Here come 2 fun events! The Harvest/Halloween Festival and the fall camping trip.

On Sunday, October 28, we will be at the school's festival. It has been known as Halloween festival, harvest festival, and one other that I can't remember. It changes somewhat depending upon the parents taking charge during that particular year. We've had a teacher reading tarot cards, a 'jail', cake walk, a haunted house, and other fun thing. We did a Beanie raffle a while ago. This year my son's class is decorating and 'putting on' the haunted house!

Then, 3 days after that, the class leaves for a 3 day camping trip to Santa Cruz Island. Santa Cruz is one of the Channel Islands off the coast of California. There are bald eagles trying to take the island back from the golden eagles (the way it was for thousands of years before the cattle ranchers came) and the island foxes are making a come-back, too! The ranchers brought pigs who attracted the golden eagles, who then started eating the cat-sized foxes, who almost went extinct. The bald eagles do not eat the foxes or the spotted skunks also on the island. The pigs had destroyed many of the native plant species, too. In a controversial move, hunters were brought in to kill the couple thousand pigs so the golden eagles could be shoo'ed away. So far, the plan seems to have worked.

I've never been to the islands and I'm really glad my son will now have been on 2 of the 4 closer islands. They're beautiful and there are 10,000 years of history out there.

Next week we have our first of the year's 2 parent/student/teacher conferences. We mainly set goals at this conference. I always look forward to this one, since it's around Halloween and it's a fun atmosphere around school!

By contrast, my high school senior son, who attended OAS since kindergarten through 7th grade, will be graduating. It's time for enrolling in city college, applying for grants and scholarships, and thinking about a 4 year university, UCSB perhaps, after 2010. Yikes! I can't believe I wrote that!

My first visit for new families' orientation was so nice.  I was one of 2 moms with brand new babies who spent most of their time listening to the K-1 teachers talk while nursing my new one.  As a product of a Catholic upbringing, I am a pretty modest lady.  But in this environment it was no big deal, so I felt more comfortable.  The extended family atmosphere has made it very easy on new mothers, teachers and otherwise.  I've seen 2 classroom moms help out their child's teacher by caring for her pre-school child! 

I went home with the papers and booklet talking about schedules and philosophy of OAS.  While reading about the staff, my then husband noticed that his second cousin was one of the 2/3 grade teachers!  She has been with the school from it's beginning day, which took place under some trees in a park.  Her daughters went through OAS and could be found in mom's classroom each day after school while mom prepared for the next day. 

I began my participating on the playground for one hour a week with my baby a constant companion.  What a blessing that was for him!  He obviously had absolutely no stress upon entering kindergarten since he grew up in those classrooms.  One of the first times I arrived for duty, he was sleeping in his stroller, parked where I could keep an eye on him.  A darling 1st grade girl, beautiful waist length black shining hair swaying in the breeze, watched him sleep for a few minutes when her class came out for lunch.  She came over to me and said, "Can I touch him?"  It was so cute!  I admit, though, he is a magnetic Taurus type and I understand people just wanting to squeeze him, the same way I feel when I'm near him.

My first potentially sticky situation came along with 2 older students. Two fifth grade boys came to me, one with a basketball in arms.  With one student at each side, they relayed that A wants the basketball, but B was scheduled to play with it on a particular basketball court that lunch break.  In my mind, I was starting to think, "Oh, my.  How the heck am I going to solve this?"  I casually glanced around for another adult, a teacher if I was really lucky, while something I didn't expect happened.  The boys turned away from directly speaking with me and faced each other while they spoke, negotiated, and compromised to a solution!  I hadn't said a word!  These two kids were no longer students; they were world-class elder statesmen negotiating the resolution of a conflict which had the potential of leading to a world war!  The practice of conflict resolution (and Core Group) was obvious!  I'd never seen it used in this way, if I'd ever seen it at all.

There have been so many experiences like these through our 12 years in the school!  What an absolute blessing this school is to our community.  My children have made many close friends through pre-school and OAS.  I have met some of the neatest people.  Although I've had some challenges in my life, my children (and family) have been my greatest blessings and the friendships I've made through involvement in their schools are cherished!

If you like to socialize and party, have I got a school for you!  The year's first big party is the Back-to-School BBQ, which is tonight!  Live music, BBQ with vegetarian foods available, seeing old friends, making new friends, baked goodies from parents who are professional chefs (who always seem to have children in this school), and strengthening the close bonds among all the staff and families is guaranteed as a good time!

As you may notice, the classrooms are not just of one grade.  They run K-1, 2-3, 4-5, 6, and 7-8.  This varies somewhat depending on the number of students of a certain age in any given year.  There are several other ways students of different age groups work together for the benefit of all.  We have choice classes and 'Tribes'.  I'll get more in detail on those next time. As my 17 year old says about his favorite elementary school memories, Core Group and choice classes he misses the most!  His bumper sticker suggestion:  Once you've been to OAS, everything else is just school...

(I'm not trying to recruit or advertise for or anything like that with this blog.  I'm just writing of my experiences.)

I came into this world as the youngest of 5 children. I never took care of younger brothers and sisters. When my older sisters married and started families, my parents moved to a different city to be closer to my handicapped sibling who was in a residential school. I never got a chance to take care of my nieces and nephews. I was only about 5 years older than they were, anyway.

I had never even planned on having my own children. I was interested in a career straight out of school. At 27 years, I met my future husband and we spent quite a long time as just a couple. At 35, maybe, I began to think about children of our own. We were blessed to have 2 baby boys. When it came time to think about schools, I had no clue.




I had joined a PEP (Post-partum Education for Parents) Group after my first baby. I learned about a parent-participation pre-school from one of the parents in that group. 'The Oaks' was very close to home and was a fantastic beginning to my son's education. I loved being around to make sure he was OK, (remember, it was my first baby) and make new friends. I certainly wouldn't have had access to the great resources at The Oaks. There was a 'New Experience' science-type area, a 'Doll House' and dress-up area, a Music Room with guitars, drums, records, tapes, and other fun things for making joyful noise, the Art Closet, the Carpenter's Table, as well as the playground, wheel track, and my favorite, the zoo! The 3 and 4 year olds loved the beautiful facility and it was so cute to watch them discover things!

Some of the parents from The Oaks seemed to favor going on to a public, open school, Open Alternative School. I investigated OAS and for the last 12 years, I know we've been blessed to have these wonderful teachers in our lives.



OAS was started in 1975 by a few teachers (dare I say 'hippie teachers') who thought about starting their own kind of school. They wanted to teach the whole child, educate all the parts of the growing child. Their philosophy was different from the kinds of public schools I attended in the '60s. Though I loved the elementary schools and teachers who were part of my life, as I became a parent I realized that ideally children should learn how to interact socially and communicate, too. Emphasis on the positive things each student could do would be helpful.

When I went to tour OAS, I was so comfortable there! The 10 classrooms were at the end of the large junior high school I attended. I was really surprised to hear that they had 'Core Group' at mid-morning. During Core Group, the students would sit in a circle and the teacher, passing the talking stick, would lead the group in talking about "appreciations or problems" that existed in the classroom that day!

Having never done that, I thought it was spectacular! We moved several times while I was in elementary school and I always felt out of place and awkward at new schools. Eventually I made friends but it was, at times, excruciatingly uncomfortable for me. My parents, God bless them, did everything they could for me, but their backgrounds didn't have the 'warm fuzzy' talk that I found so reassuring. I couldn't really talk to them about the older girl who, on my first day, glared at me and walked past, 'swishing' me with her skirt as if it were a weapon. Granted, it may have not been as big a deal as I perceived it to be, but for a few days I dreaded the thought of school.

At OAS, teachers were not called 'Mrs. Clark' or 'Mr. Davis'. They were called by their first names! Wow! There weren't grades on report cards either. Parents knew what and how well the children were learning because they spent time in the classroom each week to help. It was easy to see for yourself!

I put our names on the waiting list. Things were a bit dicey, too, since I was just about 3 weeks from having my second baby. I wouldn't know if we could attend OAS until the lottery was held (at about my due date!). So we waited.

When I returned home from my very short hospital stay with the new baby, a letter was waiting saying that we could come in to fill out the paperwork to attend OAS! I was so happy! So I packed my new little bundle in a baby 'carrier/pouch', and went into the office to fill out those papers, sleeping baby cuddled up in the 'pouch' under my watchful eye.



Come back to read more about our first days at this awesome school, my education in children received on the playground as a noon aid, when my older son shared his baby brother for 'sharing', and why there would be no more need for war if all schools were just like OAS!

You may wonder what kind of academic education children receive at alternative schools. My older boy will graduate in 2008 after 4 years of honor classes and As and Bs. But what's just as important, he is responsible, motivated, and not afraid to speak up when it's called for.

I'm just thankful for music.  Music does so much to help reduce stress.  These vocalists are some of my absolute favorites.  I hope you enjoy them. 

Hey, somebody send some rain over here to Santa Barbara County, please?!?!