Our Friends and Inspiration

 

 

We continue to work and play with Marshall Rosenberg’s Nonviolent Communication. (The model includes four steps: observation/feeling/need/request—example: “When you say I am stupid, I feel angry and hurt, because my need for respect is not being met.  Would you be willing to ask me how you can help me when you think I do not understand?”  We use this on the fly and not in the rigid format of the example.)  Nonviolent Communication is called “Giraffe Language,” because giraffes have the largest mammalian heart, they see the big picture, and they are strong and gentle. The giraffes are encouraging the children to build their emotional vocabulary.  We have intuitively known this is important, and Dr. Mel Levine, MD, author of A Mind At A Time, validated this in a daylong lecture in Burlington last summer.  He explained that swearing inhibits the development of vocabulary. It becomes default language, which loses its meaning with overuse.  We developed a process that enables children to physically hold their feelings and needs outside their bodies while they practice talking about them.  This helps them understand that their emotions are not who they are.  They are learning to use their feelings and needs to make choices and assume responsibility for their actions and words.  This is a powerful approach to literacy and a core life skill.

 

 

 

 

We are expanding our collaboration with the ChildSpirit Institute of Carrollton, Georgia.  Mary Mance Hart, M.Ed., ChildSpirit Executive Director, was here twice in 2006.  She presented a workshop entitled, “Opening Presence” for educators and other community leaders last spring.  She hopes to build her workshop experiences into a book.  She addresses working with awareness, love, wisdom, and expression with children.  It is our collective experience that those who teach in this way must have in-depth personal experience with the subject matter.  She observes that GWW practices what she teaches, and we are working together to define what a Train the Trainer Program might look like for traditional teachers and childcare providers.  Meanwhile, she and Drex Wright, our Children’s Program Director, are sharing program experiences on a regular basis.  Mary, who has a counseling background, is also providing Drex with some creative thoughts for working with a few of our children who have particularly challenging behavior.  This dovetails nicely with our collaboration with the school psychologist, who shares our interest in the work of The ChildSpirit Institute.  Our Board President, Trish Alley, is on the Board for The ChildSpirit Institute.  We are also participating in the upcoming ChildSpirit Institute’s Third North American Conference: Sending Our Love to the Future on November 7-11, 2007 in Chattanooga, TN (http://www.westga.edu/~childsp/).  Our presentation is entitled, “Beyond Wonder & Wisdom: Creating Sacred Space with Children” and draws on our experience offering enrichment programming with a strong focus on open heart learning for children 6-12.

 

 

 

Benefits of Creative Kids Yoga™

• Yoga supports flexibility, strength, coordination, and balance.
• Breathing exercises help children to relax and focus.
• Creative movement gives children a chance to express themselves in a positive, noncompetitive
• environment where confidence and creativity are honored.
• Yoga and movement help children feel connected to their bodies, often leading to a
• sense of body awareness and self-respect.
• Children learn about spatial relationships through movement games.
• We promote cooperation and problem solving through group games & challenges.
• Creative movement is a physical activity that can be done indoors when the weather
• is cold and kids get stir-crazy!
• The Braindance is a warm-up sequence that we use to support sensory integration,
• spinal health, balancing of the left and right hemispheres of the brain, and
• horizontal eye tracking.
• Most importantly, we have FUN!

By Michelle Wilson, certified CKY™ teacher

 

 

 

The Wonder Kids’ understanding of Heart Buddies is that they always have an open heart to talk to, and it is theirs. They are learning to own their feelings and to express them in appropriate ways.  They are coming to understand that when we recognize our feelings they influence our thoughts, words, and actions in more productive ways than if they are kept in a “secret box.”  The Wonder Kids hold their Heart Buddies in circle time and any time they feel the need for extra encouragement.  The children are full of courage, a word that comes from the French word for “heart.” They each decorate their own Heart Buddy so it is unique and reflects the spirit of its maker.  Heart Buddies sit on tables and fit in pockets and under pillows.  You don’t have to see them to know they are there.  You don’t have to be a child to want a Heart Buddy.  Heart Buddies are the creation of the Institute of HeartMath in Boulder Creek, California, which combines research-based techniques and unique technology to help you fight the stress of change and uncertainty through easy to use solutions that dramatically boost and sustain learning, health, and performance. The Heart Buddy idea comes from Teaching Children.

 

Language of the Awakened Heart: Poetry Curriculum by Terri Glass:

This summer we kicked off our community-wide poetry project, sponsored in part by the Vermont Humanities Council. Geof Hewitt, Vermont poet and writing consultant led several workshops with the Trotters and the kids, with the goal of making poetry accessible to people of all ages.  We are making our poetry curriculum, Inspirational Guide for a New Language; Language for the Awakened Heart by Terri Glass, available at the Library for those who want a little structure and encouragement.  Submissions will be collected and compiled into a publication.  We think there are multigenerational opportunities here and it will be exciting to have poetic documentation of who lived in the Greensboro area in 2007!  We hope to secure the appropriate funding so that each child will be given a book, that most adults who submit poems will purchase a copy.  It will paint an interesting picture of who we are as a community.  If you have a connection to this community and would like to participate in this program, please send poems, name, and age (in 2008) to: yourpoems@gmail.com.