In the span of the last generation or so, we have removed most of the opportunities our kids have had for free play. We seem to have convinced ourselves that enrichment classes would be like play, but better, because a grown-up is in charge of it. It won’t get too chaotic, there won’t be so much arguing. Everyone will line up and do the thing when the adult in charge tells them to do it, and they will be getting exercise, and they will be around other children, and they will burn off some of that infernal energy that has them resist bedtime and makes them climb the furniture like monkeys. 

Read More

Without the courage to be vulnerable with each other, there’s no room for compassion and for connection, which is the best part of being human. 

Read More

 Every child deserves a childhood to the best of our abilities to give them one. I am observing that “fairness” is really a distraction of our thoughts and our best parenting intentions rather than a concept that any of us could actually define in any conclusive way; here is your permission to question it.-Wallace

Read More

I was having shower thoughts this morning about how some of us here use "Cottage” as a verb. I am not personally in this habit but I understand it, and agree that it is somehow an action as well as a school, and a community. And I was thinking about how important our shared language is in the way we do the thing we do when we are Cottage-ing. 

Read More

A second Summer of weekly stories from the yards.

Read More

This week, a teacher told us at our teacher debrief about a difficult situation she had had with a child, and I loved the words she used, so perfectly Cottage.

Read More

We need each other, and our acknowledgement that we need each other and that other people need us, here, is part of what makes Cottage feel so magical. It’s a view straight into the fabric of the universe, the fundamental truths of existence that we are all interconnected, that we are a part of each other. 

Read More

Our neurodiverse staff at Cottage wanted to address Autism Acceptance month, and it took us a while to collectively generate what we wanted you to know. We chose to tell you in three voices, because there are many ways to be neurodivergent and we wanted to be able to show a fuller picture. Here we are:

Read More

Then, sitting there off to the side of some children making small, calculated jumps from a 2’ raised platform onto soft mats, the reader asked me how old those children were. I replied that I thought they were 4 or 5. He was silent. So I asked him how old he thought kids should be to be able to play that game, and he said six and a half. He told me that they should be wearing strong helmets. I said, “that game looks dangerous to you. I think it’s safe. I see that they aren’t climbing up very high, and they are landing on soft mats”. And then I jumped myself to show him, although I am 45 and I wasn’t wearing a helmet. And I was safe. 

Read More

I hope these book stories help you see how the act of reading in our classroom is a responsive practice that is about a conversation, a dance, and not a static, silent, teacher-directed activity. Reading in an emergent curriculum class is about listening to the kids as much as to the books!

Read More

Our generation of parents is part of shifting the tide, from controlling people (as always, CHILDREN ARE PEOPLE) through threats, intimidation, and violence, to empowering people to use our voices, be counted, and be accountable to each other.

Read More

When you have done this, when you have felt the pull of expectation that you will do your part and participate, that you are essential, that others are counting on you, and that whatever you are able to contribute, even if you don’t believe it’s much, is an important part of the whole--once you know that you are a critical part of the whole, you can’t go back to thinking that you are insignificant.

Read More