Too much happy and the key to a quiet mind

The children are teaching me every day, all the time, in big ways and little ways and a thousand ways in between.  

• Griffin "Yea there’s happy and there’s too happy."
• Angelina "Can you be too happy?"
• Jaylen "Yep".
• Angelina "What does that feel like?"
• Griffin "Too much happy means you can’t think about those things we always think about too much.  It feels so good."
• Jaylen "It feels like when someone asks you something very nice and your heart beats very fast and you are so happy that you don’t think about anything at all."

new school year, new beginnings

The school year is underway and the studio space is set up to reflect our initial research questions for the year.   As many of you know (if you have worked with me before) these research questions will evolve as we progress through the year, but they provide a lens through which to initiate studio explorations alongside the children, informing preliminary research and studio set up.  This years studio questions are:

• How might we explore multiple languages in a preliterate learning environment?
• How can we use creative expression to deepen relationships, build community and appreciate interdependency? 
• How do we give value to the contribution of each individual in our community?

The studio is an open-ended environment, designed to facilitate supportive social learning, creative expression and emergent thinking.  Presently you will see color taking a spotlight in the studio.  It is my hope to address multiple languages via a full sensory encounter with color, smell, taste, touch and sound.  As with all research alongside children, we may linger on color for months, begin to incorporate other senses relatively quickly, or the question may change all together as the children show me new ways to explore the topic often introducing topics of their own.  It's an exciting time for all of us, an open horizon, and I am as eager as ever to find out what the children will teach me this year.

PLEASE...if you have ANY ideas about how you might contribute, let me know.  You can always email me directly at: lloydangelina@yahoo.com or stop by the studio to collaborate and exchange thoughts.  I look forward to working with all of you in the year ahead.