It was heart-warming to see Councillor Mark Kleinschmidt (left) donate R5000 to the Lansdowne Primary Healthcare Centre this morning in support of the extra burden that Covid-19 has placed on resources. Anne (centre) a primary healthcare educator has been a very supportive contact for us at the Educare. Each year she is invited to speak to our parents and staff about current primary health care recommendations and practices.
On Friday 13 March our children participated in a sports day organised by the Early Childhood Development Forum. Over the past couple of weeks teachers have spent time at the park preparing the children for the different races; running, three-legged race, dribbling with a stick and tin race. They also decided on the name ‘Light Lions’ for the Children of Light Educare team. Team colours were red t-shirts and navy shorts. All the moms were there, very eager to support their children and to participate in the races.
Some of our children who find it hard to concentrate on an indoors activity showed how brave and confident they can be on the sports field, which was really wonderful for all of us to see.
From listening to Healing Stories our children are then introduced to books and the world inside the books. This step by step process opens the child’s eyes to the knowledge and colours within the books, and we see the love of learning slowly unfolding.
The annual COLT Fun Walk fundraiser took place on Sunday at Rondebosch Common. There was great excitement in the morning when the cars arrived to fetch the children and their parents from the three informal settlements. Seen in the group above are Lameck, Jeremy, Kareem and Jaylene waiting with younger siblings at the Hadji Ebrahim settlement, which 2 weeks ago experienced a fire in the community.
A magic moment for us was when Lameck’s dad shared that he had told Lameck that one day he should become a truck driver. Lameck replied, “no daddy I want to be a pilot and fly an aeroplane”.
This week the children have been very busy creating bead bracelets and Valentine cards for their moms. Yesterday the moms joined their children for a festive valentine lunch and afterwards each child presented their mom with the card and placed the bracelet on moms arm – it was very heart-warming to see the moms’ expressions as they received their gifts!
Marj Murray from Breathwork Africa then demonstrated breathing techniques that the children can use at home and school to self-regulate and manage big emotions. The children were immediately engaged and learnt how to do the elephant breath, bunny breath, belly breath, and spaghetti breath (which seemed to be the favourite!)
Over the weekend a number of our school families were affected by shack fires in the Hadji Ebrahim settlement. While their shack was burning down Lameck (far right) begged his mom to save his school bag which contained his message book and Grade R registration forms. Thankfully she was able to and he was at school today. He was really feeling down though because he had to borrow shoes from another boy at school. Fortunately there was a pair for him in our cupboard of emergency clothing and he happily joined the others on their outing to the park.
Teacher Nushfeekah had everyone’s full attention this morning as she introduced the children to the lives of farm animals. Using one of her unique stories to do this the children were immediately engaged and wanted to find out more. They were keen too to hear what their friend Micheal had to say.
At snack time we all joined Kiana in celebrating her 3rd birthday. The Waldorf-inspired birthday verse below beautifully explains how very sacred the moment of our birth is.
Above my head the stars do shine
Each star is like a flame,
And one is mine, that o’er me shone
When to this earth I came.
Upon this earth my step is firm,
The stones are ‘neath my feet.
I see the birds and beasts and flowers,
And loving people greet.
And every year the day returns
When my star shineth bright,
And I receive within my heart
The glory of its light.
Our class of 2020 has settled into the Educare routine incredibly quickly, even young Mia who was quite tearful on the first few days. Sisanda, who has been with us for the past 2 years took Mia under her wing and introduced her to the fantasy play area – things no longer appeared so new and strange with her new friend beside her!
Siyasanga, in the photo above, is our new class assistant for teacher Nushfeekah. She completed her 3-month training at the Chrysalis Academy in November 2019 and this included training in Child Care. We are extremely excited to be partnering with Chrysalis Academy and to be hosting one BRAVO intern for this year!
To provide a sacred, safe and loving environment for our traumatised children it is important that the teachers and dedicated Educare volunteers working with the children feel whole and nurtured themselves. A four day Retreat at the Blue Butterfly in Tulbagh was organised for 13 – 16 January for staff. The Divine stillness and mountain air of this sanctuary on the Welbedacht Reserve allowed us time to reconnect with nature and the universe. Also, it gave the seven of us an opportunity to learn more about each other and more about ourselves!
The Educare opens for the children on 22 January. The new children and their parents had an orientation session at the end of last year and quite a few are siblings of children who graduated at the end of 2019. We anticipate that 2020 will be another year of incredible growth and learning at the Children of Light Educare, and that this will be carried over into the communities where our children live.
We celebrated our end of year party seated around a long table that was beautifully set in festive colours. Children who had left the school in 2018 and new admissions for 2020 joined our current group of children for the party.
The CSI team from Futuregrowth Asset Management visited us during the morning to deliver gifts to the children. They also provided pizzas for the party. This year they funded building renovations at the school and had a special drive last year to cover our transport costs in 2019.
To all the organisations and individual donors who have helped to keep the school growing in 2019, we wish You a safe and restful summer holiday.
