In February we Celebrate Losar the Tibetan New Year and the children all are crowned kings queens and superheroes.
Save the Date: Saturday April 6th 5:30-9
Friends Of Alaya Celebration and Dance Party with DJ Sparkle Pants. Grown Ups Only!
This is Huge! $15,000 Challenge Grant Opportunity 💜🤠👏🏼
Resources on Parenting for Social Justice
Shared from the website Zero to Three, I wanted to share these suggestions, which offer some starting points for parents who want their children to develop a just and inclusive worldview.
Supporting Language in Young Children (Pandemic Version)
Hi Alaya Families! I work as a speech therapist in the Boulder community, and I have recently received questions about helping children learn language, specifically social language, amidst the current pandemic—a time where children may have had less opportunities for social learning, or just opportunities that look a little different, or may feel a bit overwhelming.
Beautiful Buddhist-Inspired Approaches to Nurturing and Guiding Children
Thinking About Food
Reconsidering the Ducks
We all seem to be experiencing- to one degree or another- an unusual weight of adversity right now. To have tremendous kindness towards ourselves and to model this for others and for our children might be the greatest gift we can offer. We may not feel our best much of the time or be on top of our game. Can we accept this and soften our self-expectations?
Working with the Debate and the Whole 2020 Mess
The Struggle Is Real
It is not the challenges of life itself that are ultimately problematic, just like it is not feelings that are the culprit –but rather how we respond to our feelings. Do we accept life’s challenges or rail against them? In that ups and downs are a natural part of life and a super-natural part of parenting, it makes more sense to accept the challenges and focus on our relationship with the struggle. Trying to get our parenting ducks in a row is insane. Instead, if we stay present in life’s instability, we ride the ride instead of being ridden by it.
The Essence
The Need to Belong
Alaya Preschool's Principles of Practice
Over the next couple of years, and as a part of honoring Alaya Preschool’s 40th anniversary (!), we will be exploring our Principles of Practice. These are 15 different expressions of what happens here at Alaya; they provide a direction and purpose to our work, and perhaps even to our lives altogether.
The Lantern Walk: Moments that Matter
With Thanksgiving and the holidays afoot, I find myself considering how to make time and space for more of what really matters. This time of year invites me to go inwards, to create more space for reflection, and to find time to connect more deeply. Its a time for creating or continuing traditions – and for celebrations rooted in what really matters: sharing, gratitude, creativity and joy.
Montessori Principles at Alaya Preschool
One of the virtues and powers of contemplative education as it is practiced at Alaya is the opportunity given to our teachers to use different methods and techniques based on their own merits–discerned from direct experience–rather than being limited to a particular ideology or plan. I am experiencing this firsthand with Montessori principles and techniques at Alaya as I help out in the Garuda classroom this year.
The Rhythm of the Day at Alaya Preschool
Tiger, Lion, Garuda & Dragon - What Do These Names Mean?
A recent community night at Rowan’s preschool (which was founded by Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche, a Tibetan Buddhist meditation master and lineage holder), reminded me how lucky I am to send my son to a school honoring the tradition of Shambhala Buddhism (the teachings of which are grounded in the premise that there is a basic human wisdom inherent in human experience, where bravery and fearlessness are cultivated and a ‘basic goodness’ in ourselves and one another is celebrated).
5 Ways To Help Children Be Who They Are
Genuine relationships are what inspires many parents to have their children here at Alaya, many teachers and staff to teach and work here, and is a guiding principle for many people. But what is it? What is the experience of being genuine? How is genuineness cultivated in ourselves and how is it taught, if it even can be taught?
