"All the World is my Friend" Starting the school year right.

We begin the year in our classroom with a song:

"All the World is my Friend

When I learn how to share my love

When I stretch up my hands and smile

Then I live from above...".

Below is the link for the song:

http://soundcloud.com/nayaswamirambhakta/all-the-world-is-my-friend

Each year I begin the month of September with this song. The children are beginning to recognize each other after a long summer break and this is a familiar children's song that we sing often at the Living Wisdom School. The lyrics reminds them about kindness, friendship, and acceptance. During the month I also plan activities around being reacquainted with their former friends and meeting new classmates as we begin our new school year.

We began the year with our own self-portraits. These were hung in the hallway above our cubicles to introduce our class to
the Living Wisdom school community. I was so pleased to see how well they did and how they remembered the key points of drawing their own Mother's portraits from May.  These are so sweet!

http://chandi-holliman.blogspot.com/2012/05/divine-mothers-everywhere.html

The next project is based around all the families being acquitted with each other. The activity begins with clay that is self drying. The children mold the beads into round shapes. The clay dries for several days and the children then string their necklaces. Each necklace has world beads and their pictures of each friend that is attached.  They are so excited about their necklaces and sharing stories with their families about their new friends.

The third project we made in the classroom this year are prayer earths.
We start with styrofoam balls and layer masking tape all around the ball. 

This is such a good project for small little fingers and building small muscle development.

 The next day after the ball is completed, I cut art plaster in small pieces.

It is then placed strip by strip into a container of fairly warm hot water.

The strips are then wrapped by the children around each one of the balls.

The balls are completely covered and left to dry for about three to four days.
We also attached a small paperclip down into the ball for a ribbon hanger.

After they are thoroughly dry the children paint their worlds.

The worlds are taken home to hang in their room.

When working with the preschool child these simple projects build on the direct experience of remembering, " All the world is our friend" and we can all joyfully live together in peace and harmony on this planet.

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

It's Springtime, It's Springtime and Mother Nature sings

We are having a particularly glorious spring this year in the Pacific Northwest.

When the flowers begin to bud and the ground begins to swell with warmth, an inner glow also becomes apparent in all of us. I was raised here in Seattle, and over time the winter months have become longer, with an added gray cloud cover that never seems to clear. But our weather reports this spring are unusual in that they refer to a strange phenomenon called: sun breaks.  So you see, sometimes we just begin to feel the expansion of moving out of our homes and dig our hands in the soil or just listen to the returning sweet song birds in the trees.

I too have been away from my computer and spending more of my time with several large projects that take me outside in the fresh air.

In my Living Wisdom Classroom we have covered several new units this spring and also rekindled our annual events, the Mother’s Day Tea and our Living Wisdom Joyathan.

It would take weeks to describe all our daily activities to you in detail.  That means I will have some nice events to write on this summer, when school is not in session.

(Double click on photo to see all the projects)

But for now, let me say that we began the month with flowers and frogs.

When you first look at this, it might seem like a patented preschool education prescription for teaching--focus on words that begin with “F”--but honestly, this didn’t occur to me at all.  I choose my own curriculum by the energy of the students, looking at what will uplift them, along with the rhythm of what is happening right outside our classroom window. All too often a typical Early Childhood curriculum talks only to the intellect.  It doesn’t take into an account the child’s feeling nature and physical components. Too often we talk, talk, and talk with young children, when what they need are need “direct experiences”.  I have found, by working spiritually with young children that they already know much of what I am trying to teach to them.  I have witnessed that learning is for many an act of remembering.  They already know almost everything you are educating them about. It is a profound truth for me, this an awakening of the young soul. It is an awakening and remembering from the past. I don’t like to purchase online curricula. What I want to share with the children in my classroom are truths that are a part of their everyday world.   Some subjects that will educate children for a lifetime include: how to be a true friend, how to work harmoniously with others, how to show compassion, how to be calm in a hectic world, and how to find true happiness within their own being. These are my goals as an Education for Life Teacher.

I chose to focus on flowers and frogs this month for the expansion that I sensed that these subjects could bring to a child’s soul. So often we see children picking dandelions in the grass and making a bouquet for their mothers, or witness their delight in finding new flowers that they have never seen before in the organic gardens at our Living Wisdom School.

When we studied frogs, we were able to go out and look for them in a nearby stream.  We made frog habitats, drew their life cycles, created three-dimensional models of frogs, painted original stories about frogs, and stimulated learning with acting out stories from the classic, Frog and Toad, tales about true friendship by Arnold Lobel. The time in my classroom is both teacher and child directed. Notice I didn’t mention anything about teaching letters. Children can learn these from their parents or grandparents in a family setting. The classroom activities are rich with play, art and creativity to uplift the child’s soul.

These simple truths open their hearts in love for the experience of harmony and build on the capacity to love that we try to cultivate through-out the year in our classroom. Isn’t this wonderful?  We often forget about the simple experiences of childhood.

Look at this one!

Here are some of the samples of our time together.

A child handing me a flower that they picked for me. 

True friendship holding hands and picking flowers together

I want to end with a thank you to all our children in my classroom this month.  We have had a memorable spring as Mother Nature sang to us through her beauty.

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!

Heart and hands connected.

Handiwork and sewing have been important activities in my kindergarten and
preschool classroom this month.


About a year ago, I read an inspiring blog piece on handiwork for the young
child.  I want to connect you with her post from January 2011. 

 It is from : Fairy Dusting and Sally Haughey.

This was the first stage of our pillows

This pillow is almost completed pillow.

Here is the Kindergarten project we worked on together for our last full
moon day celebration.  These are moon pillows.  Each child individually wet
felted their own moon by using roving wool.  We then attached it very
carefully with felting needles to a piece of prepared felt.  The children
then sewed the two felt pieces together and we filled each one with rice.

When the moon pillows are warmed for 15 seconds in a microwave, the children can use
them in their coat pockets on cold winter day or at night tucked
under their blankets for a gentle night's sleep.

In the preschool classroom we completed our Valentine's hearts. During the process of completing both of these projects, I had the opportunity to
connect individually with each child.  Handiwork for the child can deepen the child's level of concentration and focus; it also challenges their willpower to complete something 
they are truly proud of. 

 Try some sewing projects with your child . These were delightful.

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.