First Give-away on "Inside Out"

It is an exciting moment on this blog. Thank you for your emails, verbal comments and expressions of love that you have given me since starting this blog in August.

Susan Usha Dermond has offered our first give-away . Susan Usha Dermond will be sending out a copy of her book; Calm and Compassionate Children. I wrote a book review on this blog in September.

I will be giving the book away this Friday, November 18th. So please comment below and you may be the winner from a random drawing for this deeply inspirational book. I look forward to your comments.

 Many Blessings and thank you, Chandi

I am as Steadfast as a rock.

The fall has finally arrived in the Pacific Northwest and we are enjoying every minute of it. This is my first year with this particular group of students so I am venturing slowly into "nature," taking them on short hikes as they become familiar with my style of being in nature.

I have two rules in nature. The first one is to cross the street safely together, using our street-crossing poem. The second rule is expressed by a small song I sing: "My eyes have to be on you!" If the children aren’t able to control their little bodies, then I have to hold their hand personally until they can be safe. This is much too confining for three or four-year-olds, so I get respectful responses from the beginning.

 This particular morning we were out collecting leaves in our baskets.

 We had such an exciting time together, as they led me in an exploration to find our new little forest of baby trees. Across the street from our school is a vacant school that has several varieties of natural plantings that are currently not being tended to. I thought that taking care of these little trees might be a good service project for our class. Children are so curious in nature, and love to expand their own realities outside the classroom. 

We collected many beautiful leaves.  All week the children had been building up to our experience of gathering leaves outside the classroom. Even though technically the fall season began in September, the leaves hadn’t started turning colors until late October. How can you start a project on fall leaves in your classroom when young children can look right outside their windows  and still see bright green leaves on every tree? You can talk to them about the leaves turning soon, but until they see the vivid red and orange and yellow leaves, it won’t be as memorable an experience. It just doesn’t seem natural or real to me. So I wait as long as possible, and find that the children’s receptivity is magically heightened when they can actually see Mother Nature lifting her fall veil before their eyes. Today the colors, smells, light, and beauty of Fall were around us. 
At the Living Wisdom School we are fortunate to have the ability to create a curriculum that can respond to natural rhythms and best serve the children. I like to call our outings, not field trips, but direct experiences based on Sharing Nature with Children  by Joseph Cornell. As this book says, Once students' interest and energy is awakened and focused, the stage is set for deeply experiencing nature.

The morning was so captivating; I decided to stretch my luck. “Let’s just sit a bit and have our morning circle,” I suggested, leading the children to one of my favorite spots on the school grounds. This is where, throughout the year, I and my students practice meditation, centering prayers or yoga together. It is a very quiet spot and has an expansive view of the neighboring hillside. The site has enough large rocks for almost every child to sit on, or to share with a friend. This morning, we sat as still as rocks.
 “I am firm and steadfast as a rock.” I knew I had to catch them quickly as we settled into our sitting meditation. We closed our eyes, and felt our rocks underneath our bodies. “How does that feel?” I asked.  Next we moved to noticing all the smells we could smell. We had done this several times in the classroom, but children's natural senses are heightened in nature. This was their first sensory exercise that required being still outside. When working with young children, I have found that it is helpful to create good practices and habits, building good foundations through the use of repetition. As you take things learned inside out into nature, you can repeat the steps, but add new, creative steps along the way.  
“What do you smell?” I asked, to help them expand their practice now, in nature. They were coming up with all types of wonderful smells while sitting on their rocks. “Can you smell the pine needles?” 

  As they opened their eyes, one of the girls looked up at the tree and asked, “What is that on the tree?” Someone had painted some graffiti on the tree. It wasn’t that noticeable, and normally I don’t like to draw attention to these intrusions in nature; I want children to experience the beauty of nature as it is. But I explained what had happened, and then we all hugged the tree and thanked it for being such a profound deep presence on our school grounds. 

The following day, the children worked on our “House of Fall” by attaching the leaves carefully with yarn.


  

In the Northwest, fall can be a prolonged event or it can be a short one.  It is up to Mother Nature how long the beauty will last. A fall wind can quickly diminish the length of time we have to enjoy the beauty of the leaves. That is why we as parents and teachers need to be responsive to the moment. Take the children outside to experience the fall season as often as you can. That is where many precious living memories will be created. My most memorable hikes with my Girl Scout troop as a child involved collecting leaves, followed by warm hot cocoa and crackling fires to warm us up in the fall air.

Sharing nature with small children brings such a deepening, and draws attention to what is important in our lives. This fall, it’s not too late to take a walk with a child, stop and breathe in the colors, and feel the firm steadfast rocks beneath you.  In gratitude, we gather an inner strength from all the gifts Divine Mother has bestowed upon us this past year. 

Gather your coat, scarves, gloves, and hat.  Then, without any agenda, feel nature this week.

 

 Let me know what you find out there......

O moon, O moon

O moon o moon
You are very white,
Everything looks beautiful
Under your light.... 


Tonight is the full moon and another beautiful day in our classroom. I like to celebrate the expansion of children's' spirit and celebrate our connection with the moon. 
Today in class the children began with a calming circle. We all began cooking our moon biscuits together.

Last month, I shared with you how I bring a group of children together harmoniously to cook. It works every-time like magic. The recipe is divided into stages. I make up recipe cards with handmade photos of the ingredients. The children choose their cards. We also talk about how important hygiene and our spiritual energy is when we cook. The children are learning on so many levels.

Thank you for giving your friend a turn at stirring.

 The day continued with our afternoon parade though the classrooms.

She was a bright light today as our full moon.

 At the conclusion of our afternoon together a special surprise of "moon bubbles" were shared. 

The children are able to share the joy of the breath, light, sight, and expansion as they watched their individual moons float up to the sky. 


May this evening bring your family into an inner state of calmness as we feel our spiritual connection with the moon and all that is. 

Spirit and nature dancing together

My classes celebrated today our Fall Harvest Festival at my home in the Ananda Community. We live on almost 6 acres of land surrounded by many varieties of trees. Today's visit was to help harvest the apple trees. We cooked, sang, marched in a parade, played games and I told stories. Today was a beautiful day in the Pacific Northwest. Divine Mother was shining her sunlight down on us.

We also had a very auspicious event happen. As we were picking our apples off the tree, we looked up and saw a bald eagle was flying over head. It soared above our heads for the whole time while the children were picking apples.

The children drew cards from the recipe. Her card was cutting the butter. The others are showing respect and patience as they wait for their turns.

Team work

Stirring the apples for mini pies

This needs a little more apples on top.

Look how many I found

I can get it

  Our spirits and nature really danced today. What a glorious day we had together dancing in thy light.

Even-minded and ever-cheerful through thy inner light reflected

Even-minded and ever-cheerful through thy inner light reflected!

One of the spiritual qualities that I like to teach children is how to stay even-minded and cheerful through the ups and downs of life.  For some children, this takes deep practice over the course of many years.  For others, it may take only a few weeks.  Either way, it is worth the trouble to guide our children.

 Many years ago, I had a young child in my classroom that often hid under the table, kicked and shoved the tables and chairs that we used to sit on in the classroom.  This little boy was dear to my heart, but since safety was of utmost importance to me, this was not acceptable. I had to really search within myself to figure out what my next step would be.  I needed to suggest to this child that his behavior was unacceptable—not just unpleasant to others, but unsafe as well.  I knew how smart and intuitive this boy was.  I knew that I needed to be decisive and loving at the same time.

I quickly grabbed a mirror and set it under the table.  Oh, my, did he dislike seeing himself reflected back through the mirror!   When he first saw the mirror, he would not look. Then, slowly, he looked at himself and came out of from under the table. As his temper subsided, we were able to talk about what had happened.


Over the years since then, I have used technique this over and over in my beginning classes with children. I often carry a small mirror in my hand to use when children are present. The mirror can reflect to them their deepest thoughts and fears—as well as provide a reminder of joy in many situations.
These pictures were just taken in my class room .

Two children were playing quietly, connecting and building a castle together.  A third child, who was not expressing anything at the time, came over and knocked down their castle to get their attention.  The third child ran off, while the other two were mesmerized, hurt and confused.  It was a perfect teaching moment.  I grabbed the mirrors, bear puppets, and happy faces that I keep handy. We all sat down together and played a game with the puppets, the faces, and the mirrors.  The children acted out something similar to what had just happened.  Using the puppets, the children created a story about two bears eating their berries, and pushing a third bear out of the way.


  This was a perfect teaching moment as I was reflecting to them the actual events that just occurred. We all began talking about how we felt during our morning in class. How did we enter the class today? Who did we play with? Did we use our words carefully and ask others to play? Were we cheerful? Were we upset in our class when others destroyed our game or did we just rebuild it again?
 
In my classroom at the Living Wisdom School puppets, mirrors, and happy faces are often used to introduce a story, or clarify a rule in the classroom.  This is age appropriate and a clear way of communicating that children can easily understand.  Acting out different situations is a kind of play that helps to ease tension and increase awareness in Kindergarten and Preschool children.

 This evening, I wanted to dive a little deeper in the spiritual qualities of even-mindedness and cheerfulness for this blog entry.  I turned to a book written by one of my favorite authors, J.Donald Walters.

  In Affirmationsfor Self-Healing, I magically without my former knowledge all these years found this affirmation:

Even-Mindedness

I remain untouched by gain or loss. In the calm mirror of my understanding I behold Thy light reflected.

We can guide our children to the inner truth and light that is reflected within them

There they will find true peace and happiness while enabling them to always be even-minded and cheerful. 

Many Blessings, until next week. 

Living in harmony with the animals on the earth

The past two weeks our class has easily transitioned to our next unit: "The Animal Kingdom." My Preschool and Kindergarten classes just loves animals. In fact, many young children love animals. This is one of the easiest steps for teaching young children compassion while opening their own hearts to the world all around them. 
The next few blogs will contain the projects that we completed.

To begin the unit I wanted to combine three stories and tell them over and over throughout the next few weeks. I wanted to try some of the techniques from a one of my favorite blogs by: Sally Haughey from: Fairy Dust Teaching. She has written many excellent entries on storytelling.  Specifically here today, the entry on: The power of table top puppets and retelling a story.

I choose the story: The Great Kapock Tree, by Lynne Cherry.  Here is the story read aloud.

The children heard me tell the story with puppets and then we all practiced again and again. For many, this was the first time that they ever had the opportunity to act out or retell a story.  I also want to work with the principals on building strong hands on literacy.

The children acting out different animal parts in the story. These children are listening to sounds on one of our rainforest Cd's and making the sounds of the animals in the story.

 Individually acting out the story

Well, we arent quite yet ready to make a video of our stories, but we have had alot of fun retelling the story in many creative ways.

"The light is inside each one of us”

 Often I am asked by parents, “How can parents tune into the different spiritual qualities of their children? How can I motivate my child spiritually today? What are the best ways to keep my children’s hearts open, loving and expanded as they grow into their adolescent years?

As a mother of three children that are now in their 30’s I must say, I wish I had all the information that is available today for raising holistic spiritual children. Honestly though, the best way to tune into our children’s needs is for us to be centered in ourselves through a meditation practice. This daily practice of stillness can transform anyone’s life and the depth of intuition.

 

  I was guided to begin a meditation practice during 1980s with a group of women, shortly after my third child was born.  In the strict Christian faith in which I was raised, I was taught to believe that “God,” or the Holy Spirit (which I visualized literally as a “holy ghost”), or any spiritual experience, should be something far outside of myself.  But finally I realized that contacting the Divine was actually a very easy process.  I realized that I had the gifts, and that the light was within me all the time.

My new found mediation practice took many forms.  At first I was guided by visualization, books, crystals, watching and listening to the VHS videos and audiotapes prevalent then. I was like a sponge, trying to put my hands on any practice that would give me inner guidance and answer my questions about my life’s purpose and how to be truly happy.  I became serious about my meditation path and the practice of Kriya Yoga in 1993.

As I was driving my car down a long street on the way to work this morning, I realized that that our life is a long journey, and that the life we share with our children involves nurturing them to tune into the longer rhythms of life. Parenting and teaching are focused on the longer rhythms when we share our spiritual lives with the children that are around us.  We have all been drawn together for a higher purpose.  We may not yet know the reason why we are together, but there is definitely a reason.  I am always telling my students, “You have a great work to do in the world. That is why you have come to our Living Wisdom School.  Your life will make a difference too many in the future.”

Every moment that is shared with our children is priceless, and can help to build the foundation that they need for a lifetime. How many times a day do we have to remind our children to do something?  How many times do we need to re-tell stories about their birth, or a family event that was important to them?  How many times do we have to remind them to brush their teeth, hang out with the right friends, be home on time, write a note to tell you where they are or learn to behave in a restaurant and grocery store?  Sometimes, as a parent and teacher, you just wonder, how will I get through this?  How am I doing?

               1983                                            2008         

 My children

Then, one day, you realize that your time with your children is precious.  It’s like the wind. It permeates the very essence of your being and then, before you realize it, it leaves you—it subsides and vanishes. We can’t hold on to the wind, but we can surround ourselves with the love of our children and students, feeling it in every fiber of our being through the deep love we feel from the spirit of God that enfolds us. All our lives benefit from knowing each soul.

I once received a profound birth announcement from a family that were new parents.  It read,

“May this young child born today be my guiding light and teacher, and may I be still enough to hear the whispers from his soul.”

I can say now, after 35 years, that we as parents can only do our best in any given moment. But the key that I have found as a teacher at the Living Wisdom School and as a grandmother of three is meditation.  As a chant we sometimes sing puts it, meditation has been “the polestar of my life.”  It has given me the guidance, attunement, courage, and deep wisdom to share the ray of the divine light that I have sought and been granted—again, in meditation.

We all can benefit from time spent attending life’s deeper rhythms. Mediation can feed us.  It helps us to become witnesses, holding a calm focus on the deeper intuitive feelings that balance our lives. As a witness to our children, we are able to calmly receive the high truths that will serve their spiritual lives.

“May God’s light expand within you;

May we be one in that light someday.”

--Words from “Go with Love,” by: J. Donald Walters.