Our big new change with the new season and new school for mama is Natasha's new preschool. The Art Haus is run by Ann-Kathrin Martins, who many of you know from her Toddler Yoga, prenatal, mom and babe and mamas only yoga classes at Mothering Touch. Ann-Kathrin is still teaching prenatal yoga and a new Family Yoga class at Mothering Touch on Sundays, but the rest of her week is devoted to her new wonderful project, a school devoted to the living arts for children age 2-5, which is younger than most preschools start.

Natasha is in love with her new school and talks about Ann-Kathrin and her 2-year-old son, Joao, at home. She loves the yoga classes they have and shows me her yoga stretches at home, brings me into the art room to show me her painting when I pick her up at lunch time, shows me how to jump on the trampoline and how to make food in their outdoor kitchen (stone soup, sand rice and mud pudding for dessert), and tells me about their field trips to the park or beach.

The school is set up for the kids with home-made tables and chairs, cups and dishes that Ann-Kathrin made on the throwing wheel downstairs and fired in her kiln, and two indoor hammock swings (another favourite thing Natasha likes to show me).

The feeling I get when I am at the school or even just thinking about it and telling others about it is that it is a breath of fresh air. The relaxed but structured approach is exactly what I was looking for as a change for Natasha, and the arts and movement focus of The Art Haus is better than I had hoped we would find.

Weekly menus and planned activities and themes are sent to parents each week, and an email update of the past week's adventures with photos attached keeps us in touch with our wee ones, even when we are not there. It is such a wonderful and inviting experience that I want to go to this school myself! It is hard to leave the environment in the morning to go to my own school. Natasha is on her own journey, and loving the learning and nurturing that she receives from all the teachers she meets.

The Art Haus is located in Fernwood at the corner of Empress and Vancouver Streets (you'll know it by the bright yellow fence). For more information, Email Ann-Kathrin or call her at 250.294.1231.