Tie those knots and beads for a colourful streamer

I had brought back bundles of yarns from the craft stores. A sudden idea awakened our creative powers.  Making such crafts has always helped to integrate our head, heart and spirit. It has developed our imagination and has nourished our active thinking skills. 

I was amazed by the patience and will that my little boy demonstrated in gracefully creating this streamer. He had a very pleasant time making this colourful magic and it acted as the right opportunity for him to improve his hand skills too. I made one and gifted it to a child in our neighbourhood while my son kept his creation with himself. I also realized how much it is so easy to create simple colourful toys for children. There were days when I used to consume so much. All that was needed to make this streamer was a paper plate, a hole punching machine, beads and yarns. 

Enjoy Learning and Sharing

Prabha

 

Embracing Nature In An Urban Life

When I was a child, I used to visit my grand father's village. One of my favourite activities after I have my lunch is to grab my friends from the street and go out on a nature expedition. We used to enjoy the street side trees, bushes, hang out and play in the areas around a huge tank in the village. The most favourite activity was to visit a temple near by to collect the cashew nut fruits, gather mangoes and collect all kinds of leaves, stems and barks. We used to collect a lot of almond fruits and crack their shells and eat it. We used to take home loads of natural things that we collected. We also used to pick soft rounded stones, get back home and play a game using those stones that naturally developed our fine motor skills. It was all free play, nobody used to facilitate anything for us. The experiences that helped us connect with nature in the olden days were really very rich and peaceful. We had the freedom to explore, play and interact with nature with very little supervision. 

The lives of children today are very different than it used to be in the olden days. Lately, things have changed and there are very less opportunities for children to connect with nature and experience free play in areas surrounding the nature. These children have less contact with nature and earthly materials. We end up living in areas with manufactured playground equipments designed by adults. Adults think these are appropriate models for children to play. Children's lives have been structured and scheduled by adults. Most adults think that a structured and scheduled class or a sport would help children develop skills that will help them become a successful adult. 

Nowadays, we pay hefty price to have contacts with nature. During one of such trips recently, I was moved into tears when I observed the body language and behaviours of my child when he had the freedom to just 'play' and connect with natural things, mainly in his own way. He was happily running around, imitating animal behaviours, gathering stones and sticks and more. The main point is no instruction was given to him to be a certain way and he was never asked to do certain things. It all happened just naturally and I felt that nature is indeed a teacher. I was amazed by his curiosity and natural inclination to develop a connection with nature.

Though I am not able to recreate such an experience for my child more often, I always wonder how can I give him a chance to explore nature so that he could be aware of the affinity that human beings have with nature. When I look at what is available near by, I would say we are really blessed to live near a beach. Beaches are quite places to connect with nature. Yes, I really mean that, the ones near by our place are quiet ones.

Beaches are heaven and it is indeed a bliss to get our hands and legs wet. We make sure that we visit the beaches more often nowadays since it is one place where we can embrace a bit of nature while living an urban life. It is always so much happiness to watch my child discover the beauty of nature and play in unison with it.

I also feel a very healing sensation to touch and collect shells along with my child.

As the saying goes, 'Nature nurtures creativity", these beautiful shells inspired us to create something out of those. With the Ganesh festival going on, we chose to create a beautiful Ganesha using those shells. Holistic approaches to learning such as this indeed nurtures our body, mind and spirit and it does improve our creative intelligence. And we did experience that and you will agree when you take a look at our 'Shell Art Ganesha'

All we needed to create this beautiful shell art, were only shells collected in the beach and a left over thermocole sheet. The only material for which we spent some money is the small fevicol tube with which we glued the shells.

Creativity is as important in education as literacy and we should treat it with same status - says Sir Ken Robinson and I am glad we were able to unleash creativity, with nature as our teacher to get ourselves soothed and to have our senses put in order. Though we are not able to experience nature in a way we would really wish to, we are happy that we are able to help ourselves with what is available and accessible for us, in an urban life that we have chosen to live. We experience what is available for us and bring a bit of it to our craft table too.

Regular contacts with nature helps children develop ecological literacy, they develop a love towards our planet. Not only that, the wisdom amassed through such experiences are far more useful for them to make wiser choices in their future to save our planet than the content knowledge gathered from books.

What opportunities are available for you to help your children connect with nature in today's urban life? 

Enjoy Learning and Sharing

Musings on Doing, Being and Living Consciously

Lately, I have been very lethargic. May be because I am just unwinding and de-stressing after a long awaited event that happened in our family. While I say that "I am destressing", I notice that I am not doing anything to de-stress; the body has naturally been doing the unwinding job by being so lethargic and making me sleep more than I usually do. Believe me or not, sleeping is one of the difficult tasks for me on earth. I am so surprised how I am sleeping so much nowadays. It could be that my body naturally needs that much rest. Anyways, I am letting it be and allowing what so ever is happening.

Sometimes, we tend to forget that we really are tired and when we sit down to relax, we notice that the body automatically wanting to unwind. I notice this in moms and more in working moms or working from home moms. If we are not conscious, we are never aware how much stress our body goes through. Rest is so important for mothers (whether working outside home or not). I have generally noticed that mothers have this pattern of over committing. I am not talking about the habit of over committing to others. I am talking about over committing to oneself. The impact of such over commitment is generally not noticed and life moves on.

Recently, my husband shared a thought provoking quote with me.  He said the quote is from some movie that he does not remember and the quote goes like this, "Your ego writes checks that your body can not cash" . I would rather add, it is not just ego, even when passion takes more room, that is when balance is out of place. The balance that I am talking about is wanting to always do more rather than simply just being and letting things take its course.

"Many of us are so tied up with the identity of what we are doing rather than focusing on who we are being. ‘Doing’ is focused more on achievements measured by external standards. ‘Doing’ is more directed and intentional. But what is allowing these external achievements with an authentic quality is the ‘being’. ‘Being’ immerses us in the flow of life. It is about allowing it to happen, letting go, and accepting what is there. ‘Being’ orientations values the person and not the achievement. It is inward, placing greatest emphasis on rewards that are intrinsically meaningful to the person." 
--------------- Coaching for Self Awareness - The role of coaching in helping you identify who we are (2009) by Prabha Sathyanarayanan (Ref: Co-Active Coaching: New Skills for Coaching People Toward Success in Work and, Life by Laura Whitworth)

So, we don't need to come up with a list of skill sets to manage oneself during burn outs or explore ideas to de-stress. Just being in the moment immerses us in the flow of life. It can relax us and not allow us to participate in the race that forces us to achieve or die. It is simple. This is what I got to say. The only thing we might choose to do in such situations when we notice that we are either getting unrealistic with our goals and thereby experiencing burn outs due to over commitment is

LIVE CONSCIOUSLY.

There is this book that I have come across. It is a book that was a part of the prescribed curriculum when I was getting trained in Co Active coaching at CTI, The Coaches Institute, California. The book is Taming your Gremlin by Richard D Carson. There are many things that I learnt from this book but one simple yet powerful thing that I learnt from this book is TO SIMPLY NOTICE. Simple two words, but believe me, they are really very powerful words.  The first step to live consciously is to simply notice. Simply noticing ourselves unleashes many insights on who we are being and what we are doing at the moment. It increases self awareness, thereby we start to think in an emotionally intelligent manner to find out whether what we are experiencing at the moment is valuable, meaningful and purposeful for us.

For learners, letting go of any kind of  attachment, simply being in the moment, enjoying the process, not stressed out to run a race and not wanting to reach somewhere ; all of these can be a very liberating moment. This kind of an experience can really make children develop a positive attitude towards learning rather than asking them to commit to finish writing with in 10 minutes and finish reading with in 16 minutes or asking them to solve 13 addition problems with in the next half hour. I see that many schools and parents are creating a competitive environment where in lot of pressure is being put on children forcing them to achieve with in limited time. Now, let us stop and ask ourselves this question - Are adults over committing on their behalf, setting unrealistic goals for THEM?  This is something to think about. While setting realistic goals are necessary, putting such pressure on children can kill creativity.

LEARNING BY BEING is equally important as LEARNING BY DOING. The need of the hour is BALANCE. Encouraging children to be conscious of who they are being, what they are learning, what is happening around them or with them, helping them to notice their emotions etc can help them to become joyful learners. I intentionally take this approach while I create a learning environment for DS.

So, let us take a moment to simply notice, live consciously and learn to BE in the moment. It is a wonderful medicine to all stress, burn out and over commitment that we get sucked into. And, let us not set unrealistic goals for our children either. I invite hands to join me to take a stand to let our children enjoy the process of just BEING. Let us all live a conscious, meaningful and purposeful life.

Enjoy learning and sharing.

Exploring 3D Shapes

Lately, we have been integrating Math and art a lot. In an attempt to explore 3 D shapes, my sweet heart ended up making many colourful models . And the joy doubles when we are able to accomplish such work with the very simple materials that we have at home. Being a dominant spatial learner, my boy thoroughly enjoyed this activity since comprehending 3 D images and shapes is very easy for him. 

While parents and educators are worried nowadays that children are starting to loose focus by the stimulation of high energy distractions from the surrounding environment, this is one such activity that can really slow down a child and take them to the meditative world. For my son, what kept him occupied and challenged was to get the structure of the car he made, to put the model upright without having it to fall. Though it was challenging for him, he looked very calm and focused. It was an opportunity for me to observe him and understand that he will not give up. 

What activities have you done that really was relaxing for you and at the same time helped you to integrate a key concept in learning?

Enjoy learning and sharing.