Our Enrichment Activities

At City Country School we put great emphasis on self-discovery and self-construction through Symbolic Play, Cooking, Aikido, Ceramics, Song, and Activities in Nature. We want children to understand that one can spend a lifetime perfecting something: an instrument, a practice, a craft, a hobby, a language, a garden.

Throughout history and across cultures human beings have used music, movement, language and art to discover and express their inner lives. When a child uses these tools they make real to themself and to others the existence of an inner life: their intuitions, thoughts, fears, emotions, beliefs, ideas, dreams, longings, etc. Tools shape us as much as we shape them.

If the only tools you use are pen, pencil and computer tablet, your ideas and understanding of yourself and the world will be limited to only that which can be expressed with those tools. 

At City Country School we believe the process of self-discovery and expression through different media is essential to a child’s development. Students are given the time, the place and the expert support to explore their inner lives and to express them through clay, language, both written and spoken, song, movement, cooking, gardening and play.

The feedback loop between intellectual work and creative work is useful for children to experience from a young age, so they can understand in their bones that the creative act is the creative act, whether you are inventing a song or a new understanding of the nature of light. Of course, this cannot be taught, it can only be experienced. It would be an achievement to help children really understand three things about creating: it is a process; it requires time (sometimes a lifetime) as well as deep engagement, and it continues throughout life.