Supporting Kids: Spring and our Whole Child Initiative

Growing up as a military child and living in so many places, I never quite understood why spring was called spring. But I remember after a Minnesota winter 20 years ago, shortly after walking outside, I looked down and saw plants that were shooting up several inches where the day before there had been nothing but cold dirt and winter hewn ice. New life was literally springing up from the ground.

I was instantly excited and inspired. Winter has become a great time to hunker down and get things prepared for the spring to come. This winter has been exceptionally cold for us. But now the sun is out, the birds are singing and it's time to launch exciting things. If stuff has yet to sprout for you this year, perhaps these quotes will inspire you to begin something wonderful.

1. "Behold, my friends, the spring is come; the earth has gladly received the embraces of the sun, and we shall soon see the results of their love." --Sitting Bull

2. "I believe in process. I believe in four seasons. I believe that winter's tough, but spring's coming. I believe that there's a growing season. And I think that you realize that in life, you grow. You get better." --Steve Southerland

3. "You can cut all the flowers but you cannot keep the Spring from coming." --Pablo Neruda

4. "The beautiful spring came; and when Nature resumes her loveliness, the human soul is apt to revive also." --Harriet Ann Jacobs

5. "Spring has returned. The Earth is like a child that knows poems." --Rainier Maria Rilke

6. "The day the Lord created hope was probably the same day he created Spring."--Bernard Williams

7. "People ask me what I do in winter when there's no baseball. I'll tell you what I do. I stare out the window and wait for spring." --Roger Hornsby

8. "Spring won't let me stay in this house any longer! I must get out and breathe the air deeply again." --Gustav Mahler

9. "Spring is when you feel like whistling even with a shoe full of slush." --Doug Larson

10. "In the spring, at the end of the day, you should smell like dirt." --Margaret Atwood

11. "With the coming of spring, I am calm again." --Gustav Mahler

12. "The spring wakes us, nurtures us and revitalizes us. How often does your spring come? If you are a prisoner of the calendar, it comes once a year. If you are creating authentic power, it comes frequently, or very frequently." --Gary Zukav

13. "Every spring is the only spring, a perpetual astonishment." --Ellis Peters

14. "I want to do to you what spring does with the cherry trees." --Pablo Neruda

15. "To be interested in the changing seasons is a happier state of mind than to be hopelessly in love with spring." --George Santayana

16. "Is the spring coming?" he said. "What is it like?". . . "It is the sun shining on the rain and the rain falling on the sunshine . . ." --Frances Hodgson Burnett

17. "If people did not love one another, I really don't see what use there would be in having any spring." -Victor Hugo, Les Miserables

18. "Spring drew on . . . and a greenness grew over those brown beds, which, freshening daily, suggested the thought that Hope traversed them at night, and left each morning brighter traces of her steps." --Charlotte Bronte

19. "The first day of spring was once the time for taking the young virgins into the fields, there in dalliance to set an example in fertility for nature to follow. Now we just set the clocks an hour ahead and change the oil in the crankcase." --E.B. White

20. "The first real day of spring is like the first time a boy holds your hand. A flood of skin-tingling warmth consumes you, and everything shines with a fresh, colorful glow, making you forget that anything as cold and harsh as winter ever existed." --Richelle E. Goodrich

21. "Spring is nature's way of saying, "Let's party!" --Robin Williams

Our schools are seeing amazing things for kids sprout up this spring. Please consider joining us this season with celebrations, explorations and the sheer delight of kids doing amazing things.

Check us out:
•All Schools Spring Conferences are March 27,28 and 29.
•Kindergarten Registration began March 1.
•Classified Appreciation Week is March 11-15.

Don't forget the pool is reopened. Here are the Eatonville High School Pool Hours: 
•Lessons from  4 -4:30 p.m. and 4:30 - 5 p.m.
•Open Swim from 5 - 6 p.m.
•Water Aerobics from 6 - 7 p.m.
•Lap Swim from 7 – 8 p.m.

Enjoy your leap into Spring!