Children’s Land

As a former teacher, a Sahaja yogini working in non-Sahaj schools, what I appreciated most were the parents who invested themselves in their child’s education from the start. Those who were always interested, who didn’t just drop off and pick up, those who lingered to ask about the day, saw how the children got along in the school, who advocated for certain things that their child and other children needed. Some of the parents were even willing to help out in the classroom, occasionally assisting at special functions, such as hosting a table with a special activity, or preparing materials for birthdays or other special days.

That brings love and vibrations into the school. Certainly the children are blessed with resilience and every child is protected by the Divine. But not every child will automatically thrive, even in the most wonderful of schools. It is the partnership between a parent and a teacher that allows adjustments to be made so that the child feels at home at school, safe and understood, able to mature nicely.

Parents can share with the teachers the small, small insights about that child and the family’s culture and traditions. Teachers may not be able to understand the child without a parents’ guidance. Truly, most teachers stick with it out of compassion more than ego - it is tiring and hard work, and will push out those who are not truly dedicated to children. Still, even a teacher who has taught hundreds of children may not understand your child, even when they want to, they will need the friends and family of a child to be advocates, to share stories about how that child learns and expresses him/herself, and a teacher, even the most perfectly loving and wise teacher in the world, also needs your respect and support …

With affection,

Elizabeth

The first term in the Russian Sahaja kindergarten “Cool breeze” has come to an end. Little children were being taught to walk, they were taking the first steps. As they are glad, so their mothers are glad, too. Among teachers and aunties the belief even appeared that the kindergarten is a place where pure desires are fulfilled. Because if you want something, everything is solved, everything is organized.

This is really a Russian project in which the efforts and vibrations of the teachers, tutors and parents of various Russian cities were combined. In the first term 18 children (6 of which came from other cities of Russia) lived in the kindergarten. First it was rather difficult, because this project differs from all the others which we had had in Togliatty. We learned all together.

And collective aspiration for developing this project has worked out! Teaching activity was filled with various lessons according to the pre-school curriculum. We began to coach children of the preparatory group for school. This work will be continued in the second term.

At Sahaja lessons and daily meditations children learned to balance themselves using various cleaning techniques, to conduct meditation and to sing bhajans.

At weekends various trips were organized: to the forest, to the city Philarmonic Society, to the winter-field, along the Volga (we went along the river by yacht).

In the second term, we are going to add visits to the theatre and staging stories to our leisure activities. We plan to introduce lessons of English as well.

We would like to tell you about the final holiday. We have worked with children for about 12 years, we have never had such a balanced holiday before. Everybody just dissolved. The aim of the festive occasion was to sum up the term, to consolidate the knowledge received by the children and, which is more important - an ability to put this knowledge to life. In general, only adults were preparing the holiday, so the scenario of it was composed in the form of a theatre - impromptu. We made up rather vital situations (those we watched in the kindergarten during the term) which the kids should have overcome using the knowledge and experience received. The examination was passed.

With respect,

The organizing committee

Together with the children we were going up the chakras following the scheme of the subtle body designed for children.

We studied the number of petals, learnt the colors of the chakras and then there was a quize: guess what the chakra is by the color and the number of its petals. After it, each child coloured the center (=a flower cut out of white paper prepared in advance) he/she liked most of all. At the same time one of the adults drew a silhouette of a boy and the children glued the coloured flowers into it. Finally we got a very cheerful boy with the centers of different colours.

Before the kids started to colour the chakras, the yogini leading the program made a very nice analogy between our subtle body and a rainbow. “The sun light which makes everything around bright seems transparent to us but when it gets onto a drop of water it starts to play with all the colours of a rainbow. We also have such a sun inside and it also creates different colors”. The sister painted lines of colours on a sheet of paper using water colours (making the edges of each of them flow into the next color): red, orange, yellow, green, light blue, blue, purple. The flower of Muladhara is red, Swadisthan – between orange and yellow, Nabhi – green, Anahata – between green and light blue, Vishuddhi – blue and the white part of the paper – for Aghia. Sahara is combining all the colors.

After it, a sort meditation followed. And then, when we all were going up our own chakras, the adults were singing the music notes: sa, re, ga, ma, pa, da, ni, sa. Vibrations obviously became stronger.

At the last program we talked about Mother Kundalini and the Mother principle in general, explaining it with the Mother Earth and how she cares and nurtures us. Then the fruits and vegetables came in. For this we brought some fruit and vegetables to the class. I made 3,5 kg of red, green and blue play dough and we tried to recreate the fruits and veg with the play dough. Just simple, like banana, apple, broccoli, grapes etc.

The veggie play dough worked brilliant!

Sia

Here are some ideas/suggestions about children. (Some of this has been tried and done with children, some are new ideas or suggestions.)

- We can make up a game with the mind being like a naughty monkey jumping from place to place, and that we want the monkey to be good and to sit still, and bring him to being quiet above Sahasrara.

- We can sing lively bhajans, they enjoy very much, short bhajans like Ganesha Ganesha, Jay Hanumana, Kundalini Kundalini.

- Another thing my daughter likes (age 8 now) is to be told stories of deities, and question and answer sessions where one elder first tells (or reads) a story of a deity, and then asks questions out of that story, and a few children//grown ups/sahaja yogis try to answer. It is fun that few people compete with each other to try to remember which chakra is on which finger, etc. A small competition as such can be a fun game, and they get to learn as a result. But you should try to
make sure that they win at least as much as the elders win.(.!..)

- They can have a black and white chakra chart and colour each chakra.

- The bandhan can be resembled to a rainbow, and while taking bandhan they can imagine that they are drawing the rainbow.

- If you actually ask how they feel during the meditation you will notice that they are much more aware of meditation than we grown-ups are.

- Meditating with children throws more light on our state, as they are purer, they feel vibrations more clearcut, and if we grown-ups have a problem in our subtle system they may directly feel it. It is a nice experience.

Good luck and best wishes,

Bilge

Little children like stuffed animals. An idea with a little elephant (like Shri Ganesha)  is - it could be a mascot. The little elephant could express perfectness. To show the children how to behave or in some cases how not to behave (if we have a casualty of a child who is doing something else than expected). We could react to the elephant: “Oh, no, little elephant what are you doing? You have to sit with hands open….

Like Shri Mataji suggested once to do it with a doll. So, the child will not feel offended in the group.

It is not necessary that the toy-elephant should be bought. It actually wouldn’t take that long and could be done by almost any age (a sewing machine would help).

You will need:

• coloured crayons, markers, felt tip pens, etc
• pencils & erasers
• white paper/card
• washing up gloves (small)
• sticky tape & putty
• pictures of deities to be cut out or photos of yogis faces (optional)

Step one

Tell your child you are going to make some finger puppets, either of animals, or of deities*, or of friends, etc…

Step two

Children carefully cut off the finger from a small washing up glove. This will be the basis of the finger puppet.

Step three Read the rest of this entry »

In case you are thinking of doing a class with playdough, below you can find a fantastic recipe. It is cheap to make, eatable and lasts months!!!!!!! I made 2 kg for a party and we are still using it (that was in Feb and now is June!).

Love

Sia

COOKED PLAYDOUGH

INGREDITENTS:

½ cup (2oz/50g) of cooking salt
1 cup (4oz/100g) of plain flour
2 tablespoons cream of tartar Read the rest of this entry »

A massage/drawing which can be made for chidlren from time to time is the following:
First, the whole back is being stroked, i.e. the Universe is being drawn. Then the turn comes for the sacrum bone – it is the Earth planet where a sky-rocket is being built which will be launched in the direction of the farthest planet in the Universe.

Then the chakras-planets are massaged/drawn: Muladhara-Mars, Swadisthan-Mercury, Nabhi – Jupiter, the large area around Jupiter is void, Vishudhi-Saturn, the front Aghia is the Sun giving light, the back Aghia is Neptune, Sahasrara – Pluton.

The rocket is built. We are launching it with the beeja-mantra “Reem” raising the Kundalini with our hands several times. Then we ask the children to close their eyes and try to feel whether the rocket has reached the far planet, whether they feel the cool breeze. We meditate for a while.

In the same way one may draw/massage a child using the names of the stones which correspond to the chakras: coral, amethyst, emerald, ruby, sapphire, diamond and pearls.
One can make a massage drawing flowers with the description of the chakra, watering them with vibrations and weeding.

One can draw a fir-tree and then put small balls as decorations onto it – the balls of the colours corresponding to the chakras. And in the parts of the head where there are ego and superego the balls can be, vice versa, erased, with the explanation that these balls should not be big as then they can bring the whole tree down. And afterwards a garland (the Kundalini) and a star on the top of the head can be lit.

This is a link to an interesting film on the ways to make toys -http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-1281532041705751793&hl=en . 

A creative Children’s Science Centre in India where Children come to make things from trash is described in it. Whatever the kids make they take it back home - a flying fish, flexagon, straw flute, simple motor, pump to pop a balloon. This is a hands-on centre where children experience the joy of making things.

After watching the film you may get some ideas how to organize your child’s entertainment and learning at the same time.