Natural Learning

Thanks to grandma, we did a little school shopping at our local Montessori shop last week.  Some of the fun things we found there include Wildcraft: An Herbal Adventure Game,  a Peg Loom, CitiBlocs, and, a card game called Yoga Pretzels.  On the back of each card are step-by-step instructions for getting into the pose and additional insights about the pose's health benefits.  There are even breathing cards to help us, "slow down, increase awareness, and make non-reactive choices" and fun games like "Yogini Says!"  A. is really enjoying yoga this week and I'm amazed by how many poses this kid knows.

We're also enjoying the new cooperative game, Wildcraft... and I'm realizing just how much A. learned this summer.  After tragedy struck in early June, all my plans for doing a summer lesson block on healing herbs came to a crashing halt.  What kept going though was our little healing garden and actual use of the herbs found there.  Without any formal instruction, worksheets, or boxed-curriculum, A. has learned to identify herbs and edible flowers including elderberry, calendula, violas, sage, nettles, oatstraw, catnip, and peppermint and can explain a little about how each is used for healing. 

I've also been reading the California Content Standards for Kindergarten through Third Grade and dreaming up creative ways to cover this material this year.  While I won't adhere to the standards completely (that would take all of the fun out of homeschooling!), I do want A. to keep up with her peers in the event that we transition to traditional school at some point. 

I'm hoping that we can learn some of these standards the same way that A. learned about healing herbs this summer.  By seeking out teaching-moments and cultivating an open and curious attitude, we can encourage natural learning and avoid some of the resistance and stress that squashes creativity and takes the fun out of education.

Day Four {Meditation Challenge}: Devotion, Monkey-Mind, & Cooked Spaghetti

I woke up this morning thinking about what it means to be devoted.  My morning was pretty chaotic yesterday and I missed my time of the zafu.  Then we rushed out of the house for the day and didn't get home until after dinner.  By the time I got my little one bathed and in bed, I was feeling more like sleeping than sitting.  But the house was so quiet and the smell of sage in my kitchen was drawing me into myself.  So into the classroom I went, sage and all, to sit. This isn't my usual meditation spot, but last night it felt like my own private zendo.  

The dictionary definition of devotion is: "profound dedication; consecration."  The etymology of the word is more revealing... (from the Latin) "de" means "all the way down" or "completely," (see de-) and "vovere" meaning "to vow" (see vow). So, we might say that being "devoted" to our practice means that we've made a promise from the bottom of our heart to sit each day.  It means that we are dedicated and motivated to waking up, to seeing our lives with more clarity, and to bringing peace into the world be creating peace within ourselves.  What does "devotion" mean to you?  Consider journal-writing about this question as a contemplative practice.

If you fell off of the pillow yesterday, today is the day to get back on.  If you haven't signed up for the challenge, there is no time like right now!  If you are still feeling uneasy about a busy mind, check out this article at Intent.com, Quiet Please! Taming Monkey Mind in Meditation. 

For the kiddos today, check out this exercise,Cooked Spaghetti, from Donna over at Yoga In My School.  Be sure find them on Facebook for more great tips on practicing with your kids. 

 

Please don't hesitate to ask a question or share your experience, mamas.  I'd love to hear from you!!  Much love & light.

Day Two: Meditation Challenge {five tips for supporting your practice}

Because everything is connected, everything we do off of the pillow effects what happens on the pillow.  Here are five tips for supporting your practice.

1.) Create an environment of calm.  De-clutter the counter-tops, tidy your bookshelves, and organize your closet.  Encourage your kids to play with only one toy at a time.  Unplug the television.  Resist the urge to check emails and social networks first thing in the morning.  Consider these two weeks an at-home meditation retreat.

2.) Enlist support.  Tell friends and family about your meditation challenge.  Ask them to support you by contributing to your environment of calm. 

3.) Eat mindfully.  Enjoy whole foods, raw fruits and veggies, and organic grains.  While you are cooking, consider the long journey your food made to get to your kitchen.  Set the table with cloth napkins and tablecloths.  Consider saying a verse before eating such as, "the meal on my plate is the work of the universe."  Chew only your food - not your ideas or projects or worries.

4.) Exercise.  When our body is restless, so is our mind.  Try starting your day with a few rounds of Sun Salutations.    Get to a class, go for a walk, or exercise right at home with one of these award winning yoga DVDs from Gaiam.

5.) Connect with nature.  Noticing what is happening outside helps us notice what is happening within.  Watch the sunrise or the sunset.  Walk barefoot on the grass.  Have a picnic lunch.  Get to know the native plants in your area.  Create a nature table with seasonal items found on walks.   

It's not too late to join our 14 Day Meditation Challenge.  Sign up here and let your fourteen days begin today.  Much love & light to all.

Morning Ritual: Five Yogic Habits for a Stress-Free Day

Sleepy Kid in the Morning Sunbeams

I am a big advocate of peaceful mornings.  When we start our day with peace, we create an opportunity for a stress-free day.  Here are five yogic habits that might just help you create a peaceful morning rhythm.  

1.)  Rise and shine.  Begin your day with the cool earth-energy that lingers before daybreak. Savor this stillness.  Prepare to be happy and shine.

2.)  Take it slow. Instead of hitting the floor running, take a few minutes to wake up.  Sit up, take a few deep breaths, and set an intention for a peaceful day.  Consider saying a verse like this ancient Indian mantra: "On the tip of my fingers is prosperity and abundance (goddess Lakshmi); in the middle of my hand is eloquence and learning (goddess Saraswati); at the base of my hand is divine power (goddess Gauri).  In the morning, a vision of energy in my hands." 

3.)  Cleanse.  Instead of racing (or schlepping) out to the coffee maker, consider the advice of ancient yogis, step into the bathroom, and say goodbye to yesterday.  Empty your bowels, brush, floss, and scrape that fuzzy tongue.  Ayurveda interprets tongue-fuzz as a sign of undigested toxins lurking in the digestive tract.  Unless we scrape, it's reabsorbed while eating or drinking.  Next, it's time for a cool shower.  Too much steam makes us sleepy -- a cool shower wakes up the body.

4.) Meditate.  Oodles of evidence now exists in support of the benefits of meditation.  Some of the health benefits include stress reduction, better sleep, lower blood pressure, an increased sense of well-being, and increased neuroplasticity.  To begin, borrow a pillow from your couch, put your tush on the cushion, and breathe.  It's that simple.  Just sit for a few minutes each morning and focus on your breath instead of your thoughts.  For instruction on mindfulness meditation, click here.  For instruction on Zen practice, click here.

5.) Step Outside.  Take a few minutes each morning to connect with nature.  Step into your garden or onto your patio and absorb some of the cool, new day.  Stand in Mountain Pose for a few minutes with your feet rooting down into the earth.  Notice the color of the sunlight and the sensation of morning air in your lungs.  Feel the freshness of the hour.  Instead of plopping them in front of the tube, invite your kids to join you outside.  Take just one breath together, smile, then quietly say, “Good morning, world!” Take this stillness into your day.

A few small changes in your routine might just make a big difference.  Beginning your day with peace in your heart is certainly a step in the right direction.  As Patanjali, compiler of the Yoga Sutras, writes, “Peace can be reached through meditation on the knowledge which dreams give.  Peace can also be reached through concentration upon that which is dearest to the heart.”

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.  

Lovebugs of Compassion

Today was the first day of our summer home school co-op.  Our July mindfulness unit is compassion and we kicked off our studies with a discussion about what the word means.  The girls did a great job naming examples. They said:
 
Understanding
Loving speech
Caring
Feeling other people’s feelings
Comforting others when they are sad
Empathy
A soft heart
Saying Namaste!

After circle time, I read the story of Kuan Yin from The Lady of Ten Thousand Names: Goddess Stories from Many Cultures retold by Burleigh Muten.  Kuan Yin is the goddess of compassion and her name means, "She Who Hears the Cries of the World."   

In this telling of her story, Kuan Yin starts her life as a princess who wants nothing more than to spend her days praying for the sick and nursing underfed animals back to health.  When she chooses a life in a nunnery over her father's wish for her to marry, her father burns the nunnery to the ground.  When she escapes the fire, he orders her execution.  The princess wakes from the sleep of death in the land of the gods where she earns her name, "She Who Hears the Cries of the World" by looking down to Earth and assisting those in trouble.


One day, she hears the cries of her own father and, despite his treatment of her, she goes to his rescue.  Because her heart was full of nothing but pure love, she is able to heal the king of his malady by sacrificing herself.  The Earth trembles, rainbow-colored clouds gather over the palace, the scent of lotus blossoms fill the air, and flowers rain down on Earth.  Kuan Yin rises into the sky like the round golden moon, spreading her glowing light all over the Earth.  From that day forward, the king shared his wealth with the kingdom, no one ever went hungry, and healers were always available for the sick.


The girls took picture notes while I read the story.  We talked about practicing to have a heart that holds nothing but love and how letting go of anger softens our heart and brings peace into the world.  Then they shared their pictures and answered a few listening comprehension questions.


Next it was time for a little movement.  The girls declared themselves "love bugs of compassion" and proceeded to buzz around the house giggling.  After a little silliness, it was time for some yoga.  With gratitude for her life-giving energies, we giggled our way through a few rounds of sun salutations.


For the last part of our day, we put our compassion into action with a little community service project that I'm organizing through Children Creating Change.   I'm connecting kids with nursing home pen pals at the local home where A. gives piano recitals twice per year.  The girls know that they may never get a letter in return but they're sending pictures and notes to bring a little cheer into the lives of some special grandmas.  If your child would like to adopt a grandma or grandpa, please post a comment below and I'll happily facilitate the connection.

The girls just finished eating fresh raspberries from our favorite local farm... and were convinced this one was a heart-shaped raspberry of compassion.  Now they're back in the classroom giggling and coloring.  Their little squeals remind me that compassion comes in many colors and is as essential as knowledge.  The Dalai Lama once said, “Each of us in our own way can try to spread compassion into people’s hearts. Western civilizations these days place great importance on filling the human 'brain' with knowledge, but no one seems to care about filling the human 'heart' with compassion."  I couldn't agree more and look forward to nurturing a little more compassion with these lovebugs this summer.

Summer's Song

Outside the wildflowers of spring have dropped away into the golden hills of summer.  Leaves have grown full, gardens have grown abundant, and the busy-ness of spring has faded into summer's slow song.  American poet William Carlos Williams wrote, "In summer, the song sings itself."

The Summer Solstice came and went and now, after reaching her full strength, the sun is journeying away from us again.  Like the outside world, our inner world also moves in seasons rising and falling, growing and fading, always transforming and becoming.  This season of warmth and rest is a time for recognizing completions; for laying down what we've finished or what no longer serves us.  Here at Om School, we've said goodbye to Kindergarten and are relaxing into the next step of our journey.

We finished the year with Y for yogini and Z for Zigongosaurus, a genus of sauropod dinosaur from the Middle-Late Jurassic age of Zigong, China.  While the learning never stops, we've also laid down my formal lesson plans for summer and have been enjoying unstructured learning.  Our schedule includes a new adventure with our meditation center, Spirit Rock, where the children's sangha has just begun.  Last week, A. enjoyed making new friends in the K-6 class and I enjoyed the adult sitting group and Jack Kornfield's dharma talk,  Turning of the Seasons.

For our June mindfulness unit, Summer's Song, we relaxed into the turning of the seasons; listened to nature as she slowed down; and let go of things we'd completed.  As summer continues, we'll bring conscious attention to the smells and tastes that are so different now than the rest of the year.  We'll listen to the cicadas and notice how white clouds dot the bright blue sky.  We'll keep a science journal of native birds, read books, and make lemonade.  We'll watch the sun set and smile as she dips behind the mountain.  Most of all, we'll listen as summer sings her song.

What are you doing to connect with your kids this summer?  What are you doing to connect with nature?  I'd love to hear your plans and ideas...

Symbols of Spring

Springtime has our focus on the feminine... on new life, crafting, creating, and rejuvenating. We've enjoyed making garlands with hand painted blown eggs and learning about eggs as a symbol of fertility...  We made a pretty little star with sticks and the lavender growing rampant in our yard and hung it over the seedlings in our kitchen for blessings from Mother Earth... 

We learned about the origins of spring holidays and honored the goddess Ostara with offerings of rice, flowers, stone eggs in a raffia nest, feathers, and stone towers representing the vernal equinox and return of balanced days and nights.... 

We planted seeds in egg crates and enjoyed combining two powerful images of new life.  Most of all, we've been honoring the earth's rebirth by simply spending family time together.

Our academic adventures are turned to the letter T with sixteen new words: take, that, the, their, them, they, this, three, tree, to, two, tell, than, these, thing, and tiger.  

We're spelling in song:
t-h-r-e-e, t-h-r-e-e, t-h-r-e-e, that's how we spell three! 


We're writing new sentences:
Three tall trees sway.
Two tigers tapdance.
Tell them they're late!


We're working on sister sums for math... matching doubles with equations of the same sum (4+4 with 5+3 and 6+2, etc.)


We've fallen in love with a wonderful book about loving-kindness, Tenzin's Deer: A Tibetan Tale by Barbara Soros,"a tale of compassion, healing, and the guiding power of dreams..." that "urges us to listen to our intuition and be courageous in the face of loss."

We're continuing our dharma unit on the three facets of right intention and have re-named last year's stuffed Easter Peeps.  Meet Mother Intention, Pinky Renunciation, Bluey Good Will, and Purpley Harmlessness.  We're working on a story that illustrates the intention of renunciation as resistance to the pull of desire, the intention of good will as resistance to feelings of anger and aversion, and the intention of harmlessness as not thinking or acting cruelly, violently, or aggressively, and to develop compassion.

Last but not least, we're working on a new yoga sequence and accompanying verse.  The first two lines came from our Oak Meadow Kindergarten syllabus.  I've expanded it and added asanas intended to help develop a strong, feminine sense of self.  The sequence is illustrated by my little yogini below.


I can be as small
as a small, small seed
I can be as tall
as a tall, tall tree
As strong as a mountain
As brave as can be
Because I'm a goddess
can't you see!

 

Our new sequence, from left to right: Seed Pose, Tree Pose (Vrksasana), Mountain Pose (Tadasana), Warrior I (Virabhadrasana I), Goddess Pose (Utkata Konasana), Prayer Pose (Pranamasana).

Spring is a time of balance and renewal but it also feels like a feminine season to me.  It's a time for planting, growing, and bringing forth new life from the earth and from within.  In a world that seems to have forgotten it's feminine history, this feels like the perfect season for remembering.

S is for Spring

With one week to go, signs of spring abound and, by yet another sweet synchronicity, we began our letter S unit this week.  

We use Fry's 300 Instant Sight Words for our weekly words.  With a total of 30 S Words on the list, we decided to split it in half and give the letter S two weeks instead of one.  This week's words were: spring, said, see, she, so, stand, such, some, saw, say, school, seem, shall, should, soon, and sure.  Instead of a written spelling test this week, we elected for something more fun.  After singing all of the words all week, we had a family Spelling Bee on Saturday.  I'm proud to report that A. is becoming quite a fantastic little speller. 

Some of other S things we enjoyed this week were Spring's Sprung by Lynn Plourde, beautifully illustrated by Greg Couch, learning to play a Samba on piano, Book 10 in Scholastic's Planet Earth Phonics Reading Program - Snakes, and committing to memory eight math facts we called "sister sums" where we matched doubles (like 4+4 and 6+6) with other math facts (like 5+3 and 7+5).

Still, the highlights of our week were welcoming spring in our outdoor classroom.  We've been closely watching the trees in our area give birth to blossoms and baby leaves.  Our neighbor's Flowering Cherry is aflame with pink blossoms, our winter daphne is full and sweet smelling, the manzanita are covered in tiny white flowers, our snow peas are thriving, and our tomato and jalapeno seedlings are now three inches tall with water droplets always glistening on their primary leaves.

With the sun's return, and our studies turned to the letter S, it seemed like a perfect time for sun salutations... a moving prayer of gratitude to the life-giving energy of the sun.  Sun salutation, Surya Namaskar, links together twelve asanas in a dynamic flow.  Beginning the day with a set in each of the four cardinal directions wakes up our bodies, gets out the wiggles, and as Christopher Key Chapple, a professor of Indic and comparative theology at Loyola Marymout University says in this month's Yoga Journal, "calls us to stretch our minds and spirits to the corners of the universe, allowing us to feel the vast expanse of the cosmos within the movement of our bodies."

The ability to sense the cosmos within our body is something I hope my munchkin is cultivating through our at-home studies.  It comes when we slow down, when we put some space between our habitual responses and our actions, and when we take care to spend time with the natural world.  

Watching tiny blossoms sprout from barren winter branches reminds me that spring is a promise the earth keeps each year.  Sensing the birth of that promise within myself gives me a deep peace -- a trusting feeling in my heart.  There is a surrender, a certain acceptance, in this trusting... a calmness of spirit that informs each day with joy.


Tomorrow we'll begin eight more sister sums, fourteen new S words, sing a silly swan tongue twister, and continue seeking spring.  Tonight, I'm settling down with my family for a Sunday night in stillness.

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.