How often do you get a chance to think about how many different hats you wear in a day?

As I’ve had the pleasure of getting to know many of you, I would guess that some of your hats might look like mine: parent to your children, partner to your significant other, friend, coworker, leader, listener – truly, our hats would stack to the sky if we named them all. 

So again, you might relate, but it’s not always clear which hat I have to wear and when. And sometimes I have to wear many hats at once.

As Head of School and a parent here at Near North, this tricky balance is always front and center for me.

It's no secret that reading can transport us from our own world to another. Reading allows children to become immersed in the lives of others. It opens their minds to different cultures, identities, and individuals and parallels and relationships between their own lives and the world surrounding them.

As such, the effects of reading on child development are monumental, and supporting your child to read at home can have critical, lasting effects. Reading to and with your child helps them to develop language, value books and storytelling, be imaginative, and develop focus, communication, and socialization skills. As parents, you are in a great position to ensure reading is a foundational part of your child’s daily routine by supporting the work they do each day at school in the home. 

Near North is a Montessori school within the city of Chicago, AND it is a non-profit organization. 

Inherently, as a part of this incredible community, you and your family are Near North Montessori Ambassadors. We are all philanthropists. Your role in our community is essential in establishing our Culture of Philanthropy and Community of Care. 

If you ask twenty permaculturists the question "what is permaculture?," you will likely get twenty different answers. That's because the practice of permaculture is adapted depending on the unique set of resources and problems in a given system.

Anne Matern, Elementary Director, sat down at the end of last month with Cathy Price, Director of Student Wellness, to talk about how the transition into school has been for our Elementary Level students, what you can expect and what you might want to look out for.

Cathy and Anne have these sorts of chats on a regular basis, and they thought you might benefit from the takeaways of this discussion.

I’d like to share the story of our first and only sports games of the season that took place once the school was empty of students on the last day of the 2021 school year. 

Last winter and into the spring, as we welcomed increasing numbers of students back into the building after a long year of screens, I reflected on one of the twelve principles of permaculture.