title:
Jess Matthias
creator:
Jess Matthias
description:
I've been in business as Peaceful Heart Yoga & Peaceful Heart Preschool for 10 years now. I rent a space downtown that I still use for the yoga side of what I do, and it housed the preschool until the pandemic hit. At that point, as I care deeply about doing what's right by kids, we moved the preschool to my backyard. I wanted to do what was right for our society in terms of the pandemic, but my passion is doing what's right by children's development. I watched my 3 year-old all summer NOT being able to keep distance from her friends to save her life. I learned right away that kids CANNOT do that. It doesn't make sense to them. They may try, but they would immediately forget. To do so was causing way too much stress because of the number of times we ask them, interrupt their play, become annoyed and create fear around something they don't understand. So we put them outside, entirely, for the whole school year, to lessen the risk of exposure. And because the outdoors is good for children. And we had them wear masks as well, which didn't bother them at all - they just wanted to play with their friends. And they did, fully and happily. I was born and raised here in Missoula. I left in 2001, after graduating from Big Sky High School, to go to school in Maine. In 2011 my future husband and I moved back here, and we now own a house and have 2 young children.I used Montana's pandemic aid money to purchase a 20 ft diameter canvas bell tent for when we really needed an indoor space. I turned my deck into an outdoor classroom with a 20 x 10 canopy over it and side walls. I used a 10x10 canopy, with side walls, over a couple long pallets with a rug on them as our porch that we had cubbies on and everything. I found a camping toilet and put it in a privacy shower tent, again on a pallet. And I had an insulated 5 gallon water dispenser as our hand washing station. We did yoga and our lessons in our yard - in the rain, snow and sun. I had a preschool class of 8 kids come 2 days per week, and the teacher I hired taught a kindergarten class 3 days per week which was a popular option to avoid 5 year-olds trying to do school online. We ran our program this way for the entire school year, and part of it into the summer! September 2020 through August 2021. I included a PDF called ""here we go"" below, which I can't remove. Please don't use it after all as it has children's names in it.
publisher:
Archives and Special Collections, Mansfield Library, University of Montana
date Submitted:
2022-06-11
type:
Still Image
identifier:
2022_065_023
language:
English
rights:
June 11 2022Documenting COVID-19 in Missoula County Submission AgreementI understand that the materials I am contributing today to the Documenting COVID-19 in Missoula County project will be maintained by Archives and Special Collections, Mansfield Library, the University of Montana (hereafter UM). I understand that the material/file(s) will be managed in a manner consistent with established professional standards and UMs collection development policy and I place no restrictions on their use or disposition. I agree that UM may make publicly accessible, either immediately or in the future, the material/files I’m submitting for this project. I am eighteen years old or older. Parents or legal guardians may submit material on behalf of their children. I understand that material submitted through this form must not violate any confidentiality, privacy, security or other laws. I agree not to submit material that contains sensitive personal information about other individuals, including personal health information. I give consent to UM to digitally reformat the collection or migrate existing digital content to new technical environments as appropriate for preservation and/or access purposes. I confirm that I own (or have legal authority over) the materials I am submitting. I voluntarily transfer to UM all rights, title, and interests, including non-exclusive intellectual property rights, to these materials. If you wish to contribute files or other materials to this project that for some reason would require temporary access restrictions, such as for privacy and confidentiality reasons, or if for some other reason you are not able to affirm each statement please contact library.covidarchive@umontana.edu to discuss options.