Moon's Nest Playschool
PLAY. ADVENTURE. CONNECTION.
A home based gender neutral and inclusive sanctuary for wild and witchy moonlets ages newborn-5.
We celebrate and non~binary gender expression and serve queer families of all varieties.
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Intimate ratio of just 1:4, or fewer.
School Prayer
In the name of the daybreak
and the eyelids of morning
and the wayfaring moon
and the night when it departs,
I swear I will not dishonor
my soul with hatred,
but offer myself humbly
as a guardian of nature,
as a healer of misery,
as a messenger of wonder,
as an architect of peace.
In the name of the sun and its mirrors
and the day that embraces it
and the cloud veils drawn over it
and the uttermost night
and the male and the female
and the plants bursting with seed
and the crowning seasons
of the firefly and the apple,
I will honor all life
—wherever and in whatever form
it may dwell—on Earth my home,
and in the mansions of the stars.
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From I Praise My Destroyer by Diane Ackerman
The Elements of Our Play
~*~Magic and Ritual ~*~
Developing a worldview grounded in reverence for the holy wild and sacred is an important part of early childhood development and learning as baby Witchlets.
We follow the Witches Wheel of the Year and the turning of the wheel through child led, adult facilitated ritual, story, and craft. We track the moon cycles, practice offering prayer and blessings to our ancestors, and learn how to build altars. These early childhood practices lay the neural and emotional network needed for developing a life long magical practice across the lifespan.
Place Based Identity & Relationship to Place
To help the littles develop a place based identity, we spend a lot of time investigating our natural and built environment.We spend a significant amount of time outside everyday, come rain, shine, or snow. All children must have rain gear and weather appropriate clothing. Our daily outings frequently include visiting neighborhood parks, libraries, and other child centered community spaces. We also like to take field trips to rotating destinations including our nearby natural areas, OMSI, or the Children's Museum.
These outings help children learn and become familiar with their city, strengthening their sense of place and nurturing them in their role as a steward of this land.
Nature Connection
Developing a relationship with the natural world is the foundation for my practice. The land is alive and animated, layered with mystery and full of teachings for all who take the time to listen. We engage all of our senses in observing nature, including our heart sense. We can often be found learning bird language, or having conversations with trees and plants, listening intently with our hearts.
We spend lots of time meeting and learning the names of the plant peoples around us. We also investigate mushrooms, soil, trees, and wildlife, becoming intimately connected to and familiar with the rhythmic seasonal changes as we do so.
Rewilding Our Hearts, Nourishing our Souls
Remembering, regenerating, and reconnecting to our ancestral ways of knowing and living on the land and with each other through craft, skill shares, story and song. Throughout the year we offer invitations and opportunities to join us at variety of annual gatherings, Moon's Nest Witch Camps, forest campouts, and more.
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Sensory Play
Sensory Play is a messy, fun, and focused kind of play/learning that engages the somatic systems of the body. Sensory play stimulates the brain by sending signals that help strengthen neural pathways. Sensory play supports the development of a healthy and resilient nervous system.
Musical Explorations & Development
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Our days together are punctuated by song and dance, and we make music together every day. Whether its a spontaneous dance party in the kitchen, singing our blessings at meal times, greeting or saying farewell to each other in our good morning & goodbye rituals, making offerings to the land or garden creatures, or exploring the various instruments in our playschool music studio, creating musical joy together is a foundational component of our playschool culture.
Anti Bias Development and Practice
Cultivating an early childhood learning environment free of bias offers children an opportunity to integrate and celebrate variance in the way that we present and express ourselves. It allows for the development of formative relationships with and respectful connection to cultures and races outside of our own.
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Our play school community stands with those who's race, class, gender, culture, magicks, or sexual orientation have made them the target of systemic bias, marginalization, oppression, and hate.
We commit to creating learning environments that nurture wild hearts and bias free world views.
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Gender Affirmation
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Our playschool environment is gender affirming, and free of early childhood gender socialization. We use them/them pronouns by default for all friends and folks we meet, and give our friends the space every day to declare their pronouns during our morning circles.
In our reading circles our teachers neutralize gendered language in books, and our play moves fluidly through what is often gendered and assigned play. In this environment, kiddos learn to think outside the binary and together we are phasing out binary ways of thinking about gender and gender expression.Our goal is to offer children an environment in which they can safely explore the full spectrum of play and human expression, and nurture their development as whole humans.
Towards a Culture of Nurturance & Consent
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In our days we take extra care to model kindness, compassion, and empathy, along with healthy boundaries and the concept of consent.
Learning how to care for each other's hearts in a good way takes a lot of practice, and we make it our work to gently guide our kiddos through that learning.
When there is harm done, we stop and make the time to help the small folk understand, be accountable for, and repair the harm. They learn that actions have impact and consequence, and how to consider the needs and feelings of creatures beyond their own skin. They are modeled and given language to engage with each other in ways that support the development of a culture of consent and help them understand their responsibility to honor the boundaries of others, as well as the right to establish and voice their own boundaries. Together we are learning how to go about creating a world in which nurturing relationships and the concept of consent are normalized in our everyday interactions with each other.
So what does this look like in practice?
Get a glimpse into our days, check out our adventure stories.