The Children's House has had a great start to the new school year! Thank you, parents, for supporting us during our staggered schedule for the first few days. We know it was a challenge for some of our families, and we appreciate your help in providing this important opportunity for our new and younger children. 

We would like to welcome Athena and Kaleb to the Willow Room and Leo and Andrew to the Birch Room. We look forward to getting to know them and their families as they become a part of our Hilltop community. 

As we get into our regular school routine, here are some reminders to help things run smoothly: 

Drop off

Between 8:15 and 8:30. While we don't go inside till 8:45, we want all of our children to have time to play on the playground before our inside work cycle begins. 

Pick up

Half day children is between 11:45 and 12pm 

Full day children is between 2:45 and 3pm

Extra clothing

Please make sure your child has extra clothing for varying types of weather. This time of year layers are great as it tends to get warmer as the day goes on.  

Family Photos

We're excited to start displaying our family photos outside the Willow and Birch rooms! Please send them in with your child or email them to Serina at [email protected] (Birch) or Rebecca at [email protected]. (Willow).

We're looking forward to a great school year!

Jonathan, Rebecca, Cheryl, Serina, and Mariam

The first week of school is a time packed with excitement, new routines and information, and opportunities to reunite with old friends and make new ones. Each child processes this change in his or her unique way. Jitters, anxieties, and even tears are not uncommon as children get used to the school routine once again. Often, just listening compassionately to your child's concerns allows them to process what's on their mind. If your child has a concern that a teacher can help with, please encourage your child to share it with a teacher; chances are, other students are feeling similarly, and it can be helpful to address it as a classroom community. 

During this first week, Lower El students read the book  The Golden Rule and discussed how the golden rule can help us create some practical classroom guidelines. Students mentioned things like welcoming others, being responsive to friends' needs, respecting differences, being helpful, speaking kindly, and being your own wonderful self.

We also told the story of how numbers came to be. You may ask your child if the number zero was always around (spoiler: no), and if numbers ever used to be represented by letters instead.

We finished the week with the first of Maria Montessori's Great Lessons: the Big Bang/Creation story. It is an epic story about how our universe came to be, and it inevitably inspires creativity, thought, and many more questions.

As a reminder, please be sure your child has a change of clothes, a mug for the classroom, and a pair of shoes to wear indoors (especially important during less pleasant weather). We look forward to seeing your children  on Tuesday!

The middle school jumped right into their opening study, "A Walk in the Woods: A Forest and Human Ecology". The centerpiece of this unit is the plot study. From the syllabus: "This fall's science/humanities focus is a study of the place you live, in this case, your quarter of an acre piece of Upland. You are invited to delve into the ancient, interwoven, and rich forest world on your plot by asking questions, gathering and analyzing data, making connections, and carefully observing everything around you. Through seminar readings, visiting experts, independent scientific research, and daily journaling, you will explore the systems of matter, energy, and life that build a forest". We began our work by investigating and defining an acre, discovering the length of our pace, learning how to use a compass and employing our paces and compass lesson in an orienteering work, and building a nature journal full of graph, lined, and water color papers.  Later in the week we journeyed to Upland, marked out the plots, and began the practice of quiet observation.

Next week we will spend Tuesday through Friday in our Upland Odyssey diving deeply into our study, conducting the first literature seminar (The Man Who Planted Trees), cooking ridiculously delicious meals, and forging our community.

Thank you to Nara Iams for the delicious blueberry muffins on Monday.  The muffins were a tasty way for the Hilltop staff to celebrate the beginning of the school year-thank you Nara! 

Open House: Saturday, September 9, 11:00-2:00

email  [email protected] for more info