting the problem in a loving and nonjudgmental way, and showing that there can be a satisfactory resolution. Another benefit of working through troubling behavior with a story is that we avoid singling out the child and leaving him or her with the stigma of being a “problem child.” Crafting a story for children you know using your love, interest in them, and creativity is a wonderful gift to give them. I encourage everyone to try! As you can see, my story is neither complicated nor long; it is simply one created from a desire to help. If you’re interested in learning more about therapeutic storytelling, I recommend Susan Perrow’s book Healing Stories for Challenging Behavior.

Turtle Loses His Shell

Those who know turtles know that their shells grow hard and strong during the night, while they are fast asleep. But every night when Turtle laid down, the noise of the crickets was so loud he could not sleep. Night after night, Turtle did not sleep, and little by little his shell grew soft and weak. One morning Turtle was surprised to find that his shell had disappeared completely during the night! Surprised, he went to the pond to find his friends Frog, Duck, and Fish, and they all began to play together, telling jokes and searching for delicious treats.

But something was not going well for Turtle. He was in such a bad mood! When Fish swam into him accidentally, he gave her a sharp nip with his beak. And when Duck’s foot grazed his back as he swam overhead, Turtle got so mad that he grabbed Duck’s leg and pulled him underwater! Poor Turtle was having a terrible time, and his friends were not enjoying themselves much more.

The next day was even worse. Every time Turtle’s friends tapped him on the shoulder, he pushed them away fiercely. One time, he pushed Frog so hard that little Frog fell into the water from the stone he was sitting on! Turtle’s friends had had enough. They could not take any more of him! So they got together to make a plan. Fish announced that he would bring glue to the pond the next day and glue Turtle’s beak shut, so he could no longer bite anyone. Frog said he would bring some rope and tie up Turtle’s feet, and that way he could not push them anymore. But Duck said, “I believe I will help my friend Turtle,” and began to search for the most beautiful stones and pebbles he could find. When he had gathered a small pile, he began to make a mud pit. “I’ll help,” said Frog, and he began to mix mud as well. Once that was ready Duck said, “Now all I need is some seaweed.” Fish immediately swam to the bottom of the pond and returned with long strands of algae. Duck began to cement the precious stones together with the mud, and slowly a shell took form.

When Turtle saw his friends approaching, he quickly grabbed all the delicious leaves he had gathered to eat. He was not going to let his friends steal his snack! But Turtle was surprised to see them holding the most beautiful shell he had ever seen. “Here you are, friend,” said Duck. “We saw that lost your shell, so we made you a new one.” And with the strands of algae Duck tied the shell to Turtle’s back. Once it was in place, Turtle felt so much better. He played happily with his friends for the rest of the day, and that night when he laid down he made sure to stop his ears with cotton so that he could sleep well, and let his shell grow strong and hard.

By Colleen Donovan, KinderCaracol Teacher

A wise woman once told me that it is futile for early childhood educators to look for the results of their work. The care given during early childhood bears its fruit much later in life, when most likely the children have long since passed out of our own lives. Instead, we must be content in the knowledge that by planting good seeds we are helping to ensure a heathy future for the children under our care.

Now, of course there are triumphs to be recognized throughout the year: the boy who has trouble sharing one day freely offers his toy to a playmate, the little girl who arrived weepy for the first few weeks of class walks in one morning with a bright smile. But it is true, to a great extent, that our work is the work of gardeners who are only passing through. We try our best to select good, healthy, vital seeds and create the conditions in which they will flourish, and then we leave, never knowing for sure the outcome of our work.

Each morning, the little ones and I visit our school’s small flock of layer hens. We bring them greens, make sure they have enough grain and clean water, and spend a few minutes simply enjoying the pleasure of their company. If we are lucky there is an egg or two to collect, though usually none have been laid until we return during outdoor playtime.

Our five minutes or so with the chickens each morning is important for many reasons. It is an act of devotion and care to tend to others who cannot provide for themselves, values which are surely needed in our world. It can be a therapeutic experience for children to hold a hen and gently stroke its soft feathers. It provides healthy, nourishing, wholesome food for snack time, when on Friday we enjoy the eggs we have been collecting and saving all week. We reconnect with the food cycle and are able to experience it as a whole, living process. And for the school, it is a help in providing some of the food for our nutrition program, in which we serve snack daily to all 80 students.

But what stands out to me the most is a deeper aspect. When we collect the eggs we are not participating in a transaction, but rather an exchange. In caring for our chickens, they care for us. The nature of this is so fundamentally different from that of many other activities in the modern world: providing for ourselves and providing for others becomes inseparable; it is impossible to do one without the other. These days, we have the notion of competition so constantly reenforced that it can take quite a bit of effort to see other possibilities. It is easy to forget that it does not have to be a question of providing for oneself or providing for others but that actually a third possibility exists, one in which, through care and cooperation, we all benefit.

Of course, this is one among innumerable seeds which are planted during early childhood. It too will need care and attention if it is to flourish. But then, no fruit has ever been borne of a seed not planted.