Workshops on nutrition and healthy meals for children were held this week in-house for our staff. Our children come from poor socio-economic settings where life is characterised by hunger and malnutrition, and a lack of primary health care. Therefore the three meals that they receive at the Educare each day are vitally important for their physical and mental health.

Zoom made it possible for Damyanti Gajjar to demonstrate her recipes that are healthy vegetarian cuisine and based on Ayurvedic principles. In the past she has held regular cooking sessions for the staff in her kitchen. Although zoom made this a slightly different experience the food was most importantly prepared with love and attention!

Happy 3rd Birthday Children of Light Educare! On Friday we celebrated by spending time in the veggie garden pulling carrots, and picking and eating spinach leaves straight from the plants. Evelyn showed us how to tend to the worm farm, the plants were fed with worm tea and then the children watered the garden from the rain tank.

At lunchtime we all enjoyed a delicious meal and the birthday cupcakes made a sweet end to a very busy day.

We had 100% attendance at our 4th term PTA meeting this morning! Providing transport for our parents ensures that they are able to attend, this included our new parents who completed admission forms for their children to attend the Educare in 2021.

COLT Educare is in partnership with Christel House, an independent school in Ottery that offers full scholarships from Grade R to Grade 12 to children living in impoverished communities. Janine, their social worker addressed our parents today and 4 of our children registered for scholarships in 2021 for Grade R. Two of our children were awarded scholarships in 2019.

Next step for Lameck:  Lameck has attended our Educare since 2018. His mom has always taken a very keen interest in his education. Each morning she makes sure that he is clean and ready for school and when our driver Asim arrives she buckles Lameck into the car. Today is a very special day for her, and for us, as she sits with the administrator from Christel House to complete an admission form for Lameck. It has been her dream for Lameck to attend Christel House for the next step in his education.

Our 3 – 5 year old children are very excited about the move into their permanent classroom on 5 October. Teacher Mala will be with them in the Sunflower room where the emphasis is on learning through play and the creative arts. They are allowed to learn at their own pace which naturally leads them to learn more about themselves. Teacher Nushfeekah is in the Daisy classroom with the 5 – 6 year old children who are being prepared for Grade R.

Today was a joyous and special day when we celebrated Riandre’s 5th  birthday, Siyasanga our class assistant’s 23rd birthday, and Sri Gurudev Sivananda’s 133rd birthday! The inspiring teachings of Gurudev are the guiding principles of The Children of Light Educare – Serve, Love, Focus, Learn, Be good, Do good.

This week we welcomed back our 3 – 4 year old children, post Covid-19 lock down. A second classroom has been established for this age group providing them with an environment to receive individual input. They were very excited to be back at school and quickly settled into routine. In this classroom the emphasis is on learning through play, granting them the space and opportunity for their natural potential to unfold.

On 14 August our Educare reopened after 140 days of lock down. We welcomed back the pre Grade R children who quickly slipped back into their daily routine. They were very keen to get back to doing arts and crafts, baking, and exploring the garden. For our children gardening is a creative activity that leads them into slower rhythms of time. The fragrant plants, wet earth, sounds of the birds, and taste of freshly picked fruit provides them with a sense of peace and an intimacy with nature. Mahatma Gandhi said; “to forget how to dig the earth and to tend the soil is to forget ourselves.”