May 2018

Newsletter

Sibyl, Lorax, & Liam; Recent Portland Town Urban Field Study

Greetings playschool friends and families,

Blessed Beltane!

Welcome to the time of

 Beltane Fires,

of flowers in bloom,

and howling at the moon. 

We've been so very blessed with a week of sunshine and bliss here in the Willamette Valley. This ol' heart of mine was all too happy to shed and release her Winter Wonderings, and all too ready to embrace this time of ease and abundance that we have come into. 

I've been sitting with the sun,

serenading them with my music,

offering up my gratitute and prayers, 

 and soaking up every drop of sun magic I possibly can.

Early Spring came and went so quickly, I hardly had a chance to say goodbye. My annual first of the season travels north offered me one last reminder of the lessons and learnings of Winter, and I was thankful to be thoroughly grounded by these teachings as we fold into the next couple seasons of ease~full play and frolic. A time when I can forget that one must never come into Winter empty handed or empty hearted; the hunger times of late winter and early spring can cause the hands and heart to reach for things one might be much better off without.

Back home in The Methow, the earth was just begining to thaw, and the first of the flowers had just begun to offer their beauty. Surrounded by snow covered hills and mountains we made life, and began preparing the land, the homestead, and our hearts for these next seasons. I sowed and I sang. I took life and I gave life. I picked up some new skills and shared some of my own. And then with a bit of saddness I bid farewell to the land and kin of Coyote Cottage, but know that by Summer Solstice we'll be together again.

From the fires, soil, blood and gutz of the homestead, to a big city, I made my way. I saw friends I hadn't seen for some time, made new friends, was hosted and cared for in a sweet and loving way, danced till I dropped, made musical joy through the night, neglected sleep, bruised up my heart, caught new fire, and finally made it back home. 

Profound moments of shared beauty that I never could've expected occured,

and as it goes, some things I had hoped would grace me, didn't. 

And I look forward to doing it all again next year.

What a blissful way to come out of Winter.

I Give Thanks.

Since returning home, and even on my travels (fer serious, I wrote our whole summer camp schedule with sheep gutz on my hands), I've been visioning and planning our playschool programming. Documenting and archiving the lives of our kiddos, and guiding them through what I have found to be a most glorious and heartfull way to live on the land and with each other.

And, we shared a lovely Earth Day Social & Solar Return Celebration together, so thanks for that! I have a lot to share with all of you this month, so letz get to it. 

xo, Miz Flow 

Playschool garden tulips in bloom

Upcoming Adventures & Playschool Socials

Nature Immersion & Field Study

Westmoreland Nature Park

On Tuesday May 22nd Miz Flow is offering a special Tuesday edition of

Nature Immersion & Field Study. Our explorations will include a full day of play at 

Westmoreland Park. We'll explore the wildlife, plants, playground, and spend some ritual play time with Johnsons Creek. 

Logistics

We'll meet at 10am in front of New Seasons Market on Woodstock, 

and return there at 4pm for pick up. 

Please send kiddos with a: 

*backpack they can comfortably wear through a day of adventuring and exploring

*child sized water bottle

* some snacks for the day

This field study is limited to 8 kiddos, and cost is included in playschool tuition if yer kiddo is an enrolled Moonie of ours, or $10-20 sliding scale for our friends and wider circles.  

Lastly, Dear Ones, you must register for this day via this Google Form if yer kiddo(s) plan to join us so I can plan accordingly. Thanks for y'all's help with that!  

Upcoming Scheduled Playschool Breaks

**Reminder that these dates, along with all the upcoming dates to note, were sent out in the full

2018 Spring & Summer Playschool Schedule.

Please take a moment to get the dates plugged into yer calender!**

Beltane Break

There will be no playschool April 30~ May 4
Miz Flow will be gathering and camping out under the stars in a very lovely flower filled meadow in celebration of Beltane. We hope you all have fun frolicking, dancing, and playing in flower filled meadows too!

May 2-6 Miz Flow will be in Eugene for The Willamette Valley Old Time Social.

If yer able to make yer way down, she'd love to see you there! There will be a ton of opportunities for dancing, socializing, and making music together over the weekend.

And bonus, The Local Honeys (one of Miz Flow's favored bands of late), will be in all the way from Kentucky!!

Hope to see some of you there! Holler if you need a place to stay while in Eugene, and I can help you get hooked up with a host. 

**May 26 - June 3rd**

During these dates Miz Flow will be traveling to Northeastern Washington to work, learn, and gather alongside dear friends at the Between the Rivers annual gathering. 

Playschool will be on the following adapted schedule:

Monday 5/28 : No playschool

Tuesday 5/29 : Moon Beams Friend Circle 11am-5pm w/ Miz Ora

Wednesday 5/30 : No Playschool

Friday 6/1 : No Playschool 

Playschool Summer Camps

Lila & Sibyl Summer 2017, Sellwood Riverfront Park

This summer the Moon's Nest will offer two, week long day camps over our summer break. One in July and one in August. Each camp session will include an overnight campout in the playschool meadow (ages 4+; optional; parents welcome)!

Miz Flow will be working with our Tuesday teacher Miz Ora as well as Miz Sarah Fox (Carmel Valley based) to offer our playschool community two sessions of Summer season adventure and play. In camp session 1 we'll be working with and deepening our relationships with the Elements of Magic (water, fire, air, earth) through summer time play, stories, craft, and adventure. In camp session 2 we'll be tending, cultivating, and nourishing our wild hearts through activities and play that connects us deeply with the land. 

More information about these camps along with our detailed camp schedule to come, but registration is open so go ahead and register and reserve yer spot if you know (as some of you do) that yer kiddo will be joining us for either or both camps.

**The deadline to register for these camps is June 1st. If either of these camps don't get a minimum of 6 registered campers by June 1st, we will cancel the camps. There is so very little Summer and so many places to be. I need to make sure that we will have the budget to run these camps well and that my time will be well spent in planning and coordinating them.**

Camp Tuition

We are offering a sliding scale tuition model for these camps, as well as three partial scholarship awards for single (non-partnered) parents who identify as survivors of Interpersonal Violence (IPV). One of these scholarships will be reserved for single parent survivors of color exclusively, and another for folks who identify as descendants of the indigenous peoples of this land.

Sliding Scale Tuition

(per kiddo, per session)

 $200-$400

*All meals, snacks, and field trip admission fees included in camp tuition

Playschool summer camp session 1 : July 16-20, 10am-4pm

 Elements of Magical Play, ages 0-12

Register for camp session 1 here! 

Playschool summer camp session 2 : August 20-24, 10am-4pm

Cultivating the Wild Heart, ages 0-12

Register for camp session 2 here !

It's Tuition Time! 

**Please be sure to send in your tuition payments by the 5th day of the month.

Easy link to tuition payment:

paypal.me/JessicaElmira

Enrollment For 2018-2019 Playschool Year

 Lucio, Liam, Miz Flow, Lorax, Mabel; recent sunny playschool day  

We are opening up registration and waiting lists for our 2018-2019 playschool year! 

If you are a returning family please use this form to confirm that you'll be returning for our next year together. We'd sure love to have ya back! 

Please do be mindful that I need all folks intending to join us for 2018-2019 to fill out this form, even if yer a returning family. This will help me know what i'm getting myself into for this next year and how to plan for it all. 

If yer family is new to the Moon's Nest and is looking to join us for yer first year, this is also the form to use to let us know. Once I receive yer intent to enroll notification, I'll follow up with an email and an invite to join me for tea so we can meet and greet. At that point, if it's a good fit, I'll send you the registration forms. Once i get those back, yer spot for 2018-2019 will be confirmed.

We have limited spaces available but I do expect that a few will be opening up for the start of our year in September. Priority will be given to returning families. If there are more folks who intend to enroll than we have space for, I'll open up a waiting list. If that waiting list is long enough and the budget works out, we'll bring on a 2nd teacher to be able to enroll all interested parties and maintain a low ratio. 

Again, please do fill out the 2018- 2019 Enrollment Form just as soon as you are able. 
Okay dears, thanks so much fer yer help with planning our next playschool year! 

Tell your story. Use catchy text, bullets, links and more to bring your words to life.

Time to hustle the Patreon page again friends.

We're up to about 40 bucks a month in tithes, which has been super helpful for our food budget. So thanks so much to everyone who has kicked in their 5 bucks and have chosen to invest in this apprenticeship style of early childhood education. I've enjoyed a great year of passing on and sharing of my spells, magics, music, and other heartfelt life practices. I'm so very blessed to share such an abundance of love and play with this community of friends and families. Our full Moon gatherings, playschool socials, seasonal camp outs, and skills gatherings that have been added to our programming this year have been so sweet!

Summer camps are on the way with three scholarships being offered. And, we're currently offering about three partial scholarships without much of a scholarship fund, and fairly compensating (so much as I'm able) one queer teaching partner.

And in addition to our programming, I also maintain our daily adventure stories as part of our playschool blog. There I am documenting and archiving what an early childhood full of play, adventure, magic, and connection looks like in imagery and video. The labor that goes into that work is beyond measure, and beyond compensation. Rather, these are stories and maps that will lead these kiddos and others to practices and ways of being that are in direct resistence to industrial education and colonial ways of knowing and being. 

Our 2018-2019 playschool year begins in September and I'd sure like to be able to get closer to our scholarship funding goals before then and be able to offer more scholarships and compensate one or two more queer teaching partners. I'm wearing a whole lotta hats and would love to be able to give more time to admin work, developing curriculum, and building our programming.

So, if you got a few bucks to tithe monthly, please do consider supporting this work. And, if ya ain't got a few bucks, sharing this platform with yer network is just as helpful. 

Thanks a bunch! 

That's it for this month friends! 

May our days together be full

of play, adventure, and connection. 

One last reminder:

It's Tuition Time! 

**Please be sure to send in your tuition payments by the 5th day of the month.

Easy link to tuition payment:

paypal.me/JessicaElmira

Playschool Families enjoying our recent Earth Day Social; Errol Heights Park