Magicalms.com ~ Magical Moments

The ideas and quotes from the Religion of Kindness were written by Mr. Jack Bloomfield, executive director of Planet United.  Jack’s editorial was published in the July 16, 2009 edition of the Coconut Creek Forum.   I spoke with Mr. Bloomfield and he graciously allowed me to reference his article.

Jack writes that his inspiration for writing the article occurred after speaking with a gentleman who had lost faith in the religion that he practiced since childhood.  When the elderly man was questioned, he responded by saying that he had a change of heart because he wanted to “feel united with all of humanity” and that he believed that too many people followed belief systems and doctrines while missing the ‘”spirit of  faith”.

After reading the story, I felt so sad for this elderly gentleman.  I kept wondering why he felt that he had to give up something to acquire something else.   I must say loud and clear that I am absolutely not advocating that we give up our religious beliefs and practices, but rather, I am begging all of us to show tolerance, acceptance, and love for our fellow men, women, and children as we teach about faith and spirituality.  Let’s continue to teach and perpetuate Christian, Muslim, Buddhist, Sunni, and Jewish beliefs as we work towards acknowledging our similarities while accepting our differences.  Let’s join hands in becoming better, more sensitive citizens with the common goal of world peace.

We have the responsibility of teaching our kids that diversity is beautiful.  We must refrain from being divisive; we should avoid an “us vs. them mentality.”  Mr. Bloomfield says, “If more of us move in the direction of expressing our religious faith from the spirit of what religion is about, than we would be sure to help humanity move in a more positive direction toward unity.”

As the school year is beginning for our children, let’s make certain that we encourage each of our kids to feel good about him/herself.  Self confidence will reduce bullying behaviors and will help children accept others more easily.  Let’s pledge to increase family time. Let’s live according to the morals of our religions so that children are able to understand that religious beliefs reinforce good will towards others.    Besides  the ABC’s and 123’s, let’s concentrate on creating a more empathetic world, a world filled with religious, political, ideological, ethical, racial, understanding and acceptance.

Magical Educating!

Donna Mavrides
Magical Moments
www.magicalms.com

To me, socio-emotional goals override all others.    Our primary goal must be to motivate our children to be kind, considerate, caring, and respectful of others as they accept themselves as capable, wonderful little people.  Helping preschoolers delay gratification, problem solve, discuss feelings, and handle frustration are important first steps in creating healthy emotional children so that we can look forward to a more loving and peaceful future.

Teachers must be models for our children; we must talk respectfully, behave calmly, and listen affectively.  Body language is a powerful tool that adults must monitor when interacting with children and other adults in the program.  Since respect and kindness grow exponentially, teachers must be lovely role models if they expect their students to be well behaved, caring children.

Magical Educating!

Donna Mavrides
Magical Moments
www.magicalms.com

There are endless opportunities to teach and have children practice math skills each and every day.  Regardless of theme, educators must infuse opportunities for the boys and girls to count, compare, contrast, graph, sort, pattern, graph, weigh, and identify numbers and shapes each and every day. Our world is filled with math and so, the mini world of the preschool classroom must be filled with it as well.

Like math, the opportunities to attain language goals in the classroom are endless.  The teacher may start by having objects labeled with sentences instead of single words.  Before reading a book, the teacher may ask the children to look at its cover so that they can hypothesize about its content.   The teacher should introduce the book’s author and illustrator.  The teacher may ask boys and girls to reflect and remember details after the story is completed or the educator may ask the children how they would prefer the story to end.  The class may make connections between stories and between real life occurrences.  The teacher may use the story to create open ended games, art experiences, or block constructions.  You may want to discuss beginning/ending sounds of particular words or play rhyming/opposite games with story words. For older children, the teacher may ask the children to dictate their own stories whereas for younger boys and girls, the teacher may ask the children to point to or to verbalize story related objects.  Talking, listening, singing, tapping beats (syllables), and reading helps to foster language goals as they improve speech clarity, build vocabulary, help children to follow directions, recognize sounds, and ultimately learn to read.

Magical Educating!

Donna Mavrides
Magical Moments
www.magicalms.com

A quality Parent and Me program should be held in a safe, clean, cheerful, and well equipped facility. The physical environment should have carpeted and uncarpeted sections. The daily schedule should remain constant so that the children begin to anticipate activities and feel more comfortable with each visit. Even with little ones, a circle time filled with songs and movement should be an integral component of the experience.  The program’s leader/teacher should be familiar with child development, sensitive to the needs of the children and parents, and able to select activities, finger plays, songs, and stories that the children enjoy and attend to.  The Parent and Me teacher should be knowledgeable about community resources that families may need or want to learn more about.

Magical Educating!

Donna Mavrides
Magical Moments
www.magicalms.com