Nia House honors all families in our community.
Many hands and much love goes into raising the children of our community- grandparents, guardians, moms, dads, aunties and uncles, and parents. Each family holds a unique configuration of helping hands and love.
To honor the beautiful diversity of families in our school, Nia House is shifting from the traditional celebration of Mother’s Day in May and Father’s Day in June to Family Day somewhere in between, end of May/early June. Stay tuned.
Traditionally, Nia House has used these “holidays” as an educational opportunity to explore different family structures, households and experiences (see the NH curriculum guide). Stories and conversation at circle-time in the Primary classes explore two dad households, children raised by their grandparents, adoption, one parent families, blended families, multi-home families and more. We will continue with this form of education around family while also moving away from holidays that exclude many types of families. Nia House invites you all to move toward a Nia House holiday that includes all- Family Day!
Each interested child will have the opportunity to honor family members through process oriented art, circle-time dialogue, and through read-aloud stories.
Nia House will stray from making and sending home projects on Mother’s/Father’s Day, and will focus on developmentally targeted education and celebration of differences in families. While some older children at Nia House can grasp the task of making a gift as a token of appreciation, the youngest of children do not developmentally benefit from such product-oriented projects. In an ongoing effort to focus on the developmental needs of our children, Nia House will focus on each child’s experience of family.
We thank you all for being allies unto one another. In your family time, we encourage dialogue and celebration with your children of the many differences in family.
Nia House celebrates and honors you all- mothers, fathers, grandparents, guardians, parents, step-parents and more!
