Bower Tree Preschool

Our staff will soon be embarking on the Circle of Security training, and we’re excited about the depth it will add to our relationship-based model of care! These classes would be wonderful for parents too 🌟

Hello friends! Bower Tree is searching for an assistant teacher to work in our magical little 7-child community. We are hoping to find someone aligned with the Waldorf approach who loves singing, cooking, and being joyful with children 🌟 The ideal candidate is LifeWays trained or familiar with LifeWays, since that is the primary model used at Bower Tree. Please feel free to spread the word or get in touch! [email protected]

Bower Tree Preschool – Small-scale, soulful care for early childhood Our School Bower Tree is an in-home Montessori/Waldorf hybrid program in NE Portland that focuses on storytelling, the domestic arts, abundant outdoor play, and reverence for the natural world. We currently welcome up to 7 toilet-trained children between ages 2 1/2 and 5 each year. The program is ca...

Maria Montessori and her many disciples believed that children are, in their essence, methodical, self-directed beings with a strong work ethic. Her prophetic pedagogy was developed in the early 20th century with the least powerful in mind—she worked with children who were poor, or traumatized, or who lived in Rome’s ghastly asylums. And yet, today, there are only a few hundred public Montessori schools in the U.S. “The obvious irony of Montessori’s crusade on behalf of the poorest and least powerful in society is that its most visible legacy is selective private schools for the élite,” Jessica Winter writes. Read about why Maria Montessori’s approach still resonates today—and how it became so exclusive: http://nyer.cm/PIuayhS

What’s Lost When We Rush Kids Through Childhood The author of "The Importance of Being Little" on the costs of our collective failure to see the world through the eyes of children.

Our walking labyrinth in front of the school is finished! We have poured so much love and effort into the construction of this winding pathway, brick by brick. Now the preschool children and passersby can use this labyrinth as a way to quiet and center themselves. The labyrinth is an ancient meditation tool used all around the world. This one is based on the Chakra-Vyuha labyrinth, a Hindu design. We invite everyone to wind their way in, carrying a question or a wish or a prayer, pause for a moment in the center, and then wind their way out again.

Helping children to find awe is one of the most important tasks we can take on as early childhood educators and parents. We are surrounded by marvelous experiences every day: bright golden leaves falling, steam rising from a cup of tea, the rush of wind through the branches of the sycamore maple, the sound of rain drumming on the roof of our backyard pavilion. At Bower Tree we provide children with many opportunities for awe by allowing them to explore at their own pace, and we celebrate the seasonal details of the world around us through poem and song.

Awe might be our most undervalued emotion. Here’s how to help children find it. Here’s how experts say we can infuse more awe into our everyday lives — and why we should.

Exploring photographs of Asia after a group lesson on the Asia continent folder, which is linked via color coding to the painted globe and world puzzle map.

Decorating our windows in November, while practicing our tree identification! The older children know many different kinds of trees this year from our neighborhood walks, including horse chestnut, sweet chestnut, walnut, hickory, several kinds of maple and oak, sweet gum, sycamore, European ash, birch, catalpa, cedar, douglas fir, blue spruce, pine, and ginko.

Making gifts for Mother Earth to wish her a good rest through the winter.

Our dish washing setup, right next to our meal table, is already inspiring joyful independence just a few days into the school year. It is rare that someone needs a reminder to use it!

Meet our first two quail hatchlings, Muffin and Pip! We incubated some of our eggs, and after 18 days these two little ones emerged. It was amazing watching them hatch and learn to walk. They are one week old today and growing so fast. In just five to seven weeks they will have reached maturity and (if they are hens) started laying eggs!