1. There are no special needs children in the class
2. There are no more than 12 total children per day (2 assistants on those days)
3. The three-day children come Mon, Tues, Wed...Therefore the beginning of the week has more children instead of the end of the week when the teachers are tired.
4. Thursday and Friday have only 9 children (1 assistant)
5. Bathroom time: about 2 to 3 children only per assistant in the bathroom...instead of 5 per assistant
6. a love-seat sofa is in the classroom and some extra tables are no longer there
7. the snacks follow the grain of the day
These changes in addition to the work I did this summer seem to have really centered me. I feel so much calmer, centered and plain...upright with good head space! We have a large percentage of brand new to school young ones and I have to say there really wasn't a whole lot of crying. This is my third year in the nursery and this year boasts the least crying in the first few weeks. Last year I felt the crying (really loud, crying jags) went on for a month. Actually I think it almost did.
Here is the picture of the class last year...doesn't it look like ALOT of children and adults (and some of the children are missing)?
What resonates for me from training is the concept of checking in with yourself. It is so important to know where I am on the inside because I am working with children. I have set a regimen for myself..Up at six..read verse of the day and meditation for the day from Spiritual Insights. Then 30 minutes of Yoga. I am particularly fond of Sharon Gannon and David Life's Jivamukti Yoga and have studied with them via DVD for 6 years now. I use their Class for Busy People (audio on my Ipod) on school mornings. Curt usually gets himself up between 630 am and 7 am..He will hang out on the couch while I finish stretching. We'll talk and cuddle. Then I make us breakfast and we get dressed for the day and then are out the door. (Dirty breakfast dishes wait in the sink until I come home>) Lunches are packed the night before.
Then I get us to school between 8 am and 8 15 am. School ends at 315pm. After school, we have snack at 3 30 pm and outside play in the garden at home. Dinner happens at 5pm... then bath time, book-time and bedtime at 7 pm. This spiritual work in the morning is really getting me in the right frame of mind for the work and for my time with Curt.
Then I am attending the first half of Faculty Meeting once a week and the Book Study is on Theosophy by Rudolph Steiner. I am also reading Cosmic Memory by Steiner....and a bunch of other books that were required reading for the summer course. I hope to finish them up soon and blog about them so I can start the required reading for the November Session at Sophia's Hearth. I feel so immersed in study and I actually like it. Steiner is a crazy read. I was delving into the prologue to Theosophy during my break today and the author was discussing how there is an actual way to read Steiner's writing. How it reaches you on many levels. The metaphor he used was that of a cookbook...One can read ...add a cup of sugar and stir in melted butter then add cinnamon and one is just getting the ingredients list in their head. This is akin to..the body is composed of the etheric, the physical, the astral..and just making a mental note of the names. But one can go beyond the cookbook knowledge and feel a metamorphosis on a larger scale. Steiner ..the author continued, wrote in a way difficult to browse through so that the reader would be forced to higher levels of concentration. Well I am paraphrasing..it was all much more articulate in the prologue. I think I am feeling a change stirring.
Namaste
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