At the COLT AGM last month our speaker, Swami Vidyananda, spoke on the topic ‘Yoga in Education’ from the aspect of ‘Yoga is Education’. He highlighted that to educate is to facilitate the process of bringing out the innate intelligence, harmony and happiness in that person. Education is derived from the Latin word, “educe” which means, “to bring out or develop” not fill with information, which is the current way in most schools. The so called ‘norm’ doesn’t work in Yoga; education is a communal process and everyone is involved, not just the pupil.

Yoga is not separate from education. Yoga guides our every step and if we manage to bring a child’s potential to the foreground, we are doing well. Even if a child is at COLT for a short time, they might benefit now, maybe not now, maybe not even in this life time, but the next. There will be growth, like in the roots of the tree.

Young people entering the working environment get influenced easily, they might struggle with relationships in work and personal life. Ethics and morals were not part of their education. This is how corruption in the workplace can start.  If they were exposed to Yoga in their education, they would be emotionally stronger and handle their working environment and other aspects of their lives with more respect, integrity and harmony.

Celebrating festivals at our Educare is a way to build a sense of community amongst the children, staff, and the parents. It brings awareness to the rhythmic cycles such as the change in seasons. This term we celebrated the Winter Festival. All of the children and staff created lanterns for a lantern walk.

The light shining within the lantern symbolises the light that lives within each one of us. May this inner light shine bright and guide and protect us on our journey.

While walking the lantern walk, the children sing a song:

I walk with my little lantern

my lantern, myself and I

Of yonder bright little stars shine

Down here we are stars to the sky.

the moon shines, the cat meous, hey hey hey

La bimmel, La Bammel, La boom

Gardening for our children is time spent outside in the sun and fresh air working with the earth. They have time to explore the various habitats of little creatures, time to hear the birds chattering in the creeper, and time to inhale the different fragrances of the plants in the peace garden. Today they were able to harvest radishes which had been grown from seed in the vegetable garden. Tasting the radish was a new experience for all of them and as you can imagine some were more impressed than others!

Three nourishing meals a day and a daily dose of vitamins and minerals has ensured that the children at COLT have remained in good health during the Covid pandemic. Growing up in poor socio-economic settings means that life for our children is characterised by hunger and malnutrition.

Children need a balanced diet with enough vitamins and minerals to maintain healthy growth and development. Last year it was decided that in addition to the standard Covid protocols that we are required to adhere to, we would provide our children with a vitamin and mineral supplement. Newlands Pharmacy has donated a regular supply of vitamin and mineral supplements for the past 10 months and each morning COLT teachers administer it as part of the children’s daily routine.

The Grade R group in the Daisy class are learning to recognise, name and copy shapes which are then used to create patterns. Songs, games, and discovering shapes out in nature help the children build a solid knowledge of shapes while having fun. This foundation sets them up to understand more complex geometry concepts later on.

                            

Lisa, a Waldorf trained teacher visited COLT this week and spent time sharing her stories with the children. For 20 minutes the children were kept enthralled by the magic of her stories and handmade felt puppets!

Lisa on the other hand, complimented COLT teachers on how relaxed and well prepared the children were to sit and listen attentively to her stories for such an extended period of time. More and more story time is becoming a calming and healing activity for our children.

At COLT teaching happens through oral storytelling. Using keen and sincere observation of the child the teacher addresses antisocial behaviour such as anger, hitting, biting, and stealing through storytelling. Stories that are age, language and culturally appropriate are told to the children daily. Listening to these stories children are invited to use their imagination and it lays the foundation for literacy, developing a rich language, and conveying social values and morals. Social issues such as neglect and abuse are also addressed through storytelling which promotes healing in our children who have suffered complex trauma.

This term our stories are linked to the Season of Autumn; Sunflower Class is exploring The Gingerbread Man.

In Daisy Class it’s the story about The Little Red House with no doors and no windows and a star inside.

This term Melissa Plaatjie from Phillippi joins the COLT family. She is 23 years old and has recently completed a 10 week Youth and Leadership Development Skills Training Programme at Chrysalis Academy. She is passionate about teaching young children and in July completes her level 4 studies in Early Childhood Development. We are extremely excited to welcome our second intern from Chrysalis Academy!

 

First day of in-house training with Juliet.