Educating Young Students From The Inside Out

Educating Preschool students from the "Inside Out"
Showing posts with label Peace. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Peace. Show all posts

Saturday, May 4, 2013

Move all ye mountains that stand in my way.


This past spring I have had the joyful opportunity to expand my service with children and explore outings in nature more tangibly. These outings are happening outside of the classroom on weekends.

I was able to organize small groups of children between the ages of four through 10 years of age. I prepared a four hour program designed for using the outdoors as our classroom.  In this process, I was not only the teacher, but the students were instructing me.  In all cases, we all had such a beautiful time together. Each group brought something forward in me, as a nature instructor.


On my last excursion this past weekend, I had a brand new set of students that would be accompanying me on a two and half mile hike. This was not an easy task for this age group. It was a new location for me, and for some of the families.  I had emailed all the parents about the steep paths and warned them to remind the children that we would be climbing a mountain. I was very anxious about what might await us.

From the minute the children met, it was like an instant karmic bonding of old friends reacquainted.

On this trip, I had one older sibling that was just the kindest, loving and spiritual leader in guiding the children's energy. His smile could charm your heart away. He also knew the trail very well, and seemed to guide all of us to the hidden crevices, dips and treasures. The children were actually experiencing "every moment", as we like to call it. I never heard one complaint, or in-deference. They were joyfully skipping and singing songs from our classroom as we hiked together.

We started back up the hill after a quick round of the SuperConscious Living Exercises that I teach in our classroom. A serge of energy ran through our bodies. We climbed up the steep hill with power, energy, and vitality.

When I arrived home from our day together I was in a state or divine gratitude, joy, and inner bliss. It was indeed a humbling experience to be in the company of these great little souls.
These children were the instruments today. What a wonderful reminder for all of us.



In the days that followed this trip I have been watching children's open ended love of nature and outdoor play. It amazes to watch under all circumstances the sheer joy that radiates from their beings.

Recently I just came across an article about some of the benefits of children and nature. Here are some  quotes from that article I would like to pass along:
  • Children with views of and contact with nature score higher on tests of concentration and self-discipline. The greener, the better the scores (Wells 2000, Taylor et al. 2002).
  • Children who play regularly in natural environments show more advanced motor fitness, including coordination, balance and agility, and they are sick less often (Grahn, et al. 1997, Fjortoft & Sageie 2001).
  • When children play in natural environments, their play is more diverse with imaginative and creative play that fosters language and collaborative skills (Moore & Wong 1997, Taylor, et al. 1998, Fjortoft 2000).
But another important factor that most children experience is that God whispers through the trees, through the babbling brooks, and the sounds of the ocean. Through these experiences children tune into their higher spiritual natures. They easily experience the higher cosmic consciousness we all seek.


"Everything in Nature is God's Artwork." Joseph(Bharat) Cornell




I am profoundly grateful in being able to share nature with our children.
May this be one of many more nature programs while climbing mountains together. 




Thursday, May 2, 2013

Memories of our spring: a photo montage





Whenever the spring hits the Pacific Northwest, something happens to all of us. We get outside and begin to open up to the world all around us. So hence, it is with me too. I begin to expand outward and cherish natures beauty while slowly relinquishing  my commitment in sharing the Education for Life principals. Therefore, I will do my best to catch you up on some of our key activities this spring.

This has been a very busy time in our classroom with so many cherished activities that I needed to share. I can only touch on them lightly thus not to bore you with long lengthy lesson plans.

The month of March the children and all our teachers were busy with our Annual Living Wisdom Art Show. This year at the school for our main exhibit we all created a Monet's garden. The children in our class made the art sculpture with one of our fathers. This was the bridge in the garden, surrounded by a pond, a large willow tree, fish, birds, and lily pads. Each student in the school created something for the garden. It was spectacular!


The month of April the children were able to explore the human body. We spent several days on exploring the physical body. The children made their own bodies along with exploring how our hearts, lungs and brains function. 

The third week into the program we spent time exploring our spiritual body. We began a more advanced yoga program for calming our spirits. 
The third week into the program was also about keeping our bodies well and healthy.

Vibration and healing in our hands

What parts of the hand can heal our bodies?
Healing music and dance



Healing love and empathy. Here is our Pre-kindergarten baby. This is our french teacher, who now has a new baby to share with us in our classroom. 
Tibetan sound healing concert

Here we are making "\Aum" juice from all the spiritual fruits that we had all week. Yum!!





During the last week in April we celebrated " Earth day".

Next week is Mothers Day so we will have to share all our fun activities after our annual Mothers Day tea celebration.

May this spring bring you closer to the children in your life and fill our souls with many heartwarming memories.


Many Blessings,
Chandi

Sunday, March 31, 2013

Peace and Love


Happy Easter!
 May this joyful season of spring bring you a greater depth of peace and love in your hearts.

Blessings,
Chandi 




Friday, March 8, 2013

March flowers so soft and fragile





 Spring hasn't quite hit the Pacific Northwest yet, but we are getting prepared for our 8th Annual Living Wisdom School Art Show next weekend. I wanted to share a fun art project that we finished this week.

This year's theme for our art show is called:"The World of a Child's Imagination!"

The faculty at the school has selected a modern day artist for their students classroom collaboration and the all school exhibition.  Our class chose Georgia O'Keeffe's florals for our inspiration. We have used many different combinations of art materials. I wanted the children to experience many types of materials and mediums. We used pastels, tempura, watercolors, acrylics, Mod Podge, felt, embroidery threads, watercolor pens, art dough, liquid starch, and we also created a wood sculpture with one of our dads.  I will feature the art show next week after our installation on March 16th.

 I am frequently asked how to create children's spiritual art curriculum but until I write it all down somehow formally, this blog will have to do.  Often my inspiration is not mine, but from the divine and by listening to our children. I create projects from what I know they will love to share, and create. I  want them to be successful but also building new skills that they can master for a sense of accomplishment. I like to use beautiful art materials and I am very choosy about what is good for a child's energy and their spiritual vibration. The activities are prepared for our children to feel beauty through their art projects and to look at art not as a mere activity to fill time in the daily classroom, but to uplift their spirits.

Today I wanted to feature one of the projects that we just finished. I loved the way they turned out and wanted to share with you.

One of our teachers had cut out large petals from coffee filters. The children then chose six petals for each flower, attaching them in the center with Mod Podge. We had been working on the placement of petals for about two weeks, so this was easy now for them to attach together in a circular pattern. I also had the primrose on the table for them to see how flowers actually grow.




These flowers were allowed to dry until the next day. Each child began to watercolor each of the petals. We gave them only two colors so they could create only one secondary color.  I wanted the colors to be calming pastels that were not too bright. The flowers were then allowed to dry another day. 



 Then each child took their own flower and draped it over a plastic bottle. A rubber band was secured at the top of the bottle.  In some cases a rubber band was secured at the bottom too. This made it easier for the child to hold while painting. Then with large strokes of Mod Podge, they painted the flower all over again. The flowers were molded and covered in the Mod Podge.
The flowers were left upside down to dry overnight on the plastic bottles.

Small pieces of felt were then cut on a diagonal. The children glued embroidery threads for the stamen of their flowers. 

We took the upside down flower off of the plastic bottle. 
They were fun to now mold and shape. 
The small piece of felt was tightly rolled up into a small cylinder.  



These were attached with tacky glue inside the center of each molded flower. We tried several methods but found just dipping into the glue, like a sushi roll worked the best. 





This was a very soothing activity for the children. I had two little girls working quietly for about 45 minutes on finishing the centers of each flower.

These are so beautiful. They could be used for any type of event; baby shower, wedding shower or decoration in a child's room. They are fun for everyone.

All the floral activities have brought a little spring into our classroom even though the weather hasn't quite caught up to us.

I can't wait to share all of our activities for the show. But if I did then, we wouldn't have a large crowd to visit our 8th annual show at Eastwest Bookshop, March 16th from 4-6p.m.

Please come by the show and say hello to our artists.

Until next week.
Blessings,
Chandi


Thursday, January 3, 2013

Launching our spiritual dream boats a sail




Today at the Living Wisdom School the whole student body, participated in yet another of our festivals of the light celebrations. We wanted an celebration to bring all the students together and something that would connect all our children in a more dynamic way. Today at the Living Wisdom School the older students were the role models for the younger children.


New Year’s Eve is traditionally a time for thinking about the year that has passed and the year that lies ahead. It is a time to dream, imagine and to wonder what the new year can bring. All of these rituals need to become a natural part of children's daily life. All the teachers wanted a ritual to acknowledge the New Year and this activity allowed plenty of room for gentle fantasy and beauty.

Below is the basic recipe of how we organized the day.  



Here is the process:
Supplies needed

  • Large bath of water
  •  Lower the lights as it is to be magical.
  • Coverings over the bathtub or pond’ with a  dark green/ dark blue covering

  • Pretty crystals’ pebbles and shells

  • Herb/ greenery, anything with winter berries

  • 4 large glass vases to hold the greenery and extra greenery for the sides. Individual themes on each vase with matching harmonious colors on each vase.

  • Candle in the middle needs to be attached with clay or a candle stick

  • Walnut shell boats individually made by the children. Individual wicks and beeswax can be used or a small birthday candles that has been cut are melted into the bottom of the boat. The candles need to be lightweight and small.
  • New Years blessings  for each child.


To prepare the bath:
Place the bath on the floor and line carefully with the fabric. Place the pebbles, crystals and shells on the fabric at the bottom of the bath, together with the vases.The vases are evenly spread around the bottom of the bath. Fill the bath within six inches from of the rim. Place four bunches of the greenery in the vases. It doesn’t matter if they are submerged, in fact it can add to their beauty and mystery for the bunches now become island in a magical sea.They can be called, the Isle of Peace, Isle of Happiness, Isle of  Gratitude or the Isle of Love. Drape the cloth around the sides of the bath, making it secured at the rim with pins or adhesive tape. We used a heavy felted fabric so there wasn't any need for extra pins.

Prepare a tray of board with medium candle in a holder and few sprigs of greenery. Settle the boats amount the greenery and light the candle.

To prepare the letters: or messages
Each paper fortune should be rolled and tied in the middle with a string. The blessings can be placed in baskets around the outside rim of the basin. The baskets are color coordinated with each Isle.  These can be random blessings or can correspond with the Isle that they have landed on. This depends how coordinated you want your themes to be. 

 
Hand made verses are such fun to compose and served as their New Years blessings.  Write the lines on the inside of folded slips of colored, papers as you choose.I like to make up small blessings taken from the qualities of the "Little Secrets of Friendships" by J. Donald Walters. Each classroom made up and contributed their individual ideas.

Setting sail!
The first person selects a candle boat and lights the mast from the larger candle. The boat is then very carefully set in the middle of the sea. A big wish is loaded on board. A tiny ripple of the fingers at the edge of the bath is enough to see the boat gently moving off on its journey into the New Year. Where will it harbor? This was so fun to watch and dream.  Let’s hope that it visits the Isle of Happiness or Love. One of our children launched her boat and within seconds it went directly to the Isle of Love. It was like her boat was pulled by a magnetic energy source to that island. 

The spiritual aspects of this also can hold true. How often with our own energy do we push to make things happen, or do we let the stream of life carry us along with a gentle push of our personal magnetism? 

 There’s no hurry.  The children also used straws to act as a wind gust to carry their boats away. We divided the pond of water into four parts. 

All in good time the boats did come to rest, some lodged firmly on an island or clinging to the edge of the pond. However when the boat has once touched the edge of the pond it is seemed to have landed.  Each child took their blessing from the corresponding basket next to the pond. If time is limited, two or three boats could be set a sail together.

After all the children had finished with launching their boats and receiving their blessings, we placed dry ice in the pond for another mystical beautiful surprise. The children loved this aspect of the pond. Many conversations began with how the ice created the effect, how the candles blew out and what it reminded them of in nature?

 Whatever the New year holds for us, the idea was to spend a little time afloat in the world of magical beauty, that can capture our dreams and sprinkle the light of beauty, love, joy, gratitude and happiness for all we see. This is how we want our children at the Living Wisdom School to follow as leaders into the future by expanding their imaginations and preparing them spiritually to meet life challenges. Isn't this our spiritual dream already in the making?



Joy to you,
Happy New Years blessings to you. 



Friday, December 28, 2012

Part 2: 2012; A Year of Love and Inspriation


Last December on "Inside Out" I wrote an entry to review the inspirational moments of my first six months of blogging.  This past year I had so many beautiful photographs that uplifted my soul, I couldn't decide which ones to include or delete.

 With a few late nights and several hours tweaking, I created this video of love and inspiration from 2012.

May the light and joy of this year, carry all of us forward into 2013 with a greater source of love, inspiration, peace and inner joy.  

Thursday, December 20, 2012

Guest Post: Elizabeth Aguilar

 This evening as a guest post, I am delighted to feature one of my colleagues, Elizabeth Aguilar from: Education for Life in Public Schools. Elizabeth teaches 6th grade language arts (English), social studies (history), and art.  On an average day she has 30 students per class and teaches 2 - 3 different sets of students for a total average of 60 -90 students. Elizabeth has taken on teaching Education for Life, in a public classroom setting and has inspired us as a pioneer for Education for Life.  I hope you enjoy her latest post below. She is an inspiration to us all. Thank you, Elizabeth.

 A Festival of Light

   We have wonderful diversity of cultures and traditions represented at our school.  Our students’ families are from all over the world every continent is represented except Antarctica.  Therefore, the holiday season means different things to different students.  We honor these different traditions in many ways at our school, specially in this last week before our Winter Break.  In my classroom I wanted to focus on the shared tradition of “Light” during this time of the year.  So many cultures and traditions have Light as a theme in their holidays.  Most even have some sort of “Festival of Light”.  Well, in Social Studies we are still in ancient Egypt so I was curious.  Did the Egyptians have a Festival of Light?  To my great surprise they did.  Herodotus, a Greek historian in BC tells of the festival of Lychnocaia, “the lighting of lamps”.  Lamps were lit in rows on the outside of houses around this time of the year to help Osiris find his way back from the underworld.

    I shared this information with my students.  I also found some wonderful pictures of the different expressions of light in Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, as well as the story of Egypt and light in the natural world.  We brainstormed to understand what Light symbolized.  The students thought it symbolized: peace, happiness, life, power, energy - these were their words.  I told them that I wanted us to experience some type of celebration of Light but that I knew we could not have lit candles in school since it would be a fire hazard.  We could, however,  have a string of lights.  Thanks to help from Erika Glazzard, a fellow EFL teacher, I had come up with a lovely plan.  We would make a walking spiral of light that would lead the students to its center where they could pick up a glass stone that would symbolize a personal excellence quality that they wanted to nurture in themselves in the coming year.  I needed a focal point of light at the center so I brought in an angel that I had from my daughters' childhood.


     The visual experience of having the lights on the floor was beautiful.  It was like walking inside our Milky Way Galaxy.  I played Pachelbel’s Canon in D for music in the background as each student made their own way into the heart of the lights.  After every one had a turn we sat around and had a few minutes of silence as we all tried to expand our own heart’s light.  I’ve asked the students to keep their glass stone to remind them of that special quality that they want to nurture in themselves.





I am a public school teacher in northern California.  I teach 6th grade language arts (English), social studies (history), and art.  This past summer I participated in Education for Life workshops and activities.  I was so excited by what I learned that I wanted to try it in my classroom and document how the EFL principles translate into the public school system.  It’s an on going great adventure that is turning out to be fun and rewarding

 Are you a public school teacher and want to see how these teachings can be applied in a public school setting? Follow Elizabeth at: 

 http://eflinpublicschool.blogspot.com/2012_08_01_archive.html

Thursday, December 13, 2012

Memories that last a lifetime . Saint Lucia Celebration


Today in our prekindergarten classroom we began our morning watching this video and singing together.  I wanted to awaken the children to one of the European festivals that is celebrated every year on December 13th. Today marks the celebration of Saint Lucia from Sweden. Lucia seems to have taken on many stories passed down over generations but above all, the more positive role, as a symbol of light in the dark Swedish winters and as a symbol of growth for man. She is a figure who emerged from obscurity at a time when light and nourishment were most needed.

When I was a small girl growing up in Bellevue, Washington one of the most memorable Christmas's celebrations was when I was playing the piano at my very first recital. As a Education for Life teacher now I have tried to recreate these holiday experiences each year for our children. These celebrations and ceremonies provide a beautiful foundation for children to experience others realities and world cultures outside of their own. It can touch their souls and add a greater depth to their spiritual lives.



This is such a beautiful ceremony. We calmed the lights through the school hall, sang, and gave each child a candle as we walked into each classroom. This year the prekindergarten, kindergarten, first, and second graders all participated in the processional.  Our Saint Lucias, lead the way and passed out our Swedish cinnamon treats.

All the children felt inspired, beautiful in their white attire and uplifted by this sacred event.  They told me they felt like angels. These are what true memories can bring for  the young child and can last a lifetime.









God Jul,
Merry Christmas! 



Sunday, November 4, 2012

Peace gave us the seasons







Peace gave us the morning, Peace gave us the sun,
Bird songs that call us to welcome
Day and fresh labors begun. Amen, Amen
Peace gave us the seasons, Peace gave us the rain,
Cool clouds that gather to bless us,
Mist hands that soothe away pain. Amen, Amen.

"Peace" J. Donald Walters




Beginning a new school year always brings new rhythms, patterns and the challenge of combining an unfamiliar group of children together. At the Living Wisdom School this year another new opportunity arose. We moved our school into a new community, an older building, and for me it added a short distance of driving in rush hour traffic each morning. I was sad to give up my drive to the old school, a back road journey of driving through the local neighborhoods. 





As teachers and parents we often talk about being in a flow or a rhythm within ourselves and keeping our children in a systematic rhythm for the ease of their development. But the question came to me: What is a rhythm? I turned to Wikipedia and found a very inspiring quote: Rhythm is made up of sounds and silences. These sound and silences are put together to form a pattern of sounds which are repeated to create a rhythm.


Now of course this quote is talking about music, but rhythm also is part of our daily life. How often, though, do we really think about it? I know I spent quite a bit of time really concentrating on finding a  new rhythm and flow in driving to the new school. It is important that a Living Wisdom School teacher to be in a magnetic flow at any moment, not only when working in the classroom. 

One morning I was driving and felt a little rushed because I was running a few minutes late. I realized that I had not gotten my rhythm adapted to all the new changes. I felt my body start to become restrictive and tight. As I came to the first stoplight, I thought I would follow the route that others had told me was a faster way to drive to school.  As I was sitting at the light, I found myself beginning to visualize the shorter route. All it had was more cars, strip malls and stoplights. Was it shorter or not? And even if it was shorter, what state would I be in when I ended up in the classroom?  Immediately I realized, this was not a good route for me. I made a sharp turn and stayed on my original route. 

I begin each day with a morning meditation and my ultimate goal is to retain all that loving energy each morning to share with the families and children of Living Wisdom School. How would this stressful route help me? I might arrive a few minutes earlier, perhaps. But was it worth it?, “NO,” I answered mentally.
As I began to drive the longer route, I started to visually notice more around me. The new, slower route was like an extension of my meditation. A driving meditation of sorts.  It  traveled through the bedroom community of  Lake Forest Park,Washington and brought back my childhood memories of growing up in Bellevue, Washington in the 60’s.  It was so sweet to bring these memories into my thoughts. 



The trees were so beautiful, luscious and expansive. These qualities all expanded my thoughts and brought me back to my morning meditations.


How could I ever think of starting my day by driving any other way? I just love it. It adds a melodious rhythm to my morning, the, sounds of the streams, peace, and tranquil memories.. I am so blessed now to have this drive to work each morning and to begin my day with these patterns of light and sounds that bring me into my inner state of rhythm.

Everyone can try it. Let me know how it goes. May we all find that sense of rhythm within our day so we may share our peace with all whom we meet.