Previous school or daycare experience
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Where did they go? How often? What was the experience like for them?
How much media is your child exposed to on a regular basis?
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One show a day? One show a week? More than one a day? Less than one a week?
Media policy: We ask parents to agree to a no-to-low media policy. We realize it is difficult to completely avoid or eliminate screentime for children in our era, but we have noticed from our own experience the detrimental effect that media can have on child development and on the social dynamics within a group. If your child is exposed to much media, the whole group is going to have to participate in the detox process that occurs when we come to the forest. We would like the parents in our program to agree to optimize their child's development, as well as supporting our group dynamics, by protecting your child from media exposure altogether, if possible. At the very least we ask you to limit screen time to a few hours or less a week, and never within 24 hours of coming to our program. Listening to recorded stories is a good alternative if you need to keep a child occupied for a time. This allows the child to make their own pictures and use their imagination (even though it is even better for them to be read to by a real and loving human being). Ask Teacher Kelly for recorded story recommendations, if you would like them. Are you able to make this agreement? How realistic is it for you? How committed are you to trying?
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Note from Teacher Kelly: As a parent myself, I understand the challenge this can present. Parents need time to get things done, and sitting children in front of a screen can seem like the simplest solution! But so much good can come from making a hard boundary with yourself about this. It might mean that you have to redesign your life so you have more time to do things like cooking or cleaning at a slower pace that will allow your child to join you (nothing could be better for them!). Or it might mean that your child has to sit with their own boredom sometimes, long enough that they come to the other side of it, to the place where creativity is sparked. You might be surprised at what they create when they have a few good materials to work with and no entertainment from the outside. Reducing or eliminating media might mean tantrums a few times, but if you make a consistent boundary, they will soon come to accept it. And on the other side is more connection to the real world--to family and friends and to nature, as well as to themselves.