As we bring our first term of the year to a close, there has been much discussion in the school’s various faculties about our festivals and what our intentions are in celebrating them. We share here a beautiful letter written by Kindergarten teacher Sonya le Roux for the ECD families in preparation for Autumn and all that it brings.
“Dear Parents
The time we are in now is quite a remarkable time. Not only are we at the start of autumn, but we are also within the time of Lent and Ramadan. How extraordinary that these turning points in the cycle of the year are coinciding. Summer’s searing light and heat-filled days will now start to gradually diminish – days become shorter and cooler and mist appears at dawn and dusk.
All await the coming rains. Slowly the quality of light alters. As adults, one is aware that as the days become less dominated by summery sunlight, one becomes less active outside. Instead, when autumn deepens, the family activity naturally centres more inside the home – around the table sorting autumn leaves, having early suppers and listening to the rain on the roof. A mood of inwardness is awakened.
A child under 7 experiences each passing day as if there will always be a tomorrow – forever and ever. Blissfully unconscious, the small child expects each day to be filled with sunshine, love and security, expects the sun day after day, for eternity even, to pour down over the child its life-bearing warmth and light. And yet, as autumn, Easter and Eid approach, have you not perhaps noticed a change in your child? One would have to observe carefully, for the changes are subtle, elusive.
Things like – one notices the child’s ability to play harmoniously changes; often children look blankly at you when simple requests are made, they become unaware of each other, tension and forgetfulness increase and basic routine becomes a trial. Everything that was building up seems to be breaking down. It becomes a trying time at home and at school. One notices that in whatever is happening, “change” is in the air. It is in fact, a veritable turning point in the child’s development, for what the child is trying to do, is move from a state of unconsciousness to consciousness, from the blissful expectation to awakening own responsibility. And it is usually, but not always, a rough crossing.
It occurs every year around autumn, that the child adds a new quota of consciousness to what has been achieved before. Often the change to consciousness, to concentrated wakefulness, takes place very pronouncedly in autumn and is reflected in the quality of each child’s activity. Creativeness begins anew. In the autumn/winter terms the children are in themselves and a kind of humming concentration pervades the classroom until the spring/summer returns to call them out again, to dream and play. And this process of waking up to themselves in autumn with all the attendant tension of losing the bright summer sun – these struggles to kindle their own inner sun space – that for the small child is a true threshold experience. It is a true resurrection – a new consciousness – a process of enlightenment, of learning.
The children are experiencing a longing to remain in their unconscious, yet paradisical childhood where nothing will ever change; however, they are sub-consciously aware that change is inevitable. They need outer reassurance that although consciousness is often painfully achieved, and that it is different to a state of relative unconsciousness, it nevertheless can be as enlivening and sustaining to their former state, if not in fact even more so. They need to experience that consciousness is a process that grows out of unconsciousness. The one cannot exist without prior participation of the other.
In order to support the above process as well as the beautiful work that the children are now doing in class, here are some simple ideas that you might like to take up with your children.
Set aside a space, perhaps the centre of a table, a sideboard, to which the children have access, while being aware that the place is special. Place the special gifts which they will be bringing home on festival day in the centre. Their joy in making these gifts has been and continues to be an absolute pleasure to behold.
Then place sturdy dry branches in a sand-filled container such as an earthenware plant pot or jar. During the week allow the children to paint blown eggs to hang on the branches. When the paint is dry, a little bit of butter carefully rubbed over the eggs gives them a soft glow. To make painting easier, it’s a good idea to wash the eggs in soap beforehand.
During the time until this specific day, encourage the children to add special “finds” to the centrepiece – such as feathers, stones, seed pods, moss and other treasures so that the centrepiece grows.
We hope you have a tranquil autumn holiday.
Warm regards
The Kindergarten Teachers”
