Thank you, Brockschmidt Family!Big thank yous to Iswari and Satyaki Brockschmidt (Liam's mom and dad) for all the help getting the classroom ready. It was a major overhaul! They spent hours painting, sewing, drilling, and cleaning to get our classroom bright and cheerful and ready for school.Having their energy in the classroom really brought me … Continue reading A Brand New Classroom!
Recently, I was watching the movie "Single Moms' Club." At the beginning of the movie, it shows each of the moms being so busy holding life together, that the only communication they have with their children is to bark out orders at them, interspersed with lines such as, "My day was so crazy, or "I … Continue reading Happy Trails! A Kinder, Gentler Morning Routine
I just finished reading Mark Twain's, Tom Sawyer to my daughters at bedtime tonight. It took us a few months to finish it, mainly because it was so good, we read it slowly. Tom, Huck, Aunt Polly, Becky, Injun Joe, and all the other colorful characters of St. Petersburg, Missouri have created the greatest celebration … Continue reading Listening to Tom Sawyer
"Understanding that is based on untruth is imaginary." -Patanjali Most of the issues that cause upset in our classroom are caused from lack of awareness of others or one's own self or from misunderstanding. "Maturity" as defined by Donald Walters (Swami Kriyananda), author of Education for Life, is the ability to understand realities outside one's own. … Continue reading Patanjali, Legos, and Cooperative Fighting
"It is the supreme art of the teacher to awaken joy in creative expression and knowledge." Albert Einstein It was also Albert Einstein who said, "The only source of knowledge is experience." For part of our unit on Native Americans, we spend time each week in our 'secret' spot in the woods where we … Continue reading Lightly I Walk
Here we are learning about states of matter: gases. We were trapping ping pong balls in a glass and submerging the glass in water to show that the air is also trapped in the glass and keeps the water from entering the glass. The ping pong ball is pushed down by the air in the … Continue reading Hands on!
"The greatest of all happiness, next to divine happiness, is to be at peace with one's immediate relations those with whom one must live every day in the year. When people try to handle the extremely complicated machinery of human feelings without any training whatsoever, the results are disastrous. Very few persons realize that most … Continue reading The Proof IS the Pudding
"Joy will come to anyone whose heart has learned to fly!" -Swami Kriyananda WOW! Today was amazing... let me just tell you all about it while it's still fresh... In the morning, before the boys arrived, I put a 40 large piece Solar System puzzle on the floor. The first two boys arrived and, after … Continue reading Expanding in Cooperation
"Your capacity to influence the world on the level of consciousness is limitless. Work on that level. In every circumstance of your life, work with the right consciousness." -Asha Praver This is an inspiring video from a teacher in Japan who is working with children from the same level of consciousness as Education for Life … Continue reading Let People Live in Your Heart
"Silence is sometimes the best answer” ― Dalai Lama We entered the dimly lit 1860's Catholic Church turned cultural center to the serene vibrations of Tibetan Monks working on a Medicine Buddha sand mandala and the calming smell of sandalwood incense. St. Joseph's Center, in Grass Valley, has been converted temporarily into a Buddhist Temple … Continue reading “Silence is Sometimes the Best Answer”
An Education for life Classroom 