Opłatek and Dancing in Preschool

What did you say when you broke your opłatek on Christmas Eve?

Breaking the opłatek, or “Christmas wafer,” might not be something many Americans are familiar with, but it’s a tradition that has been practiced in Poland for over a thousand years. One family member breaks the wafer, says a prayer for a loved one, and passes a piece to another family member, who continues the process around the table.

One of our preschool classes was fortunate enough to learn about this and other Polish traditions when one of the students’ moms came to class on the day before winter break. The children broke crackers and shared wishes or compliments with one another. They also looked at traditional Polish Christmas decorations and attire, explored a book about Poland, and rang handbells. And of course no preschool party would be complete without dancing!

We’re so grateful to have family and friends share their own traditions with us. What a treat for the children to learn about the world by learning about one another.

In Second Grade, Using Yoga and Breathing Exercises to Reduce Stress and Anxiety

Second grade teacher Karima Hastings was at wit’s end. It was March 2020, and thrust practically overnight into remote teaching, she was struggling to find ways to help her stressed-out students cope with an entirely new way of learning.

In the course of her research, she came across studies showing yoga to be an effective way to help manage stress and anxiety. Not only that, she discovered, it has been shown to boost alertness and enthusiasm, improve decision making and self-esteem, reduce negative feelings – and improve academic performance.

Karima incorporated 15–20 minutes of yoga and breathing exercises – it’s hard to separate the two, she says – into her hybrid class’s daily routine this spring. She was happy to find that children who had been feeling anxious before a session reported feeling calmer and more relaxed afterward.

“I was researching tools for my students but found it incredibly helpful to me as an online teacher, managing my own Zoom burnout and new-technology overload,” she says on her Yoga Ed site.

Breathing Exercises

“The sympathetic nervous system, which supports the ‘fight-or-flight’ response, is often triggered when we’re anxious or worried,” Karima explains. Breathing exercises “help circulate oxygen in the body and trigger the parasympathetic nervous system’s response, which is the rest-and-digest response. So by practicing breathing, we’re helping to regulate our nervous systems.”

Karima uses “kid-friendly” breathing exercises connected to her students’ interest in the natural world, like “rain breath” and ‘”flower breath.” For example, “Rain breath is performed by stretching your hands to the sky and looking up to the ‘clouds,’ then fluttering your fingers down to the ground while exhaling with a shhhh sound, which sounds like rain.”

Recently her students have begun choreographing their own exercises, with names like “unicorn breath,” “pizza breath,” and “Godzilla breath.”

Part of the Daily Flow

With everyone back on campus, yoga and breathing exercises are an integral part of life in Room 11. Karima often has her students do a yoga pose between lessons, or when they need to move their bodies after sitting for a long time, or whenever they need a “brain break.”

“Any time during the day we need to pull the class together to focus on something, I’ll call out a breath and we’ll do a round of three.” This might happen two or three times a day, most often during transitions. Each exercise lasts 20 or 30 seconds.

Calm Corner

At the back of the classroom is an area called Calm Corner. Posted on the wall is a rotating menu of yoga and breathing exercises. “The children love having a space dedicated to moving, breathing, and recharging,” she says.

“I’ll call out, ‘Calm Corner is open!’ and one by one they’ll run over and do some yoga or breathing exercises for a couple of minutes and then return to their work.

“If a student has a hard time sitting still and not talking to their neighbors, I’ll ask if they’d like to go to Calm Corner to take a break. It’s beautiful to watch a child who could easily be called out in a negative way have a space to move and refocus and turn inward to reset. We call that a ‘time in’ instead of a time out.”

A Meher Schools graduate and the mother of another, Karima has been teaching here for 22 years. She recently became certified as a yoga educator for children and teens. You can find her on Instagram.

The Power of Affirmations

“This moment won’t last forever” – I’m not saying this to predict the future but to offer an example of a phrase that can reprogram our minds in the midst of a hard moment, month, or year. In the flurry of family get-togethers, more COVID uncertainties, and sometimes exceedingly difficult circumstances, it seems like we all to look at ways to take care of ourselves. Children need that too.

Holiday gatherings often involve social anxiety and alterations in schedules. As we approach the cusp of a new year, let’s explore the gift of verbal affirmations for people of every age and why brain science has highlighted their value. These carefully crafted statements create happier moods, feelings of confidence, and heighten the ability to cope.

Much has been written about the power of affirmations. Some years ago, Meher Schools board member Dr. Wendy Ritchey and I co-wrote a book called I Think I Can, I Know I Can: Using Self-Talk to Raise Confident, Secure Kids. Self-talk is the term psychologists have coined for the way we direct ourselves to relate to the world. Saying things like “I’m not good at that” and “I can’t take this anymore” programs us to feel and approach situations in self-undermining ways.

On the other hand, psychologists say that positive self-talk is one of the most powerful forces for transformation. For example, rephrasing those statements to “I’m open to new learning” and “I’m strong and can handle difficult situations” actually alters our brain chemistry.

To create affirmations that work, we have to phrase them in the present tense so that our brain will respond to them as real. Try saying “I want to relax” and then substitute “I am relaxed” and see if you notice a difference. Here is a possible affirmation when parents are worried: “My children are strong, safe, and supported.”

Parents can introduce affirmations to children in many different ways, depending on the situation. Adults and children often catastrophize events and come to negative conclusions (“I don’t have any friends”) partly because of the way the brain works. Positive self-talk is a gift (“I actually have many friends who like me”) because it helps us counter painful self-doubt thoughts and inspire feelings of worthiness and confidence.

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Here’s a blog by a clinical social worker on using affirmations with children. Kate Oliver’s help4yourfamily offers parents “concrete skills to create positive outcomes” even when they are working through difficult issues. In her work with children and families, she frequently uses affirmation to help children develop positive self-regard and powerful coping strategies.