What Do We Do at Sharing Circles?
| Suggested Program and Theme | Basic Resources | ||
| Sample Outline for Each Session | How we got started | ||
Methodology
Sharing
Circles is an individual initiative in the neighbourhood to support the
Character Development of Preschoolers. The
program has evolved to cater for children aged 3 – 15 years of age.
The
program responds to the desire of many parents who want a program that
contributes to the awakening and development of the spiritual nature of their
child, complementing the intellectual and physical education provided by
pre-schools, care centres and schools.
The
program is designed to stimulate the senses and help develop within the toddlers, preschoolers and school aged kids the
knowledge, skills, understanding and foundation values required to be world
citizens and embrace the concept of the oneness of humankind in all its
diversity.
A core part of the program focuses on the virtues
within all of us including love, sharing, caring, cleanliness, patience and
helps the children to explore these through the use of music, movement, story,
craft and reflection.
For older children there is a strong focus on carrying
out service activities. We know the
best way to learn is through the action of doing so over recent years the acts
of service have included performances at Aged Care Homes, a Birthday Party for a
90 year old elder, MultiFaith and Local Government gatherings (including one in
front of the Governor for Victoria) and Children’s Hospital, also cleaning the
local park, making a video, contributing to the development of the Sharing
Circles CD – Reflections for Kids.
Pic: Governor of Victoria, Mayor of Manningham City with the Sharing Circle Kids.
In
this busy, challenging and changing world it is becoming increasingly necessary
for young children to learn the skills of reflection and quietness.
As children practice the virtue of peacefulness it assists them to
increase their resilience and ability to balance events in their lives.
The
methodology behind Sharing Circles draws from historical perspectives of
education in the context of considering priorities of approach needed to assist
children to meet challenges of society today,
it reflects on theorists including Froebel, Piaget, Bronfenbrenner and
Vygotsky, the Reggio Emilio model, the Virtues Project, the program itself now over the 6 or so years and reflection on the
following vision from the Baha’i Writings:
Regard
man as a mine rich in gems of inestimable value.
Education
can alone, cause it to reveal its treasures,
and
enable mankind to benefit therefrom.
Baha’i Writings
The
program also now offers a considerable number of teaching resources to support
parents, carers and teachers in helping the development of character in
children. Refer
to ‘Resources’
The
program now also provides professional development programs, known as “Evolving
Character Development Program”
to assist parents, teachers and carers in their skills and development of
curriculum. Refer to ‘Professional
Developmental Programs’
Sample
Outline For Each Session
A sample outline for each session – 3 and 4 year olds - 60 minutes
for the formal section followed by informal play time for the children
- Prayer and/or
reflective time (if not at the end of the session)
- Welcome song – to
bring a formal start and focus to the session
- Sharing time –
children encouraged to share experiences of the ‘virtue/lesson’ from
during the week
- Group activity – dance or song
- Game
- Song
- Story – book,
story-telling, video, play
- Activity – craft,
art, science
- Quiet reflective time
– use a listening, reflective or story from CD Reflections for Kids
- Focus for the next
session - encouraging the children to practice what they have learnt
- Rainbow Bear –
shares who has demonstrated the 'virtue' of the session. (refer to lesson
34) – for more about Rainbow Bear refer to ‘Resources’
- Goodbye song – to
conclude formal session
- Refreshments
- Free play for those
that remain
As the children grow
older the session can expand in length, the activities can become more complex
and involve team work
Suggested
Program and Themes
Program and Themes
- Focus on a theme
with lots of music, dance, arts/crafts activity, stories, science
- Run 3 – 4 weeks on
one theme to enable follow up, review and focus to be learnt
- Link the theme to the
stories, music and activity chosen for each session
- Start with a few early
themes that can be built upon as the children grow and their understandings
expand
- Repetition is
essential for this age group as it provides routine, which offers security
and confidence, while also allowing lessons to be reinforced over a period
of time. This repetition can be
using songs, playing games, the use of resources and the like over and over
again. The building of habits in a child's life assists them later in life.
- Regularity of
community neighbourhood program
Weekly
for one to two hours, including social time – formal session 30 minutes for
two year olds extended to 60 minutes for three and four year olds
Hold
sessions throughout school term and holidays as parents often still want
activities for the toddlers
Routine
offers confidence for this age of child
- Include prayers and
‘quiet time’ in each session to assist the children to learn to have
reflective times in their day, habits started now will remain with children
- Create different paced
segments within the program – some busy, some noisy, some quiet, some
reflective, some knowledge based, some movement
- Prepare many short
segments within each session for the toddler and preschool age groups.
- Group size – We have
found that the program runs well from as few as 3 children to no more than
12 (less for younger ages) as then the group becomes too large to focus and
encourage the participation of all the children
- Age to start
There
seems to be a window of opportunity in holding for toddlers/preschoolers
Age
two years onwards dependant on maturity of each child is ideal
By
age 3 and 4 the lives of children become busier so then competition for time for
these sessions will occur, so the sooner established into the routine of the
children the better
The
school aged kids enjoy getting together regularly after school to share in
experiences of service and learning together.
-
Music/songs for actions, dancing and singing
o
Limited
music for this age group is available so you will need to consider carefully
what you use and repeat it often. Also
mix the music between new songs and old time favourites nursery rhymes and
action songs
-
Virtues – Based on resources from the Virtues Project Inc.
o
Virtues
cards
·
Virtues snap cards to play games and ‘talk’
virtues language
Photos
– V cards
o
Virtues
Bear or similar
o
Virtues
Bear or similar 
o
Rainbow
Bear 
-
Puzzles related to the various themes – you may need to make these yourself
-
Basic resources for the craft activities
o
Glue
bottles for each child
o
Scissors
for each child
o
Pencils/textas
o
Glitter
a big hit for this age group
o
Felt
balls and shapes
o
Foam
shapes
o
Scrap
card/paper
o
Coloured
poster sheets
o
A4
coloured sheets
o
Scrap
fabric
o
Paper
plates
o
Stapler
o
Sticky
tape
o
Washable
cover for the table
-
First aid kit
-
Tissues
The
program named “Sharing Circles” was initiated on a weekly basis for children
from 2 – 4 years old. After
inviting many of our friends I quickly found that many parents were happy to
bring their kids to be stimulated by songs, music, dancing, rhymes, books,
plays, especially arts and crafts centred around themes relating to the virtues
and feelings.
As
the children were so young I took the approach of having one theme over three or
four weeks and incorporated much repetition of songs, games, dances and a
creative craft idea each week. Each
formal session grew from 30 minutes to 60 minutes later in the year, with the
mothers and toddlers staying around for one or two hours after Sharing Circles
to play and be together.
The
next year we extended the program strongly to focus more strongly on ‘the
virtues in me’ and ‘who I am’, which is new for most of the kids at this
age. I tried and have a virtue for 4
weeks to help have a range of activities repeated to help with deeper
internalisation.
It
was a little difficult to find teaching resources for the toddlers so I have put
my thoughts to it and now try to develop a new resource for each weeks’
sessions. I am also sourcing out
other themes, resources, and ideas from all over the globe.
This website is my way of now sharing what we do and what I have found
with others that might like to support the spiritual and character development
of preschoolers.
The
program has evolved each year meeting the needs of the aging children.
I have expanded the program to focus largely now on service for the
children of primary school age. We
often perform at nursing homes, children’s hospital, community gatherings of
the Local City Council, Interfaith Groups and the like.
The children have made a Video of the story of Rainbow Bear, that they
love so much. They have contributed
to the recording of tracks on the Sharing Circles CD – Reflections for Kids
– refer to ‘Resources’
As
I have an educational background I now also run educational programs for kinder
teachers, school teachers, family day care carers and the like. Refer
to ‘Professional Development Programs’
So
for what its worth – here is my story. It
has taken courage, patience, prayer, love and a strong commitment to see it
happen and every now and then another child joins our little group.
It has changed by daughter’s life and our relationship is so much
deeper because we run it together. I
think it has also changed the loves of over 40 kids that have taken part at one
time or another.
Thank
you to them all !
If
this inspires you – give it a go! YOU
can do it too.
~
Annette Subhani
has been involved in the education of children aged from birth to 12 years of
age during the past two decades. She is a parent, has a Diploma in Education
(Prim) and Post-Graduate Diploma in Early Childhood Education and has
participated in numerous professional development programs for various
industries. As well as working in education, she has worked in the health
industry, retail, community development, management and human resource
development and recruitment. A person of varied life experience with a passion
and desire to contribute to the character development of children from an early
age, as she believes this helps to build a community of responsible and caring
individuals. In recent years she has
initiated a grass roots character development program known as "Sharing Circles"
that contributes to the character and spiritual development of children aged 2
and beyond. The program offers
community educational programs through preschool playgroups, school aged after
hours programs, professional
If this inspires you – give it a go! You can do it too.