Brooksfield's visit with Chef Tom is in Washington Home and garden!  Check out the article!  Click on: http://www.whgmag.com/index.php/myblog/brooksfield-school-invites-chef-tom-elder-of-h%C3%A4rth-restaurant-to-present-about-farm-to-table.html

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As the founder of Brooksfield, I have always felt it was my duty to keep learning and growing as a person so that I could share those interests with the students through programs that we have designed to keep Brooksfield on the cutting edge. Interests in Outdoor Adventures, photography, sustainability, organic gardening, social development outside the Montessori classroom and team building to name a few.

Over the past several years I have worked with a group of women named The Citizens for Community Wellness who work together to build better lifestyle options for our McLean community. We held Green Day last year in an attempt to educate our families about healthier and better choices available for our children's health, exercise and home life.

We also introduced you last year to better nutrition through classes taught by Anita Capizzi RN and health counselor. Some of you continued your time with her and ended with cooking classes at my home. All in all a wonderful experience where we all grew together in our understanding of eating whole foods and how that equates to better health.

This year, I have become a student at The Institute for Integrative Health. I am pursuing a degree in Health Coaching/Counseling. This course will take a year and while I am learning a lot about food choices and how it correlates to health, it is educating me how to make better snack and food choices for our students at Brooksfield. I do feel we are all connected and that the well being of one is good for all and the well being of the whole group is our goal.

I have already targeted items at Trader Joe's that will be better for our kids. I am working with our Brooksfield team to identify seasonal items that will change throughout the year that will fill our children with less additives, chemicals and fillers that really are not good for their building bodies.
We take such care and pride in our educational, social, emotional, spiritual and physical education that the area of nutrition needed our attention.

I invite you to contact me to talk about health concerns as we continue to improve our lifelong devotion to making Brooksfield a healthy, happy and harmonious place for our children to grow, learn and thrive. I do believe that this is an inside job so continuing classes this year will be developed for our families and staff. My heart goes out to our parents as you and your children are bombarded with strong and effective marketing that makes buying sugary cereals and empty macaroni and cheese the easy solution. I am hearing from our moms that dinner is on the fly and not a sit down event. Kids are screaming for what they see on TV and the current marketing tells you its ok because it is somehow fortified. I ask you to read more and dig deeper and to use your own common sense. Should a cupcake have 50 ingredients? Most of which you can not pronounce and don't know what it is? Check out the labels the next time you go to pick up packaged food for your family.

The simple truth is always so easy to grasp but often difficult to execute, so let's work together: Eat whole foods that come from nature, avoid processed and chemically altered foods. Eat local and organic when you can. Eat seasonally and stay in touch with nature. That is how children prefer to live. We can take our cue from them!

Love to hear from you and talk about this new exciting development at Brooksfield! Working together is easier than trying to do it alone. I have grocery lists of good food items and suggestions that might make the task a bit easier to swallow! maduffus@aol.com

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Starting on Monday, March 7th through Friday, March 18th Brooksfield School, a Montessori School located in McLean, Virginia will be collecting gently used (or new) books to support Books for America. These books will be donated to local schools, shelters, community centers, and educational sites in need of resources. Please ensure all items are in excellent, almost AS NEW condition. Hope you can help us out with this community service project!

Check out www.booksforamerica.org for more information!

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Adapted from "The Cane Mutiny," New Age Magazine, March/April 1999.

Recipe of the Month:

Maple Fruit Compote with Honey-Ginger Toasted Nuts

Prep time: 10 minutes
Cooking time: 20 minutes
Serves: 4

Ingredients:
2-3 apples
2-3 peaches or pears
2 tablespoons maple syrup
1/2 cup raisins
juice of 1 lemon
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 cup walnuts or nuts of your choice
1/2 teaspoon fresh ginger, minced
2 tablespoons honey

Directions:
1. Wash, core and chop fruit into slices or chunks.
2. Place in a large saucepan with 1/3 cup of water. Add the maple syrup and raisins.
3. Cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally, for 10 minutes.
4. Add lemon juice and cinnamon. Cook for another 10 minutes, until soft.
5. While fruit is cooking, place chopped nuts in a skillet over medium heat and toast, stirring often, for 5 minutes.
6. Drizzle honey over the nuts and add ginger, but keep stirring since the honey can easily burn.
7. Top warm fruit with toasted nuts and enjoy!

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• what our local Chamber of Commerce is doing to Green McLean by, Ghassan Abukurah, A2 Design, Inc.

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Sponsored By:

Green Living Consulting
Green Spur
McLean Chamber of Commerce

Come join us for a morning filled with GREEN activities centered around:
• Fitness
• Nutrition
• Greening Your Home
• Organic gardening
• Halloween activities

Fun for all ages!

Enjoy:
• Pony Rides, Face Painting, Pumpkin Painting, Live Entertainment, Climbing Wall, Halloween Games, and more!

Also:
• Supervisor John Foust will speak about our county's GREEN initiatives.

• Meet GREEN vendors and learn how to save on your energy costs.

• Learn from GREEN builders, architects and specialists on how to make simple GREEN changes at home and at work.

• Watch a demonstration on composting and organic gardening.

• Enjoy healthy treats that will boost your family's intake of antioxidants, minerals, vitamins, and more!

• Network with McLean families and business owners to learn about what's happening in our community in terms of fitness, nutrition, and greening efforts

• Meet local farmers too!

Hope you can make it!

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The Lower School Classrooms at Brooksfield School are beginning to look festive!  One 3 to 6 year old classroom is studying Kwanzaa.  They had fun lighting the candles on the Kinara and celebrating the seven principles like unity (umoja) and faith (imani).  They even made their own Kinara to hang up in the classroom!

 In another Montessori classroom the children are studying Ansel Adams.  Ansel Adams did not create art with paint but instead with photos. He was a photographer who primarily took black and white photos of nature. One of the teachers even brought in a 35 mm camera that the children can use to take photos!  On the art shelf, there is work that allows the children to set up their own landscape and take photos just like Ansel Adams. The children can set up a winter scene or a summer scene. This work is very popular!

In the organic garden this week......the rye is coming along nicely. Its growth will improve the soil by replenishing nutrients used over the past growing season. As the winter draws near, we will turn our attention to in-class gardening and growing lessons. We will be choosing which seeds to plant in the spring, talking about starting them inside, etc.

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The Lower School classrooms at Brooksfield School are alive with activity!  For the Artist of the Month, one preschool classroom is studying Claude Monet.  He was from Paris and lived more than 150 years ago.  He painted in the style called impressionism.  He loved to paint outside.  One child even commented, “He made that painting that looks like it’s wet!”  We have some astute art viewers.

We checked on our organic gardens this week….why now, you might ask?  Because last week’s rye is beginning to come up!  The children are trying to understand why we are planting right before winter.  We will watch our gardens over the winter and see the effects of weather on our planted seeds.

On the green scene we tried an experiment on the affects of pollution on plants.  You can try this at home!  We rubbed Vaseline on the leaf of a plant, both sides, to represent pollution: it blocks the sunlight and air from the leaf/plant.  What do you think will happen?  Check back to find out!

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