7 March 2012

mandalas

Meditating

This is one of the images that will stay with me from our beautiful, long summer. We've just spent a couple of weeks looking at mandalas. Completing a unit study on them, I suppose. We finished the summer looking at circles and relishing in our own little family circle. Drawing inward before Huz ventured out of the nest again for the working week.

At the beginning of the year, we had reached a point where we needed a little more structure, stability, to our days. Big owlet especially was wanting us to give her work to do. Set her on a path of learning, but in a way that she could get excited about. She wanted direction. Something I've observed happens when she connects with a screen more than her family. We also needed to find a way to boost her confidence with numbers. I suspect that her very logical brain will embrace them when she's ready, but for now she is in the complete rejection phase which has preceded all her major milestones. And I needed a plan. So we purchased a curriculum unit from Earthschooling, knowing that Big Owlet is particularly drawn to activities with a Waldorf leaning. It outlined some great simple activities for us to expand on and expand we did... in our own unschooly kind of way...

mandala

To begin with, we reflected on the mandalas we'd seen the Gyuto monks create last September. The owlets were fascinated and would have watched for hours, had I not had a wriggly baby to contend with. We talked about the process, the meditation... And we meditated too. That's what they're doing in that first photo...

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We drew our own mandalas. Then we reflected on the colours and shapes we'd chosen and what they represented.

Fruit mandala #picnic #fruit #mandala

And we ate lunch, while talking about all the mandalas we might find in nature. I read a few stories and we sung some songs featuring circles and mandalas, particularly reaching Little Owlet and her love for a singalong.

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The next time we visited mandalas, we played trivial pursuit. Big Owlet's first go and she loved it! After that, we looked at the colour wheel, creating our own...

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And then seeing how it works. Little Owlet exclaimed with great surprise when she saw the colours blending. I think it was the first time she'd consciously created orange, green and purple and it was an amazing thing for her...

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The next morning, we stumbled across Danmala's work and we were amazed. The owlets wanted to have a go too, using bits and pieces from our own garden.

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They spent quite a while there working on them, Big Owlet working solo and Little Owlet working alongside me.

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Later the wind blew the mandalas away and we were reminded of the monks and how they sweep the sand away at the completion of each mandala...



While the wind was doing its work, we began working with numbers. Counting in patterns and introducing multiplication concepts to Big Owlet. She loved this one so much she wanted to do it again.

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But we began working on something a little more intricate, using protractors and compasses and parts of our brains we hadn't yet used (or hadn't used for a while in my case). Robinsunne's Multiplication Clock*, as inspired by my lovely friend (and Waldorfy mentor), Kestrel. Big Owlet enjoyed this too and  the point at which she understood how it worked was brilliant. She's not quite ready to grasp some of the higher numbers yet, but she understood the concept and that was enough for her.



It's all about the colours anyhow ;)

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While Big Owlet was working on that, Little Owlet chatted about clocks and life cycles and sat down to colour some mandalas. It always surprises me which colours she chooses. She began with the loveliest earthy terracotta...

Spent some time colouring in with my 5yo. We like to colour. #colouring #mandala

I sat down with her later to complete it. We love colouring together...

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Somewhere towards the end of all that, between the time it took to buy a packet of Tic Tocs and eat it, Huz returned to work. Summer ended and the circle seemed to have broken for the most part of our days. We're back to watching the clock...



The days are noticeably shortening and the cool weather is here again. Autumn is upon us. So the owlets and I sat down for our last mandala meal, using our mandala-iest** tablecloth. We had our usual little morning tea circle, reserved for home days and joined hands, singing "Blessings on the Blossoms", as the owlets so love to do... And we are getting on with the year. Talking about the seasons, planning for what we might do next. Looking forward to the next long holiday, whenever it may be, and looking forward to warmth and snuggling and more time with Huz.


*The link was there just last week! Promise! I'm popping it here in the hope it'll be back...
** Is too a word.




11 comments:

  1. Wow! Incredible learning happening at your place.

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  2. Love all the different types of mandalas, but the last pic is my fav - almost a pikelet mandala there!

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  3. I really really love this post, it is just beautiful in every way. Thanks for sharing and inspiring!

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  4. Oh, so lovely, the slow absorption of ideas that happens in long days at home. Definitely making me pine for a child who might at least want to skip school occasionally...sounds like your days are full enough not to need to clock watch til at least the afternoon for pappa's return. Clel xx

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  5. Just beautiful, you are an inspired mumma!

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  6. What a beautiful post! I'm so grateful you're ahead of me on this home-learning journey, guiding the way with inspiration, ideas warmth and light. And I'm so, so glad we're in the same place at the same time, sharing the path with our children. So looking forward to seeing you soon, but I'm hunkered down at home with a grim, unpleasant cold. We'll be over again soon, when wellness reigns. Love. Sel. xxx

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  7. I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE this post! First, I love the mandalas - they are beautiful (and I'm just in the middle of putting together a "patterns in nature" activity for our local national park). Second, I love your pictures - especially the meditation one, pricless. Third, I love your days, your weeks, and your flow. Very inspiring stuff.

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  8. Awe-some! We are unschooling with abit of needed structure too. We love Earthschooling's resources. Which unit did you purchase? We love her unit on Sacred Math. Little Acorn Learning is great, too (for littles). Thanks so much for sharing. Loving your flow of life.

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  9. brilliant! I love mandalas and what a fantastic "study unit".

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  10. Thankyou again for your inspirational post. This "unit" looks like it was a lot of fun, and a lovely way to spend Summer. Thanks also for the curriculum link, our munchkin is a structure kind of girl too and this may help next year :)

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  11. Beautifully inspiring! I can only hope I can provide my little girl with such well thought out excursions into subjects when she gets bigger :)

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