Blog Shmog

It's hard to keep up on a blog, facebook, emails and a website.
Hopefully we are going to wrap most into one!
We are working on a new website, with videos, pictures, a blog and lots of coolness!

Stay tuned to our website and our facebook for current events and if you haven't heard yet listen in to some cool cats frontporchradio.wordpress.com/2010/10/06fpr-misty-forest-sam-whitney/

Thanks for frolicking in the forest!

Wonderful Week of seed planting, animating and eco thoughts

This week has been wonderful!

We've been working on our art for the Dandy exhibit in April.

The art topics such as conscious consumerism, water conservation, deforestation, urban sprawl and many other important issues have brought up many questions and lots of thought on how to make art based on these ideas. They've been doing a wonderful job and I am so proud of how thoughtful and how committed they are to this project.

Ms. Maria taught a class on flowers, parts of flowers, planting flowers and honoring them. The children then decorated cups to put their seeds in and we are now sprouting Mongolian Giant Sunflowers in our window. The children have each given names to the flowers and Bob, Sunny and all the rest are safely resting and rising at the forest. Signs were made that state, "Be Mindful of the Mongolian Giant Sunflowers", that way other community that use the building will now how precious each of these seeds are.

Mr. Travis came as well as Thor, Thomas Thorspecken (local urban sketchartist) to the forest. I was so happy to see Thor as I had spoke to him about coming to the forest to "sketch" the kids and pick up on their amazing creativity. Travis and I worked with the kids in beginning their animation work from storyboard. Lots of work but this project is going to be amazing. I've had people dream of the results of it, literally. Quite wonderful for this to be part of the community. We are missing lots of friends who would stop by and poke their head in. If you are around town and you want a little Misty love stop by for an amazing time!!!!

Instead of words I thought I'd let the pictures do the talking of how much fun we have at the forest!!! Enjoy!

The boys and their unplanned
matching attire that I had to take
a picture of!


Our tradition of king cake.
Everyone is looking to see
if they can find the hidden
baby!


An amazing rainbow not
on the horizon but directly
over our heads at Misty.
It appeared near the moon
and these clouds. Spectacular
to see all of these things together!
We always see some amazing things
occur in the sky over the forest!

Joshua (in front) explaining his familys
tradition and roots of New Orleans
and the celebration of King Cake.

Ms. Maria is the cutest teacher.
She is so enthusiastic, especially
when she's teaching green!!!

The kids picked items out of
a box and talked about whether
or not it can be recycled and how
it can be reused or repurposed.


Our Valentine recycled art
tea boxes. The boxes received
valentines that began, "I love
the way or I love that...", fill in the
blank. They love when we do
themed gratitude and positive
boxes.

The unofficial Misty
premiere of Ice Age
3. Featuring our
very own Mr. John Hurst.

Ms. Angie's stand up and laugh
class. On this day we did improv
dress up. There were plenty of laughs
to go around!!!!


That's us! Ms. Maria did
caricatures of us!

Caricature Class with Ms. Maria

Is it too late for a happy 2010?

It's never too late to be happy, just a little too late posting the blog...

We've been busy bees the month of January getting back into the swing of things.....
We've already had a session of classes, a very creative session that is.
We animated, recorded voice overs and learned how to draw caricatures.
The final result from all this creativity is...a movie.
It's not feature length and it's not owned by Pixar but it's ours and we are so proud of it.
It's in the works and we'll keep you updated on when the premiere will be!

In other news. . .

Can you feel the love?

We can! You can actually see the love when you pull up to Misty Forest.
We've decorated the window with old architectural paper, tea bags and company stationary. An entirely recycled window display we are proud to say.
Our theme for the month is Love Thyself & Everyone Else!
Monthly we are now focused on an object of the month to base lessons and art on.
This month our object is tea, we are learning all about it and we've been using tea and tea parts in some very creative ways.

Edible Love

If you haven't heard of the local group DRIP you are missing out.
If you haven't heard of FRESH, Drips February event, well your "taste" buds will seek revenge.
Misty Forest is partnering with FRESH to bring a special Willy Wonka-like event to the Cameo theatre. Misty is offering complimentary childcare this Valentines weekend, February 13th and 14th for the FRESH special couples dinner events. Check it out and plan a special sweet treat for you and yours.. www.ilovedrip.com

One persons trash that should really be recycled and not end up in a landfill, is Misty Forests next art supplies!!!

Think about what you constantly consume...pickles, cereal, beer, soup, wine, applesauce...
What do you do with the containers, lids, corks and cans?
If you consume a large amount of the same thing how about dropping of its remnants to Misty?
It's easier to create canvases out of 20 cereal boxes than 2,
much better to have 15 milk jugs to make bird houses than 8,
life is wonderful when wehave 100 bottle caps to make recycled art windchimes, and
instead of collecting these things for a year to make one project, a one time or once
a month drop off from a local family makes our day!
So do your part, don't let the earth fart and watch us create fantastic art!!!!!!!!!!!!

After that lovely line, much love and Happy V Day!

Lucky stars above you, sunshine on your way, many friends to love you, joy in work and play-laughter to outweigh each care, in your heart a song- and gladness waiting everywhere all your whole life long!
a little bit of the Irish love before the green rolls in with March

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaah Where did the time go?

Father Winter and Father Time Have Been Transpiring

That was fast!

There's only one week left before the holiday break and we haven't even hung the stockings!!!

During the month of November the kids created gratitude trees. The trees were part of the "gratitude forest" and visits were made every day to drop "gratitude acorns" on the trees. Every day the kids received a gratitude and now that the holidays are here we wanted to keep the tradition alive and hang stockings for receiving "gifts".

The stockings were created from red letterhead and company envelopes that were turned into places to receive words of kindness. The front of the envelope was glued to the "stocking" and the back of the envelope became the resting spot for sweet notes.

Since we are privledged to take full advantage of Dinosaur Bob, we decided to make a "fireplace" out of boxes, donated architect prints and toilet paper rolls. To take a sneak peek pictures will be posted next week of our fireplace and stockings.

There are some parents who have taken advantage of the communication system and slipped notes to their children and their childrens friends. One little forest elf in particular has implemented this system at home!!!!

Holiday Drive

We are working with Social Issues Inc who work directly with local homeless individuals, families and vets. I inquired on what the real need of the homeless community is.

Food, water, blankets, bags, clothes.

Social Issues Inc. delivers these things one on one to individuals so there are no facilities to help hold and assist with the givings.

So that means the collection of the items need to be more mindful.

Trish the founder, president and director of Social Issues Inc made a very direct and excellent point regarding collections.

The homeless don't have can openers and tools to assist in some of the things regularly donated to food banks.

Here is a list of things desired and required!!!

Easy to pull off lids

(applesauce, fruit, nuts, raisins)

Water

Clothes

Blankets

Bags

Remember to support your local community and those who lovingly support others in need!

Community

We are so lucky to be a part of an amazing community and it's no one's fault but our own if we don't take advantage.

Remember to stop by Aristree/Infusion Tea in College Park this Saturday. Artistree is an art co-op that features many talented aristisans and inspirations.

One of our very own parents, Ms. Hannah Braden will be featured as the Artist of the month. Her show begins at 7:00pm with live music! Oh and you know those cool coin necklaces you are seeing all over O-town, made by our very own lovely Ms. Angie Ramos? Yes, they are making themselves pretty at Artistree too. You can support Misty Forest families, local artists and the economy just by picking out something pretty for a loved one this holiday. ROCKIN I TELL YOU, ROCKIN!!!

Have fun with your little one this holiday. Make a day of it!!! After an afternoon at the forest, drop by Seven Sisters Coffee House for some yummy holiday cheer and head to Lake Eola for ice skating in the park!!!!

Wishing lots of snuggles under the mistletoe and lots of mistyical magic this holiday season

-Misty Forest

It's December!

How much turkey/tofurky did you have??!!!!

What did everyone feed the kids? Is it the turkey or tofurky that dulled them to this degree?
Yesterday I was worried I would have to start checking pulses.
The kids were stagnant, staring, almost serendaded to quiet. I thought where is he?
The pied piper?

I soon came to realization that they were just calm, happy and peaceful......was it because they've been stress free for 4 days and some celebrated 7 days of vacation? Maybe.

Keep The Peace Man!
Fortunately or unfortunately, for that matter I have first hand experience on how stressed out kids are daily. Homework, less creative time, less active time, more testing, more pressure....and now it's the holiday season.
With 18 days before the kids holiday season begins the holiday stresses and excitement will start building up. Sometimes the kids turn into little gremlins seeking the highest satisfaction and sugar-store fulfillment possible.
The magic, the "mistyical" and the wonderment of the season is so much more than decorations and candy canes. Historically it's a time to reflect on peace, togetherness, harmony, rebirth and new beginnings. Remember to keep the peace.

December Celebrations
There are so many traditions and celebrations in December we are taking advantage of them all.
The Forest will be studying, creating and elaborating on some of the amazing rituals people from around the world take part in this month.
This Sunday, December 6th is St. Nicholas day. The kids will see a short film today and I'm going to find out just how many kids are expecting gifts to be delivered to them on Saturday. Check out this website for more info:
www.stnicholascenter.org

It's Play Time!
Check out the new issue of Playground Magazine by picking one up at Misty Forest.
Our very own Mr. John Hurst is featured in it. Everyone loves Mr. John and his squiggles!

Give and Let Learn
How often do you preach to give but don't teach to give?
At the forest we are teaching, doing and giving.
Become part of our charity drive.
More will be posted this week so stay tuned!!!!!

From the friends and fauna of the forest have a great week and a wonderful beginning of December. Do some full moon hooting and hollering while you are at it tonight!!

Lift Off

Our new session has started and the kids are drummimg, posing, laughing, signing and dancing the whole way.

There has been lots of creativity occuring this month of November.

There is a specific group of children who are infatuated with all the nuts from the tree.

A "store" has now been developed called Nuts World. Get this, you can

purchase nuts with nuts. How nutty is that? Due to a poor business plan, I recommended Nut World to seek a financial advisor and Chet stepped up to the plate. So now playtime outside is a fully developed nut business. How AWESOME and creatively cool is that?

This past weekend was our market, Serendipity Square, where locals shopped for the holidays.

After Serendipity Square, the "Latern Fest" was held. The local German society celebrated

with a childrens parade of Lanterns.

Yesterday, was a first for the students at Misty Forest.

We saw our first shuttle launch at Misty Forest.

Hillcrest students had the opportunity to view the shuttle lift off, while

standing right in their own Misty Forest front yard.

We are lucky, we are grateful and we are continually happy and thankful to being sharing

our times with you because they are too special not to!!!!!!!