"..You remind me of the babe.. What babe? The babe with the power.."

Babies In Our School Community 

We love having babies attend class with us. Our babies usually end up being great teachers; providing our older children with opportunities to learn about being gentile, initiating sharing, being aware of body space, they remind us to explore our world from the crawling perspective, they give us love and show us how to love them back. Our babies learn by observing our older children and babies their own age, everyone interacts with our babies; teachers, students, and parents. Babies need friends as much as older children need friends, The SS4LOVE offers a safe community for our babies to develop their first connections and relationships with others outside of their own families. 

Not only do babies need friendship.. new parents and families need the friendships found in a supportive community. The SS4LOVE is more than the classes we provide; we support and offer guidance to new parents just stepping into their roles as parent/caregiver. Our school welcomes parents to ease their way out of the classroom in the morning if they like, when we teachers notice a parent holding a particular emotion at school or in the community, we take the time to offer them a hug, ask if they'd like to talk, or do something together. We take care of each other inside and outside of the schoolhouse. It is hard to ask for help sometimes and I'm striving to create a school community where people feel wanted and supported, unafraid to ask their fellow parents and schoolmates for what they want and need. 

The SS4LOVE has been running long enough now that little siblings have joined our crew! I remember the first time a younger sibling started attending classes, it was a dream come true.. I realized I'd created the school I'd been working toward my whole life.. I re-realize this often, triggered by different things, though little siblings gets me every time. When a younger sibling attends class I am thrilled to welcome them into the familiar classroom their big sibling attended, honored that the family decided to deepen their bond with the school, and excited for the older sibling to guest teach as a young mentor.