Day 25: Teaching Triumphs

I (Gracie) had two new students to teach this morning. Lily and Perran from Coope Farm had the day off school and so decided to join Evan and Irys in their lessons. We continued our ongoing project on world religions by learning all about Buddhism.

We read the story of Prince Siddhartha Gautama and how he saw much pain and suffering in the world. They listened as I told them how he found the answer when he became a monk and sat under a fig tree, contemplating the solution to the world’s problems. He became known as Buddha, ‘The Awakened or Enlightened One’.

We all learnt how to sit quietly and concentrate on drawing beautifully patterned mandalas, the traditional Buddhist form of art. Then we all had a good laugh about how none of them could sit still whilst attempting to meditate.

I acted as a scribe for them as they all wrote a story together, supposedly with a Buddhist theme. It ended up more about sheep! You may find it amusing to read:

How The Sheep Turned Brown by Evan, Irys, Gracie, Lily and Perran

Gracie: There once was a young Buddhist monk who was nine years old and loved drawing Mandalas. His favourite colour was orange, the same shade as his robes.

Lily: He liked orange so much that he dyed his pet sheep orange.

Irys: Seeing as he dyed his sheep orange, a girl came along to shear his sheep and she took a little wool for her spinning.

Evan: Jian, the mandala drawer, loved Thai cooking and made spicy Thai green curry with noodles every night as an offering to Buddha.

Perran: One time he cooked Thai green curry and his pet orange sheep came and knocked it off the table, spilling all the curry.

Gracie: Jian was super cross and afraid of how the older monks would react to Thai green curry all over their temple. He attempted to mop it up using his sheep’s orange wool, but unfortunately it just dyed the wool green.

Lily: As the attempt to mop up the curry failed, Jian and his now green sheep decided to run away at dusk.

Irys: Jian was so upset that he had to leave the temple, he got angry with his sheep and turned bright red. Suddenly the sheep-shearer was back for some green wool.

Evan: She found that one of Jian’s many sheep was missing! This girl happened to be a secret member of the RSPCA, it took a while for her realise the sheep’s fate: it had been sacrifices to Buddha! She grabbed a pot of tea and threw it Jian’s head.

Perran: Now Jian tried to turn his sheep back to orange, but when he tried it ended up brown! 

The End

Somewhere along the line I think the whole ‘respect for all life’ thing got lost! But you know Evan, there had to be a sacrifice in there somewhere!

We finished the lesson by concocting an absolutely divine Thai Carrot and Peanut Butter Soup with garlic and ginger and other delicious flavours. It was incredible, especially with noodles. The guys ran down to the woods to craft some great homemade chopsticks too, that really made the whole thing super authentic.

The morning went really well, my pupils were focused and inspired. They helped me on my teaching journey and I’m thankful for their enthusiasm, concentration, patience and willingness to listen and learn. Great job, class!!!

Here are a few photos to give you a sneak peek at the classroom:

All crammed in Mo!!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Evan’s mandala.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Irys’ one. Spot the dogs in it!!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Perran’s, I was so impressed with the details and precision.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lily, she did really well and enjoyed it immensely.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My attempt!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Scribbling away….

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Evan and Perran’s cracking on with the cooking.

Me dishing up.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Irys testing the whittled chopsticks.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lily enjoying hers.