A Wise Heart

We've been infusing our studies with the dharma since preschool.  Along with trips to Green Gulch Farm Zen Center and Spirit Rock Meditation Center we incorporate gathas, mantras, mindfulness exercises, the Eightfold path, the Brahma Viharas, and the Pāramitās into our studies.  We've worked out a pretty elaborate system over the years and it's been a real joy.  A. will be six on Thursday and she seems to truly enjoy this aspect of our home studies.  

At present, I'm writing a curriculum (based on our home studies) that follows the changing seasons and invites parents to engage in their child's inner-world.  Each month, we look at a virtue (compassion, loving-kindness, joy in others, equanimity, patience, generosity, wisdom, etc) and explore how nature is the best teacher.  I thought I'd share a bit of our routine here for all of you who are considering homeschooling or wondering how to incorporate your spiritual path into your daily schedule.

We start each day by lighting a candle and making an offering of incense in the kitchen. Then we listen to mantras and cook together.  A. sets the table and we eat quietly to set a focused tone for the school-day.  She either draws or plays while I clean up -- but not with anything noisy, digital, or electric.  I encourage stillness in the morning and have found that the less riled up she is before we start our day, the better.

Next it's Circle Time.  We sit on our zafus facing one another in the classroom and start our day with this gatha:

We are the leaves of one tree

We are the waves of one sea

The time has come for us to live as one

After the morning verse, I say a cheery little prayer such as, "Mother Nature, Universe, gods and goddesses, buddhas and bodhisatvas, ancestors, and fairies -- we're calling on all of the energies of the earth to be present in our classroom today... help our hearts grow wise so that we may know peace within and create peace here on the earth.  Blessed be, so be it, and let it be so!"

Then I say, "let us enjoy breathing together," ring our little gong, and we sit for a few breaths to focus and really arrive in the classroom.  I encourage A. to listen to all of the sounds, feel her breath in her nostrils, and notice all of her feelings.   Sometimes we'll lay on our backs with stones on our bellies and watch the stones rise and fall with our breath.  Other mornings, I ask her to listen to the gong and raise her hand when the sound has completely vanished.

Next, I invite A. to go to her "Creative Infinity"  -- the creative center of our being where the universe comes from.  Here, we look for a virtue in the form of an animal totem to "bring back" to the classroom and keep with us all day.  Some of A.'s favorites are the Cheetah of Loving-kindness and the Deer of Compassion.

After Creative Infinity comes Sharing Time.  We pass a basket of sticks and stones between us - each selecting one as a "talking stick" or a "stillness stone."  I invite A. to share anything she wants -- a difficult feeling, a story, or a favorite toy.  I usually share the calender and then use the rest of my share to introduce, review, or expand on a dharma or mindfulness unit.

Then it's time for the Main Lesson.  For Kindergarten we alternated between Language Arts and Math and I usually used an archetypal story to introduce new letters, words, phonics, numbers, or math concepts (i.e. King Plus and Queen Minus).  After drawing the story in her Main Lesson Book, singing the spelling of new words, or marching out the math facts, it's time for a little movement.

One of our favorites is a chant that we've added asanas (yoga poses) to:

Earth my body (mountain pose)

Water my blood (five pointed star pose)

Air my breath (standing prayer/pranam)

And fire my spirit (clap hands and wave them above your head)

Then it's lunch time.  While I prepare our food, she has playtime inside.  We usually set the table and recently started a new ritual of setting our food down by the kitchen alter for blessings before we eat (that's Saraswati, the goddess of creativity and learning, in the picture frame).  

Here's a great little gatha to make lunch more mindful:

Earth who gives to us this food

Sun who makes it ripe and good

Dear Earth, dear Sun

By you we live,

Our loving thanks

To you we give.

After lunch it's outside time.  I try to incorporate some Earth Science into our outside time but sometimes A. just plays.  After an hour or so, it's back in for an afternoon lesson.  I use this time for art, music, dance, yoga, science, or social studies. We alternate through these subjects throughout the week and I'm always amazed at how they integrate so naturally with the morning lesson.

We end each school day with a verse that I found in the Oak Meadow Kindergarten Syllabus.  I've expanded it and added yoga poses:

I can be as small as a small, small seed (child's pose)

I can be as tall as a tall, tall tree (tree pose)

As strong as a mountain (mountain pose)

As brave as can be (warrior III)

Because I'm a Goddess (goddess pose)

Can't you see!

One of the greatest things about educating at home is making it personal.  Incorporating our spiritual path into our studies with gathas, mantras, and mindfulness exercises has helped us strengthen our connection with one another (and with the earth) and deepened our awareness about the larger context from which our lives emerge.  What's more, this holistic method of incorporating core subjects with our spiritual path sets a framework for keeping our minds and hearts integrated.  I believe this is a path to cultivating more than intellect... it is a path to a wise heart.  

May: Flowers of Lovingkindness

May is the month of flowers.  It’s that time when all is in full bloom and the world is alive and thriving.  It is a time for celebrating mothers and honoring the life giving energies of the earth.

May Day is the half-way point between the spring equinox and the summer solstice and has been celebrated for ages as the holiday Beltane with crowns of flowers and dancing around the Maypole.  The month itself may have been named for the Greek goddess Maia, who was identified with the Roman era goddess of fertility, Bona Dea, whose festival was held in May. (from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/May) 

This week we're launching a new mindfulness unit, May: Flowers of Loving-kindness.  Loving-kindness, or mettā in Pali, is the cultivation of the kind of love a mother has for her children.  It’s a gentle love -- a love without attachment and with an active interest in others.  

Giving loving-kindness to ourselves and then radiating it to others is a tender practice that encourages awareness of our inner world.  It’s a form of mindfulness practice that increases our capacity for compassion, can calm a distraught mind, quell anger, and even help us sleep better.  Loving-kindness is a state of the mind and heart acting in concert for the altruistic benefit of the whole.   Acharya Buddharakkhita gives this definition: 

“Essentially metta is an altruistic attitude of love and friendliness as distinguished from mere amiability based on self-interest. Through metta one refuses to be offensive and renounces bitterness, resentment and animosity of every kind, developing instead a mind of friendliness, accommodativeness and benevolence which seeks the well-being and happiness of others. True metta is devoid of self-interest. It evokes within a warm-hearted feeling of fellowship, sympathy and love, which grows boundless with practice and overcomes all social, religious, racial, political and economic barriers. Metta is indeed a universal, unselfish and all-embracing love.” (http://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/authors/buddharakkhita/wheel365.html)

While the term, “metta” may be unfamiliar, the actual feeling is one that every parent knows.  Knowing this feeling ourselves gives us greater strength in teaching it to our children and helping them cultivate in their hearts this type of unconditional love for the world. 

To begin our month of loving-kindness, we’re hanging a blank sheet of butcher paper on our classroom wall.  At the top, in big, bold letters, I’ve written “Loving-kindness is…”  As the month progresses, we’ll draw pictures and write phrases that represent our understanding of metta.  I'll ask A. to think of people she loves and people that love her.  Then, I'll have her hold a flower in the palm of her hand and imagine how a mommy loves her baby.  That's metta.

Next, we’ll make a list of things – of noises and distractions that would usually illicit in us a reaction of annoyance or frustration... such as the phone ringing during school or the cat crying in the wee hours of the morning.  For the entire month of May, we’ll use these things as our bells of loving-kindness and practice transforming our unconscious reactions into conscious responses.  

When we hear the cat cry or the phone ring, we'll stop, take one deep breath, and picture a flower in our mind.  Before proceeding as usual, we'll say, "I love you cat," or "I love you telephone."  It’s here in this space that we can cultivate metta.  Our awareness itself is the first seed in the soil.  

We'll be sure to take plenty of mindful metta wildflower walks -- collecting wildflowers, tuning into the natural world as it blossoms and grows, learning about what's native to our area, and practicing experiencing the world around us with kindhearted interest.  We'll make bouquets and let each flower represent someone we know, tying a ribbon on each and saying their name while sending them metta.  When the bouquet is finished, it represents the whole universe wrapped in our loving-kindness.  

Stay tuned for more exercises, stories, and ideas for sharing the practice of loving-kindness with your children. In the meantime...


A heart of loving-kindness is also one of gratitude.  As a special thank you to Om School readers, Bella Luna Toys is offering 10% off though the end of May on "the highest quality Waldorf-inspired toys and playthings to nourish the senses and inspire the imagination."  Just enter the code IMAGINE10 at checkout at http://www.bellalunatoys.com.


With gratitude, deep peace, and metta to all, C.

Om Gnome & Fairy Garden Workshop

The Om Gnome and Fairy Garden Workshop has been busy during our spring break.  We were quite inspired by The Magic Onions amazing tutorials for making fairy furniture and toadstools... 

and got out into the garden this week to make a few additions.

We collect stones and had a bunch of nice round ones to work with.  We started with traditional red and white toadstools, then chose bright colors and, with just a little imagination, created some pretty psychedelic mushrooms.

Our fairy garden is beginning to look like a fairy wonderland...   

The new additions are so bright and cheerful...

Our kitty seems to be aware of magic in the garden...

Bright purple flowers are blooming on the Wild Lilac... 

And there is always time to just sit and enjoy breathing together...

Sacred Refuge

After taking note of Shannon Hayes' book in the New York Times article, The Femivore's Dilemma, this morning I read a fabulous review of Radical Homemakers: Reclaiming Domesticity from a Consumer Culture.  I've been feeling empowered all day.  Surely, having my existence validated feels good, but that's only a tiny piece of it.  It's more that I've been reminded that I'm not alone in my endeavors to make my home a sacred refuge from economic materialism.  

Throughout the day my thoughts returned to the women I'm honored to know... supra-ordinary mamas who are redefining feminism by simplifying their lives and setting their heart's compass to ecological sustainability, social justice, and family well-being.  In some ways, it feels like the mamas of today have given birth to a new paradigm for femininity.  We've discovered that life outside the office doesn't mean a four walled torture chamber of bon bons and casseroles.  We know what road blind servitude and mindless consumerism takes us down and we're choosing a new path.

I don't think radical homemaking would be possible without the blood and sweat of our feminist sisters who paved the way... and I wouldn't want to stay home if our culture was as patriarchally backwards as it was 50 years ago.  Does this suggest a return of the Sacred Feminine?  Maybe our world is finally beginning to realize that internalizing our female half practically tipped the earth off of her axis. 

With my inner-goddess invoked, our school day felt like a downhill slalom.  I woke up before dawn and sat in meditation for an hour, then spent the sunrise in Surya Namaskara with the Gāyatrī Mantra.  Full of sunbeams and universe juice, it was time for tending to seedlings, plants, and compost, then a slow-paced, mindful breakfast, lesson planning, and organizing artwork into portfolios. 

The highlights of our day included:

a little Greek Mythology...
with the story of Persephone, Goddess of Spring and Queen of the Underworld, from The Lady of Ten Thousand Names: Goddess Stories from Many Cultures retold by Burleigh Muten.  

a silly tongue twister...

Swan swam over the sea

Swim swan! Swim!

Swan swam back again

Well swum swan!

... writing some sentences:

Six swans swim swiftly.

Seven sisters sleep soundly.

Silver stars shine in the sheltering sky.

... spelling our S words in song:

s-e-v-e-n, s-e-v-e-n, s-e-v-e-n, that's how we spell seven!

... an introduction to the second spoke of the dharma wheel, right intention - in Pali samma sankappa:

The Buddha explained right intention as threefold: the intention of renunciation, the intention of good will, and the intention of harmlessness.

... a little piano practice perfecting

a Samba!

Then it was time for a piano lesson, a ballet class, and the park with daddy.  Still, the best part of the day was our continued seeking of spring.  We're blessed to live in a warm little corner of the universe and everywhere we turned, Persephone's work abounded.  Too beautiful for words, I'll close here with some pictures.

cherry blossoms aflame

almost like a lotus unfurling

rosemary gone wild

seedlings sprouting...

 and shining in the sun

baby leaves being born on our favorite oak

welcome little leaves!

spring heralds popping up in the fairy garden

snow peas smiling

and the sweet taste of dew drops!


(support the author and buy Radical Homemakers: Reclaiming Domesticity from a Consumer Culture direct!)

Beneath the Surface

Our February thematic unit, Life Beneath the Surface, is under way. We're honoring the halfway point through winter by remembering that underneath earth's barren surface, life is preparing to be born.  

Yesterday, we created a new yoga flow where we plough the earth preparing the soil, plant ourselves like little seeds, and, with sunshine and rain, grow into tall, tall trees.  The sequence is demonstrated below.

Throughout the month, we'll hear stories about planting our intentions, watering the seeds in our consciousness that help foster compassion, and how our minds are like a garden where every kind of seed is planted (seeds of  happiness, peace, anger, and fear). The quality of life, as Thich Nhat Hanh writes in Understanding our Mind, depends on the quality of the seeds. By learning how to water seeds of joy, understanding, love, and compassion can flower.

 

First, in pough pose, we prepare the soil.  Then, with the ground awakened, the seed is planted (child's pose) and nestled snugly in the soft soil.  With sunshine and rain the seed begins to stir, then sprout up from the seemingly barren surface. The little sprout's roots dig deep into the solid earth (mountain pose).  With blessings (prayer pose) the little sprout grows and grows (tree pose 1) and grows (tree pose 2).

Some highlights from our letter P week:

• Peaceful Piggy Meditation by Kerry Lee MacLean in which two piggies balance stressful, hectic lives with regular meditation
• Poetry Soup -- a night of candlelight and classic children's poetry while making soup with veggies from our certified organic CSA, Riverdog Farm 
• Punxsutawney Phil and a lesson on the origin of Groundhog Day (see: Celebrating Candlemas - School of the Seasons)
  
• Plough Pose and Prayer Pose
  
• Puppet Theatre
• Piano Practice
  
• Playtime with Anchor Stone blocks
• Letter P Scavenger Hunt (we found persimmon, pine and plum trees, puppies, poles, and people).
• Still planned is painting with Pablo Picasso, potting plants, and planting peas.  

Anchor Stones were designed by Friedrich Fröbel, the creator of the kindergarten system. They are made of natural stone so precisely cut and polished that they fit together perfectly.