Dear Harbor Families,

As you know, I have the pleasure of teaching yoga to your children each week! This past Tuesday, to welcome in the winter months, we practiced “snowy yoga”. Our class started with an imaginary snowball toss, followed by deep breathing to melt our snowballs. Our activity was freeze dance yoga to the song “Let It Snow”, where the kids were invited to dance to the music, and when it stopped, make the pose that I called out to them. In the preschool 4s class, without any prompting from me, the students started pairing up and holding hands to move with a partner, and soon this evolved into a whole class circle, holding hands and dancing as a group until the music stopped and prompted a yoga pose. It was such a sweet moment for our preschoolers, but not at all unexpected or uncommon. In our classes, students are regularly making connections with each other, supporting and caring for each other, as they learn important social and emotional skills and build their class communities. 

As we move into the winter break, here are many other ways that we are purposefully strengthening the connections in our community! Our faculty and staff “Sunshine Committee” organized a secret snowflake activity, where teachers and administrators are leaving treats for each other throughout the week. We’ve had yummy faculty breakfasts (thank you to the grade two families and to the An/Wu family!), and organized a delicious potluck luncheon and an evening holiday party as a faculty. The HSFA hand-delivered individualized holiday gifts to the faculty and staff, and the Board of Trustees expressed gratitude to the teachers with a gift for each teacher as well. We have been spoiled! :) And, classes are gathering in different ways to celebrate the winter holiday season. In many ways, the experience we had on Tuesday in preschool - holding hands and dancing - is a metaphor for the connections across our community!

Tomorrow morning, we hope you will join us for our last Family Friday of the calendar year! At our scheduled Coffee and Connections, we’ll explore a parenting approach for supporting anxiety in children, led by Harbor parent and clinical psychologist Chelsey Foster. Join us at 9 AM in the Chesapeake Room for what is sure to be a robust discussion. And, be sure to mark your calendar for the upcoming Family Fridays- dates for January-March are now available below!

Finally, while you have your calendar pulled up, please save the date for the evening of Saturday, March 8th, where we’ll celebrate and support our Harbor community at our annual Gala and Auction! We are thrilled to share that this year’s Gala will take place at the Diamond Club at Nationals Park, which will no doubt be a phenomenal space for our celebration! Tickets are available below, if you'd like to secure yours now! 

I wish you a winter break full of connections - and whatever your version of preschoolers holding hands and dancing might be!

Warm regards,

Leah Musico
Head of School