I am soon to be celebrating
my tenth year of teaching at The Living Wisdom
School which began on April 17th, 2002. I founded the
school as the Living Wisdom Preschool in Lynnwood, Washington,
with three students. The school incorporated into a non-profit in the fall of
2006.
We have grown successfully each year and are now well over 40 students in
our school in Shoreline, Washington.
I have written curriculum for teaching spirituality and yoga for young children now for about 15 years through our Living Wisdom Summer Yoga Camps, group outings, and our Sunday School curriculum.
The activity I am writing
about today was created by my very first students
in the early years of the preschool. It has deep-seated roots in yogic
philosophy; the inspiration for this activity came from a small book
called "Do it Now" by J. Donald Walters. This little book has 366 practical
ways to improve your life and is a perennial guide for body, mind and spirit.
Time and time again, this is one of the students' most favorite activities of the year. It permeates all that we do in our yoga sessions, art explorations and for a intuitive way to view our general well being in the classroom at any given moment.
This activity is given to older preschool children or Kindergarten age. The children are paired up with students that they aren't naturally drawn to play with ever day. They are given six bottles, a large water container, two small containers to mix colors in, and two drops of food coloring. They have to work with their partners to create six different colors using only the two drops of food coloring.
During the process many delightful things begin to happen. The children are given the opportunity to work closely together to solve problems. If, after mixing, two bottles are exactly alike, that they have mixed, they have to slowly pour out one of the bottles to create a new transformed color.
As a teacher, it always amazes me to watch this process on many levels. At the end of the process, we line all the colors along our window sill in the classroom. The colors of the rainbow are components of what may be called your “energy body.” These colors have different rates of vibrations, and harmonize with our energy field in the body. At several different moments during the day, we actually go over to our bottles and chat about where are energy is today.
Is our energy from our heart "green"for healing, or growth? Is our energy red for cheerfulness, love, or laughter. Is it "pink" for the expanded heart of our love? Is it "blue" for calmness? Is it "yellow" for wisdom? Is it "orange" for creativity and a fiery enthusiasm? Is it "violet" for high thoughts and kind thoughts to others today? Is it "indigo" for pure feelings, devotion, love of beauty? Or is it the "white" for the blend of all the seven colors of the rainbow: all-forgiving innocence, mental clarity, and a heart that is kept open to the needs of others?
What color is your energy today?
But most importantly for the young child it is their ability to feel their heart's natural love and how they can uplift their consciousness and thoughts to expand their love to others. Sometimes I love to watch them talk about how the colors make them feel -- or I will just catch them setting by the colors and talking about all kinds of things.
Here the children are creating color charts for their healing food booklets.
We are all so affected with colors and our natural settings. What color is your natural love's heart energy today? Share this with your children. Explore the opportunities and let me know what happens for your classroom or family setting.
In the next couple of days I will share with your some of the selected books that go along with this theme.
Please stay tuned later this week.
Joy to you!
