Dharma Rain - Dharma School Manual

Dharma School Manual (back to table of contents)

Description of Sunday Program

Pre-School Group

The youngest are in the pre-school group, generally 3 to 6 years old. Upon reaching their classroom, as a group the class draws a picture schedule for the days activities. The schedule follows a general pattern of setting up an altar, meditation, a physical activity (usually involving yoga), a lesson taught through a story, craft or activity, and finishing off with snack shared as a group around a table giving time for reflection and sharing as a community. Creating the picture schedule gives the children both guidance and a sense of accomplishment as each task is crossed off with its completion. Knowing what comes next also frees the children to fully experience the present task at hand — rather than anticipating and inquiring into snack time, for example.

An example of a picture schedule used in the preschool group.

Sharing the spirit of meditation with this age group can be done several ways. Whatever the form of meditative experience, an effort is made to acquaint the children with a little more stillness than they might find comfortable, but not to make meditation an oppressive and aversive experience. We have moved away from having the children face a wall and be quiet and still for “X” amount of time. For some kids this too much resembles “time out.” Instead, we utilize the energy of their age and give them more guidance in the infinite possibilities of sitting. Certainly meditation is about not moving and about keeping your hands to yourself, but it is the foundation from which so much arises. We try to give the kids a taste of that positive quality of meditation.

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One way to do this is to create simple rituals that foster stillness and quiet. The most important form this has taken in our preschool group is careful attention to an altar. Some years the group has “created” an altar each time they met. Each child took turns placing different elements on the altar, such as tiny buddhas and bodhisattvas, flowers, animals figurines, water, and incense. This can take quite a while, and gives the kids something to do while maintaining silence (more or less) in a sacred and devotional space. Once the altar was created, the group engaged in some kind of short meditation, and then ceremonially put the altar away. At other times the group has carefully lit the candles and incense together under adult supervision (and the admonition that they should only do this with an adult). Many of the children have subsequently asked to set up altars at home — or quietly improvised on their own, as one boy did by setting up an altar in his closet with his night light as the candle and a branch as the incense.

Guided meditations are also popular with this group, especially when the teacher is able to be spontaneous and intuitive about choosing the meditation for the day. At times the meditation may be able to relate in some way to the lesson of the day. The teacher may instruct the kids to hold their hands to their hearts to feel their light, and then describe the light and how it radiates to touch everything — the trees, the flowers, the cars, mom, dad, friends. This meditation usually coincidences with use of the book All I See Is Part of Me by Chara M. Curtis. The group has also used short repeated chants called mantras, like “Om Mani Padme Hum,” that emphasize listening, concentration, body awareness and a sense of connection to the universe. At times they are led through a meditation that asks them to see themselves as buddhas (that is, as awakened beings) because that nature lives inside them. They understand the effort at concentration this requires through the help of an engaging book about a firefly that has to learn how to concentrate and light up his butt (Leo the Lightning Bug by Eric Drachman). Breath meditations are also effective. In one of these the kids started with breathing loudly so everyone could hear each other, and then getting quieter over the course of many classes. Eventually many kids started breathing more deeply and slowly, taking big breaths of release as they settled into meditation.

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After the period of stillness it is useful to move into some large muscle exercises. Simple yoga is greatly enjoyed. The kids are better able to accept the quiet time knowing that it is to be followed with activity.

In honoring the energy and youthful nature of this age group, the day’s lessons become largely somatic and experiential in format — including lots of stories, dress up, plays, games, and art projects. Emphasis is placed in familiarizing the children with the stories of the Buddha’s life and the most basic principles he taught — kindness, concentration, generosity, etc. The pre-schoolers are particularly captivated by our kid-friendly versions of Buddhist ceremonies and subconsciously soak up deep dharma teachings about practice, community, devotion, acceptance of loss, compassion and self-awareness (among others) as they participate.

For the formal “teaching” part of the pre-school class, it is best when the teacher is prepared with a topic and plans for activities but is able to let go of these plans at a moment’s notice in order to take advantage of situations that arise spontaneously. Recent events in one child’s life might provide an opportunity to make acceptance seem like a very real and relevant topic, or dissatisfaction about the day’s cold weather might lead into a discussion about what the kids still have to be grateful for. For example, one day the group had drawn their picture schedule, but there was a large empty space on the page even after they had drawn “going home.” The teacher asked the children what came next, and they all said they didn’t know. The teacher drew on this to offer a subtle teaching on the richness of emptiness: we don't know what's happening next, so anything is possible! She then incorporated this into the day’s meditation.

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