Flowers so soft and fragile

 This is a very busy week at the Living Wisdom School. We are all finishing up our yearly projects and assignments.

School ends on Wednesday, June 13th. 

This artist told me the smiles in her flowers were their spirits smiling back at her.

My  Preschool class wanted to spend the last couple of days painting. Today the weather was so glorious.  I couldn't resist and set up our art gallery in the Living Wisdom organic garden. We began with a "fairy tale story" then created lovely garden pictures. 

These are our budding Monet apprentices. 

Don't you agree?

 

We have practiced all year by using contrasting colors in our paintings.

Monet's waterlilies

 

These were her garden"Iris's"

Spirit and Nature dancing together

Many of you may or may not know that one of my creative hobbies is birdwatching. I have been exploring the habitats of birds and migration patterns for over 30 years. I find it exhilarating to witness beautiful and incidental sightings of ordinary birds in their own habitat.

 About 12 years ago, I was taking a workshop with naturalist Joseph Cornell, we were learning how to use our voices to call birds in a dynamic way.  I can be honest with you, I have not mastered that skill but I found the joy welling up inside me that I might have the opportunity to be still enough to actually hold a wild bird some day.

Well yesterday was that day.

I always tell my students when we are going outside in nature, it is the animals kingdom " world" that we are entering. We have to be mindful and still to listen while we become aware of everything around us.

The children and I had just finished a beautiful morning circle singing, one of Yogananda's chants,

"I am the Bubble, make me the Sea."

 We all went around the circle, and shared while holding a musical heart.  Each child was invited to acknowledge their own unique expression answering the question, "What makes your heart sing?"

 The children were very still and receptive. But working with young children the energy can change almost at any moment. We had sat long enough listening to a creative storytelling session about nature and the children were clearly ready to explore free play in our playground.

The children had only been out for about a minute, when one of the little girls noticed a baby bird that had fallen on the ground. They ran to get me. They were very scared for him. We had an attack from a large crow about two weeks before, so they were very protective of this little young Chickadee.

I tried to pick up the bird, but he just kept trying to fly very low to the ground. He wasn't hurt but was a little stunned and shaken up. I slowly picked him up and placed him back on a tree limb but he quickly flew to a neighboring fence. There he became trapped.

Meanwhile the mother over head was very loud and had realized the baby was no where in the nest or in sight. I could not see the nest, but she was gathering food, and looking desperately for her.

In the meantime, the small bird lay motionless behind the fence. After about five minutes I came around the corner to retrieve her. She could see that I was not going to hurt her this time. I was able to carefully pick her up in the palm of my hand and speaking gently to her.

We all weren't sure exactly what to do? We have small bird boxes on the fence that were made for the Living Wisdom School, so we opened the top and placed the baby bird gently inside. We left the top partly open so the larger birds could not get inside.

Shortly about 20 minutes later, the little Chickadee jumped out on the top of the birdhouse. Then she jumped to the fence. Her mother then was able to see her and quickly jumped to the next post. The little bird in joy flew to his mother. They both then flew back up where the Mother continued to feed her. It was a rare site to see.

Now the children in our classroom witnessed the whole experience. What joy and relief  it brought for all of us to see that the tiny bird made it back safely to its nest.

 This was a rare drama to witness which could have turned out differently in many ways. We all were thrilled and our spirits were dancing together with nature so harmoniously right outside our classroom window today.

Here is our classroom story we finished writing together. This will be made into a book for the classroom.

Keep you heart still, enter the silence of nature and let me know what you find out there.

Joy to you 

Chandi

March comes in like a Lion and out like a Lamb.

March comes in like a lion and out like a lamb?

The month has been full of activities but I have been going in slow motion it seems in March. 

This photo I took early in the month of March. The sun in Seattle is just beginning to break through the clouds but we are still having inconsistent weather patterns. Maybe I'm having inconsistent weather patterns too? 

  But there is always time for a quiet story on stormy spring days. 

"Come gather round, with a friend on the left and a friend on the right. 

Come gather round for a wonderful story." 

My last entry I wanted to share with you one of my favorite spiritual books for young children. This delightful book is all about energy and color. 

The book is entitled: The Great Blueness and other predicaments by Arnold Lobel. This is a sweet story about a color, energy and how light effects us in our environment. It may be out of print but I recommend that you order it from the Library. 

I don't want to give away the story too much. This is the joyful wizard after he has created all the magical colors of paint. 

This story lives on my bookshelf of " Chandi's favorites.

May your heart be filled with gladness this spring.

  I hope you all enjoy the last few days of March as April gently rolls in.

What color is your natural love's heart energy today?

 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!

We will live in joy! Free CD giveaway.

 Living Wisdom Kindness Quilt and our bird biscuits.

 This has been a full week of inspiration with love in my classroom and
through the halls at the Living Wisdom School.

I had a hard time just finishing up on all our projects each day.  So,
in other words, it was a Valentine's week in my class. 

In the spirit of love and inspiration, I want to acknowledge one of our parents at the Living Wisdom School.
Eva Tree is a Canadian singer-songwriter who has a warm tone of complexity
and sings sweet heart-yearning melodies. 

I had asked Eva to write a song for my class this year that would express the warmth of being kind in the classroom.  Eva wrote a song, then came into the class to teach all of us.  We have been singing it ever since.  A magical aura of love emanates though the room while we sing.

During the week prior to Valentine's Day, I had an idea to create a game that I saw last summer.  I wish to give the credit to the teacher in Vancouver that first thought of this project, so I pinned on one of my "Pinterest" boards.

The game is as follows:  When a teacher or staff member notices a child being
kind, or displaying friendship, the child is given a heart to color for our "all school" art quilt.  The hearts will be attached together as a large quilt in the main entry of the Living Wisdom School for all to see.

At Valentine's Day, in a classroom setting, we want to expand the children's
love, and guide them toward a larger reality of sharing love to all. This can
be in the classroom, school setting, community, and also in nature.

This valentine project was designed to share the song and blessing for all within the
whole school.  I created a game that all the children and staff can
participate in.
We found through the week that the environment at school was benefited
when we all participated together.

An extra special valentine gift in celebration of love has been donated.
Eva will be giving one of her CD's on this blog site.

Please comment below and I will enter you in the drawing.  (I will include
the name her etc and link.)    
The drawing will be made on February 29, leap
year. 

Let's all share our love this month and all live in joy.

Recipe for Bird Biscuits at the top

3 cups of lukewarm water

1 1/2 Tablespoons of dry yeast

4 cups of whole wheat flour

4 teaspoons of salt

1/3 cup oil or butter, or margarine

3 cups additional whole wheat flour

1 cup whole wheat flour for kneading

Dissolve the yeast in the water. Stir in sweetening and dry milk. Stir in 4 cups of whole wheat flour to form thick batter.

Beat well with a wooden spoon

Let rise 45 minutes

Fold in the salt and oil.

Fold in additional 3 cups of flour until the dough comes away from the sides of the bowl.

Knead on a floured surface until smooth. 

Let rise for 50 minutes. Punch down. Should be doubled in bulk

Punch down. 

Now is the time to have each child shape some rolls for them selves. Let rise about 10 minutes. Cook at 350 for about 20 minutes.

Now take the remainder of the dough and add bird seeds. Need the seeds into the dough. Cut the dough into heart shapes. Cook about 10 minutes.

 
After they are cooked for 15 or 20 minutes cool them. The birds don't mind if they are hard.
Now take a darning needle and embroidery thread. Sew the garlands by stringing several hearts together in a garland.  Individual help may be needed if the children have a hard time sewing the needle through the bread.

 " Be kind to the birds". All the birds are loving the bird biscuits. Happy Valentines month.

" A week together"

 Many times I have been asked about the philosophy at our Living Wisdom School and how this compares to other systems of teaching. I want to draw you to an excellent article that was written on our Living Wisdom Website. It compares Waldorf and Montessori education along with the Education for Life system.

Mostly in this blog I am focusing on Early Childhood education and the Foundation years though the Education for Life systematic approach. 

Today's set of photos above were taken throughout last week and the overall approach towards balancing all aspects of a young child's life in each lesson.

The foundation years from 0 – 6 years old are a critical period in the development of a child’s life. During this time, a child’s attitude about the world takes root.  Our job is to carefully nurture qualities of curiosity, sensory awareness, concentration, and compassion so that the children may feel a deep sense of acceptance towards themselves.  By focusing on mental, physical, and spiritual aspects of development, we foster the child’s cognitive and physical growth while strengthening the inner qualities of love, kindness and joy. In this way, the children naturally develop a sense of inner happiness and success.

 Teaching math using the Physical body.

The children are all turning 4 in my classroom and love playing games together. 

   The foundation years are also called, the physical years. During this period the children learn through through movement and their bodies. This particular activity we were using dice and cubes. Though on occasion there were fun times where the dice ended up way across the room. Then carefully carried the dice back and counted the dots on the dice.

This game corresponded with number recognition and one to one counting.

The children counted their dots on the dice and then counted out individual unifix cubes. The unifix cubes are shown in the picture above.   After counting correctly their cubes, they would manipulate, put into patterns and long towers. For some of the children they moved continuously as they counted the dots. That was the main reason for doing this project on the floor. One of the students was so visual that he could just open his hand and grab the amount automatically from the pile.  

This game gave me some further insight into which students were my visual learners, which were my physical learners, and which children were practicing using their will to make the largest tower.  There are many levels to the game, but today we started out with a simple counting game. The next level is to teach patterns and adding two dice together. 

In my classroom I set my goals for drawing out certain inner qualities that the children can experience from each lesson. Today the lesson was calling forth patience and cooperation in waiting for their turn. 

_____________________________________

Teaching Art through Feeling and Will Power During the Physical  Years. 

Art is another way the children can get in touch with their hearts and inner feeling during the physical years.   In January I like to focus on helping the children to expand their own realities out in nature with a sense of wonder.  It is one of my favorite times of the year with many beautiful memories.

Often I ask the children, "What is happening to the animals in the wintertime?"

It is one of my favorite times of the year with many beautiful memories.

I have explored with children the wonder of the bald eagles, beavers, northwest owls and crows. Working with young children you just never know what might happen or which animal calls to their inner natures.

 This is the picture book that I use every year to introduce the concepts of habitats, animals, humans, weather and food. The children love the story, Stranger in the Woods.

This week we finished  creating our felted animal masks. Each child made a different animal from the winter forest in the picture book. We play several games using our masks, creating stories and homes for the animals.

Teaching art through the feeling and the use of their own will power.

 In the picture above selected a winter animal picture that was clipped beside their poster paper. They began drawing with a pencil the animal that that they had chosen. (There are several steps leading up to this assignment. The children the week before had really practiced their circle drawings.)

They mixed their own colors using a color wheel and added texture to their backgrounds using sponges or several types of brushes. This particular activity is a way to balance the heart's natural love for animals. If a child becomes agitated at any particular moment, we change directions or complete the painting the next day. But even if it takes several days, I always want the children to finish a painting project.  Will Power is taught at an early age to develop persevering and to conclude something that one has initially attempted. As children grow older I talk to them about how many master artists work on more than one painting at a time and may work for months and years to complete one painting.

There is a deep profound lesson that I have seen over the past 7 years that I have taught children how to use their own will power to achieve something that they have started.  It is amazing and brings tears to my eyes each time. Each one of these young children has such intelligence and wonder they can access if we can just begin to grasp their attention and guide them through the process of becoming self-achievers. In this activity, they often break through their own fears and explore deep within themselves the ability to achieve what they set their minds to do. 

Feeling inner joy

On this particular morning, our hearts were open to creating snowmen.  It was our first day back from school after a Northwest winter snow storm. This particular morning we shared many snow family stories and had a joyful time with our winter play dough.  This exercise was also taken from our picture story book, "Who's hiding in the woods."
"Joy doesn't come from outside myself but from within oneself." These children were feeling their inner joy today.

Teaching Gratitude, Detachment to any Certain Outcome and Will Power 

during the Physical Years.

The last activity I want to share with you today for children in the physical years is a game to help them flow with the ups and downs of life, learning perseverance, gratitude and detachment from any certain outcome. This was the first time I had actually done this particular game using puzzles. I had for many years done it with art materials, but now I thought to experiment with puzzles. One of our inner qualities we are addressing this month is perseverance.

I set out six puzzles for six children. We started to play soft music in the background. They quickly began to focus in on completing their own puzzle. When the music stopped, they were to stop and go to their neighbor’s chair and complete their puzzle. When they finished a puzzle, they could dump it out and start over.  This was interesting to watch the children. Some of them completed their own puzzle quickly and were eager to get to the next station. Others did not want to move, or complete the game at all. Two children ran around the table after most of the children had left, eager to complete all the puzzles while helping each other. One student wanted me to take photos of him with all his puzzles to show his mom how well he had completed them.

It was a joyful experiment for me to watch and to observe each child. As a teacher, I am always looking for ways to help children uplift their feeling energy.  I often have the time to ask myself during a planned activity, "Where are their strengths and how can I build upon those strengths?"

Education for Life philosophy has given me the tools to tune into each individual child’s energy and readiness and respond sensitively at any given moment. This sensitivity is particularly important during the physical years, so I am truly humbled and grateful to be able to use such an effective philosophy.