Town Hall Meeting Kick Off Was A Success!

Ray Martin and Emma Lougheed share
breakfast with some friends in the
PVP Newton kitchen.

I remember one of the first things my doctor told me when I had Lucy thirteen years ago: that

whole birth plan thing? It’s a nice idea, but when the baby is ready to come out, she will. Her time, her way, regardless of any plans you might have. And that pretty much sums up parenthood in a nutshell.

Sure, you can make up all the plans you want, but the key point is being able to go with the flow. That was a sentiment that came up a few weeks ago when I was talking to James’ teacher at the parent/teacher conference back in October. Karina was showing us a picture of the kids doing an activity that was supposed to be one thing, but the kids took it in a whole other direction – and it was that much better for it.

And that pretty much sums up yesterday morning in a nutshell.

As some of you may remember from my emails, yesterday morning was the kick off to our Town Hall Meeting series. We’d envisioned a series of conversations between parents and the founders, families and Pine Village administrative staff. It would be a way for us to get to know each other on a more individual level, a give and take of sorts. The series was planned to start off with a breakfast morning during which we’d introduce the staff, say a little bit about ourselves and then do a Q&A to talk about whatever parents wanted. It didn’t quite happen that way.

The building was locked when we got there, so Pine Village co-founder Emma Lougheed and I (Jen Doyle, yours truly) ended up chatting outside for a few minutes with mom Annabella as we waited for the cavalry to arrive with the key. Not quite how we’d planned to greet our first Town Hall Meeting taker. With her boys playing outside in the yard, however, and our respective bags sitting on the ground, we stood there and got to know each other a little bit better.

So, um, no. Not at all what we’d planned. That conversation was definitely supposed to take place in a much warmer location (sorry, Annabella)! But in a way it was exactly the way it should have been in the first place. Not quite so planned and with no script to follow. Just a few moms talking in the schoolyard while the kids played.

Given that it’s actually beginning to feel like winter, however, I can’t say I’m sorry that we got into the building a few minutes later. And there, as co-founder Brid Martin and her husband/PVP Facilities Manager Ray arrived – as well as Education Director Jacie Feinberg and PVP Newton Director Kelly Cisneros – we set out the coffee and bagels, took off our coats and settled in.

Which brings me back to the plan. We were supposed to move into the meeting room off the kitchen, a lovely sitting room with couches and paneling and a gorgeous, richly woven rug. That was where the intros and the Q&A were supposed to take place. But instead what happened was that, as with any good gathering, we ended up staying in the kitchen. And rather than a structured Q&A, it ended up being more of a drop-in coffee hour, with parents coming in and out – some able to stay and chat over a cup of coffee, others just able to say a quick hello. To be honest? It was a hundred times better than what we’d planned.

We chatted about the possibility of opening up another location in the outer burbs (Acton – here we come! Um, some day, maybe…) We chatted about Saturday Spanish classes and after school programs. We chatted about school choice, preparation for kindergarten, Scholastic book orders, and how to get the word out about Pine Village. (Yelp reviews, everyone! We are very thankful for whatever kind words you are willing to share with the world-at-large!) And, I am happy to say, we ended up connecting. (Annabella, Larisa, Emily, Quyen, and Natalie – I will most certainly be in touch again soon!)

On the one hand, the conversations we had did reinforce our commitment to the Town Hall Meetings in the spring. And, yes, those will be a bit more structured than this one as they will be topic-based. But, on the other hand, we also ended up loving this morning’s gathering so much that we’re going to do it at all the schools. So stay tuned – drop-off, drop-in coffee hours are coming soon to a location near you!

And, yeah. About that birth plan. Our launching of the Town Hall Meetings series wasn’t quite exactly what we’d planned, but the end result was so much better. We can’t wait to connect with more of you soon.

Come for the Spanish, Stay for the Love

Part of what sets
Pine Village apart:  co-founders
Brid and Emma

A few weeks ago, I joined PVP’s Enrollment Director Kendra Bucklin at Back Bay’s Kingsley Montessori Meet the Schools Night. One of the questions that a prospective parent asked me was, What sets Pine Village apart from all the other schools out there? For someone who can go on for hours about "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" (don’t ask; truly; hours is not an exaggeration), you’d think that I could have been a bit more articulate about a place I love sooooo much when asked that question. And yet I have to admit, I kind of bumbled my way through it.

I mean, of course I talked about the bilingual/Spanish part. That’s a given. And after a minute or so of babbling the kinds of clichés that any other high-quality preschool could babble, I did finally say that, upon learning that we were pregnant with kid #3 after kids #s 1 and 2 were well out of Pine Village, one of my first thoughts was: thank goodness, we get to go through Pine Village again. But I’m not entirely proud of my performance with that particular parent. And I was grateful for Kendra who stepped in and rescued the entire conversation.

Several minutes after the parent left the table, seeing that I was still ruminating on my not-so-great showing, Kendra very nicely didn’t mention how tongue-tied I’d been, but instead said something that has stuck in my head for these last several weeks: “Families come for the Spanish, but they stay for the love.”

Will and me

Our story is slightly different. We didn’t choose Pine Village specifically for the Spanish. Although we loved the idea of a bilingual preschool – and some day I’ll be happy to go on about the long-term benefits for our kids, now respectively eight and five years later – what struck us about Pine Village from the start was exactly what Kendra said: the love.

Not that there aren’t preschools out there that don’t share a similar philosophy. Not every place is a nameless, faceless corporate monolith. And, o.k., yes (she begrudgingly said), even the nameless, faceless monoliths have amazing teachers and staff and are overflowing with love. 

But I can’t help it; Pine Village is different. For us it always has been. And although I still have a problem fully articulating why – it’s hard to translate that gut-busting, warmth that spreads deep inside whenever I see my kids in the Pine Village environment into words – this weekend I was reminded a little bit as Will (i.e., kid #2) and I walked with Pine Village in the Boston Pride Parade.

This was the first time that our family has had a chance to participate. I’m not sure where we’ve been for all these years, but we do travel a lot, so it’s not always easy for us to do the weekend stuff. Since I’ve been working more closely with Pine Village over the last few months, though – and since I haven’t had a chance to partake in a lot of the other events that PVP has been represented at over that time – I really wanted to share in the experience. And what an experience it was.

The Pine Village Crew

There’s something about walking through the streets with thousands of people cheering you on that brings a smile even to the surliest of faces. And, well, Will can most definitely be on the surly side; it’s been known to happen enough that I have a whole series of photos of Will sulking his way through various landmarks – Monticello, Four Corners…

Luckily, the surliness isn’t usually part of what Will shows the public for the most part; that is mostly reserved for those of us on the homefront. But knowing this other side of him exists and seeing it are two entirely different things. Watching Will scoot his way from side to side of the parade route, seeking out kids to give stickers and seed packets to, was, well, gut-busting and warmth-spreading. If I hadn’t been so focused on not tripping and falling on my face in front of the crowds, I might even have cried a little. (O.k., so maybe I did. Cry that is.)

Beacon: the final stretch

But what also made me smile was knowing that I was marching with an organization – a preschool – that doesn’t only talk the talk, it walks the walk. (Literally. I clocked 19,000+ steps!) And it’s been doing so for years. Long before it was fashionable – for ten years, to be precise – Pine Village has been marching in the Pride Parade. It was the first preschool and toddler program to do so, and it’s been doing so each year, ever since. More importantly, it’s been preaching – and carrying through – the message of acceptance for all families – regardless of family makeup, regardless of background, regardless of just about anything else you can think of – since day one.

So, yes, Pine Village is definitely about the Spanish. It is a Spanish immersion program, after all. But what is also infused through every moment, action, and its very existence, is the love. Every family, every child, every day.

It Takes A Village

Yes, the whole "It Takes A Village" thing is cliche, but this week I am truly living that statement and reminded that cliches exist because, well, they're often true. 

It's hard to go far in the parenting literature without coming across an article about the differences in how U.S. parents raise their (our) children now versus how it all worked just a few generations ago. The specific topic that's hitting home for me today is that so many of us live so far away from our extended families whereas not so long ago the opposite was true. For many Pine Village families this is even more acute because of the many whose families don't just live a city or state away, but an entire continent. Or, to come at it from a different angle, those who have come to the U.S. from a culture in which living in the same city/neighborhood/house (pick all that apply) is still the norm. 

Both my parents grew up in neighborhoods that were filled with family. My mother often speaks of the Brooklyn triple-decker in which she grew up along with her grandmother in the apartment below her, her aunt and uncle in the apartment above, and many more aunts, uncles, and cousins living on the same block or right around the corner. I have memories as a young girl going to visit my father's grandmother in a different triple-decker, but one similarly filled with various generations of his family. (The major difference between the two was that in my mom's family they all talked to each other whereas in my dad's they stopped speaking to each other at least a decade or two before. But that's another story entirely.) As the parent of three, I can only imagine what it would have been like to know that, regardless of what time I had to leave the house or come home there would be someone there to let the kids out or in. I recently read an article by Rod Dreher in which he talks about moving his family from Philadelphia to his very small hometown of Saint Francisville, Louisiana. He recounts an incident where his cousin happened to come across his 8-year-old son after a bicycle mishap. "When I crashed," he quotes his son as saying, "so many people came to help me, and they all knew who I was." 

To be honest, my small(ish) hometown wasn't anything like his. In fact, once, when my children were much younger (and before James even existed), we attended the City of Boston's tree-lighting ceremony in Brighton's Oak Square. While looking around at the children all running and playing together, the families greeting each other, the general goodwill and, yes, holiday spirit, my mother commented that she'd always wanted to experience that kind of town-center feeling -- who would have thought that the place she would see it was in Boston, a city ten times the size of where I grew up in terms of population. 

This week I would have done just about anything to be living in one of those triple deckers in Brooklyn. This week I happen to be playing single parent and am having to navigate the daycare drop off and pick up, the vacation camp drop off and pick up, the getting to work (reasonably) on time, not to mention the snow/ice banks that still exist everywhere and add in a whole other dimension of the commuting experience that I could very easily live without. If only I had the aunts, uncles, cousins, etc., who could come to the rescue. 

But I am grateful that in this big "impersonal" city, I have the next best thing. I have the housemate who sat in the car with two-year-old James this morning while I parked two snowbanks away from the Y and then took ten minutes to get in and out of there while dropping off ten-year-old Will. (Not to mention who actually strapped James into his car seat while Will played on the ice-covered mountain in our front yard and I carried out the various bags that everyone needed for their day.) And, with a class that I couldn't skip last night, I was grateful that my mother-in-law, who had James for the day, then picked up Will and brought both of them home. And that our housemate got them dinner and played cars with James and generally kept Will occupied so that he didn't destroy the house while I was out. And that our next door neighbor was willing to have a two-year-old and ten-year-old dropped off for a half hour in between just in case the mother-in-law and housemate schedules didn't quite match up. 

So although I will still be at a pretty high stress level for most of the time my husband is out of town, I am so very grateful for the village that will help me get through until he returns. 

Fun on the Farm

On November 14th, Pine Village and the South End Branch library collaborated to bring families a Spanish language story time.  Activities were themed around farms and farm animals, and included songs, books, and an art project.  

Karina and Myrna have real fun on the imaginary farm!

The event was a true example of team-work.  Our toddler teacher, Claudia, prepared the art project.  Preschool teacher Karina sang songs about the farm using pictures from her classroom's vocabulary wall.  Myrna, our South End director, read a book, utilizing a felt board and pre-cut images of the animals mentioned. Teachers helped to stick the pictures of the animals on the board giving children the opportunity to see the story as it was read. Everyone was amazed! Children were counting the animals with us and making animal noises, and they learned to repeat the names of the animals, all in Spanish!

The event was free and open to the public and there was an amazing turn-out.  Thank you to the South End library, our wonderful staff, and to all the families, schools, and children who made this event a huge success!  A special thank you to Children's Librarian Margaret, without whom this event would not have been possible!  Spanish Story Time recurs most months during the year.  Please check our events page or the BPL calendar for details.