Dear Parents,

This is an interesting time of the year for me. I love both the snow of winter as well as the many signs that spring is just around the corner. The snow in my backyard has long since melted and a few warm sunny days have gotten a some early spring flowers to poke their new stalks above the ground. Of course, just as I begin thinking about bringing my shorts out from the bottom drawer of my dresser, I see frost on the ground and slush falling from the sky, and I think, "Maybe I should put the skis back on top of the car and head to the mountains for a little 'shushing' down the slopes." I guess it could be considered a sort of seasonal "tween" time.

Kids seem to go through an in-between time as well. When they are about 11 or 12 they begin doing a sort of ping-pong dance between wanting to be all grown up and still enjoying childhood. As parents, we all want the best for our children as they begin dealing with this; we want them to be safe and we want them to feel comfortable with the "childness" that is still within them. Unfortunately this doesn't always happen in children's lives. Often they are pressured by media and by peers to leave childhood behind and pursue at all costs a race to what they perceive as adulthood. This is one of the reasons I find Swan School such a great place for children; it helps every child grow at a pace that is right for them while remaining a safe place for them to let their "childness" show. The "race to adulthood" is minimized and instead replaced with a stronger sense of self-confidence in who they are and the acquisition of important leadership skills. These things help prepare each child for a better transition into the climate of secondary school.

Swan School does a great job of building a strong foundation for children. The staff and the program are just about the best anyone could ask for. Academically students learn a great deal and the family atmosphere gives a strong sense of community that just can't be matched. Now, as a way for our school to even better address the needs of our students, I am pleased to announce the formation of a 5th and 6th grade class for next year. This class will be designed specifically to address the needs of this age of childhood. It will build directly and appropriately on the Swan School curriculum, including our core values of: community, challenge, creativity, compassion, connection, leadership, and enjoyment. In addition, the structure of the class will provide both a natural culmination to a Swan School education as well as a powerful transition into our local secondary schools while still being intimately connected to each of the other classes. Some highlights will include: an extended outdoor educational experience that may include rafting, hiking, and perhaps even spelunking; a culminating project that will be presented as a part of graduation, and a number of meaningful community service projects. Being able to learn about this exciting program will be of interest to parents of children of all ages at our school. Because of this there will be a portion of the February 27th parents' meeting devoted to this new class for next year.

While I'm on the subject of next school year, I've got tell you that "the word on the street" about our school must be pretty good; we have had a record number of inquiries and applications turned in so far (it even looks like we will have waiting lists for most of our classes for the 2007-2008 school year) ...and we haven't even advertised yet! However, March is going to be our "enrollment month" with an open house and a number of ads going into both the Leader and the Peninsula Daily News. Bruce Solly is using his amazing business sense to head up this project and I know we will get a strong response to the ad campaign being developed. We will be sure to discuss how this fits into our "big picture" at the February parents' meeting along with things such as financial aid and commitment dates for next year.

Reading will be another subject of focus at the parents' meeting. As are all language skills, it is foundational to learning. At the parents' meeting, the staff will have a short presentation about how children learn to read and how reading and comprehension is taught at Swan School. If you have ever marveled at how kids seem to pick out the meaning of books and stories, I'm sure you will find this portion of the meeting quite interesting.

Well, my skis are waiting patiently in my closet, as are my summer shorts in their drawer. In the meantime, I think I'll put on a warm jacket and finish pruning my fruit trees and get my roses ready for spring; it seems like the perfect thing to do now that we're between winter and spring.

Russ