Music~Food~Language~Nature

Below you will find the four main pillars that comprise our philosophical mission for wanting to start a first preschool and now homeschool cooperative.  We are very much wanting to gather a small group of families who want to explore these areas and expand our knowledge and creativity in new and perhaps, unexpected directions.  What follows below is Estela's personal perspective on these topics, which illustrate an enthusiasm and passion which is broadly shared by the other members of the co-op.  These pillars represent what the Belmont House has been.  As we move forward, we expect that the community that evolves around this co-op will develop its own culture of ideas, perspectives and shared passions, and thus, our vision will evolve along with it. 

Music every morning.

~Music~

If there is a main component of the preschool, I would have to say it's music! Since early in life, music has always been a part of me. I hear it in my waking life and I write sound tracks to my dreams. I love music from all over the world and being able to share that with the children is by far the biggest motivator for me wanting to make this happen. A brief example of what I hope to accomplish is to expose the children to diverse rhythms and tonalities that are locally and globally traditional through interactive work stations such as gardening, mixing cob, making food, and harvesting fruits and vegetables. They will also have the opportunity to experience and experiment with diverse stringed and percussion instruments on a daily bases and explore other art forms such as theater, dance and circus arts, intertwined with musical elements as a part of formal and informal activities.  Dave and I both feel that art is such an important learning tool in life so we want very much to immerse our children in it, in community with other families who share that goal.

~Food~

When Dave and I were living in Latin America back in 2000, we began to really get into farmers markets and eating fresh, organic and locally grown whole foods. Since then, we have pretty much eliminated processed foods from our diet. Preparing our meals with our children is a ritual that we enjoy everyday. We hope to encourage in them at an early age the love of planting, cultivating, harvesting and preparing their own meals. This is why food is one of the main components of our mission. Children will be involved on a daily basis in the preparation of their own snacks and eventually we hope that some will be left over for them to take home. An example of what we have in mind is: I just recently had a chat with the owner of Wade's Mill, in Rockbridge County, about selling us some whole organic corn so that we can begin experimenting with making our own fresh corn tortillas, with the help of the children. We hope to perfect this endeavor and be the first C'villians to make our own organic masa from local Virginia corn!  So for you parents who find cooking also a passion PLEASE jump right in so we can cultivate the palates of our little ones!!!!!

~Language~

Now about Language! I am likely the first Mexilachian gal of the Blue Ridge, or at least as far a I know. My mother is from Juarez, Chihuahua, Mexico and my father is from Luray, Virginia. I grew up in the Shenandoah valley Spanish/English bilingual, surrounded by a host of Mexican and American cousins, uncles and aunts, singing rancheros and bluegrass, tejano and country. Being Spanish/English bi-lingual has afforded me so many deep and profound experiences and opportunities in my world travels. Not to mention it is the second most commonly spoken language in the U.S., arguably making it one of the most useful languages to learn. This is why I feel that offering the children exposure to Spanish in parallel to English on a daily basis is important. The Spanish language will also be infused into our daily routines, through circle time in the morning and during play time as well, through songs, books and fun movement activities. My inspiration is that through exposing our children to two languages, we will be setting them up not just cognitively to absorb languages in general, but to also introduce to them the idea that we share this planet with other people in the world who have rituals and traditions that are very similar or different from their own. Again parents if language/s is/are your thing, we encourage you to join us in shaping this goal.

~Nature~

Nature provides the most perfect classroom. It alone has inspired math, science, history, geography and literature. The great outdoors is a child’s greatest teacher and their dearest friend. We strongly believe that children should spend most of their day outside playing with bugs, watching and chasing birds and squirrels, playing with rocks, sticks, mud, natural plasters and pigments, sand, water, making bricks, piling log slices. Building structures with cob, straw and basic stick frames. Buckets, rakes, shovels, seed collecting, gardening, planting and harvesting of fruits, vegetables, flowers, trees. Swinging, climbing, tumbling, running, skipping, jumping. Getting ‘really’ dirty, yes, dirty, like a real kid should! This is why our primary classroom (weather permitting) will be outdoors.

Bike Parade during bike week.

Mixing cob with our feet!