New Feathered Friends in the Seven Circles Garden

The Seven Circles Garden welcomed some new residents recently: 11 baby quail. They’ll earn their keep by providing pest control, fertilizer, and eggs.

Garden teacher Adrienne Wallace bought the birds on Craigslist. She says there are two different kinds, but she’s not sure yet what they are. She knows they aren’t California quail because they don’t have a little plume, or topknot, on their heads. They’re all females (she hopes). They’re about six weeks old. Adrienne’s garden students will help feed them and transport their droppings to the compost pile. They’ll gather up snails from the garden and put them in the coop for the quail to feast on – a gourmet treat! Students helped build the coop, stapling 150 square feet of gopher wire to posts volunteers had put in during our monthly Family Garden Parties. “The coop is large enough to house a lot more quail,” she says, “but we’re starting with these for now.” The yellow structure inside, which Adrienne also bought on Craigslist, is the inner coop. The quail huddle together there to keep warm on chilly days.

All of the quail have names, thanks mainly to our elementary students. Each class named one, the Office staff named one, and Adrienne’s four-year-old daughter, Willow, got to name one “for enduring three hours of travel to pick them up.”

Their names:

First row, left to right: Violet (kindergarten Room 6), Miss Emily (the Office – named after our HR manager, Emily Karakashian), Winter (third grade)

Second row: Leesa (Willow), Cappuccino (fourth grade), Frosty (kindergarten Room 8)

Third row: Strawberry (first grade Room 10), Oreo (second grade), Potato (fifth grade)

Fourth row: Winter (with non-feathered third grader), Snowflake (first grade Room 9), Love (kindergarten Room 7)

Feel free to stop by and welcome the quail to their new home.

Teacher and Her Mom “Masking for a Cause”

Room 6 kindergarten teacher Shelby Gregg and her mother, Felicia, have been sewing facemasks since the beginning of the pandemic. They make them for children, adults, and even stuffed animals and dolls and sell them through an Etsy store called Maskshionistas (“Mother-daughter sewers masking for a cause!”).

Shelby explains, “For every mask we sell, we donate one to an organization that helps those in need, including to homeless shelters, nursing homes, schools for underprivileged children, and centers for adults with disabilities. We’ve made and donated thousands so far!”

Click here to visit their store, or connect with them on Instagram.

Internet Safety

Awareness and Supervision Minimize Online Risks

Children today have never known a world without the internet. They can log on using home computers, phones, tablets, and game consoles at home, at friends’ homes, at libraries, and at schools. Technology can be used appropriately and responsibly to connect, communicate, and collaborate. With all the benefits of internet access, however, come certain risks.

Trusting, curious, and unsophisticated in the ways of the world, children are especially vulnerable to online risks: access to inappropriate material, exposure to predators, harassment, bullying, downloading viruses, and identity theft.

At The Meher Schools, we limit students’ access to the internet. Students in the upper elementary grades learn to use Google’s education suite on Chromebooks and may conduct research online, visiting approved websites only, under the supervision of teachers. Students in preschool and the lower elementary grades do not access the internet at school.

Experts advise that parents establish rules for internet use and be aware of their children’s online activities. We recommend that just as you monitor TV and other media your child consumes and monitor playdates, you actively involve yourself in your child’s online activities. Consider the amount of time your child spends online and be aware of what information he or she is sharing and receiving, and who he or she is interacting with.

We suggest that children not be tagged or named in photos posted online, so that their names and locations are more likely to remain private. You may want to check the geotag settings on your phone. It’s important to understand that privacy is not guaranteed for information shared online.

Children need guidance to think about how what they say or do online might affect themselves or others in the future. Common Sense Media offers a tip for parents at commonsensemedia.org/privacy-and-internet-safety.

The Family Online Safety Institute publishes a list of internet safety tips for parents, which can be accessed at http://www.fosi.org/good-digital-parenting. For further information about internet safety and social networking, see http://www.connectsafely.org and https://www.commonsense.org.

We publish this article every year at the request of the Meher Schools Child Safety Task Force.