We have some baby gerbils at school. The adults taking class this summer have enjoyed observing their growth over the past couple of weeks. I was watching them nurse the other day and felt regret that our children aren’t in school to share this real experience of the life cycles. One of the older gerbils also died right after school closed for the summer.

I think it is important for the children to witness these natural events, but it seems that they usually happen during our months of vacation.

Last summer we also lost a gerbil, and there were babies, too, but none of them survived. These babies are thriving, though. Soon they will open their eyes! The babies live in the “loft” of the cage and every now and then one falls down the tube into the lower room. It doesn’t take the mom very long to pick it up and carry it back upstairs.

I do so hope that we will have more babies after school resumes. But then, we will have to be finding homes for them!

Today I was reading through Montessori's lectures from the 1946 Training Course held in Karachi. I was struck by this sentence:

"Every time the child is born, the hope for a new civilization and a better humanity is rekindled."

My daughter brought hope for the future into this world today when she birthed a new daughter.

The children have gone off to enjoy their summer vacations and the school is in the middle of some much-needed cleaning. We start in on that task as soon as the rooms are empty of children. Furnishings get pushed to one side of each room while the other side is stripped and waxed.

The schedule is very different for us. We go home for lunch and sometimes go to school in the evenings to put another coat of wax on the floors.

With the furniture all moved around there tends to be an echo. Sounds bounce off the bare walls and floor. I sometimes feel it is echoes of all the voices that have filled the building over the past year. Already I miss the children. I wonder what they are doing. I hope they are having a wonderful time.

Soon the summer classes for adults will start and I will be too busy to spend much time thinking about the children. Perhaps their summer laughter will echo in my sleep.