AUTUMN 2024 NEWSLETTER
In our corner of the world, the south-west of France, temperatures have dropped after weeks of beautiful sunny autumn weather. We have dug out our woolen jumpers and gloves to wear in the morning and enjoyed huddling by a warm fire in the evenings.
We had a nourishing summer, full of fruitful conversations between families, children, and educators, followed by a time to rest and nurture relationships with family and friends during August.
September and October brought much joy in harvest and gathering activities. Vinyards, plum and apple orchards, and fig and hazelnut trees, all offered much joy in their abundance and delicious flavours colours, textures and scents. November brought forth mushrooms and slugs in abundance. In the mud we could study footprints of the wild boars, again offering lots of fun in the wet gardens, fields and woodlands.
"This is really hard work, Elena!"
"Look, another one!" Boar prints in the mud
"I'm on my way. I am just finishing up my work!"
"One, two, three, four, five." Happy counting outside.
This is the first newsletter of Flower Fresh Education. We’d like to keep you up to date on the progress of our project and to communicate the insights we reach as we move along. We will also share our needs with specific requests for support.
Where we are at
Elena continues to nourish the vision and practices of the Flower Fresh Education project in discussions with a diversity of teaching colleges, schools and individual educators. She is working on further developing the Flower Fresh Peace curriculum for the Montessori classrooms. She also shares the Flower Fresh practices and her general experience with children and parents in her Mindful Parenting Coach activities: https://mindfulparentingcoach.org/.
Several members of our Still Water Peace Education Association continue to share and discuss the vision in the various professional networks and communities that they are engaged in.
Our focus in Flower Fresh Education is on modelling how to live in harmony with our natural world. This includes explorative experiences, concrete knowledge and understanding, the development of logical and creative thinking, practical and social skills in caring for oneself, caring for the indoor and outdoor classrooms, compassionate communication, and sustainable community living.
We aim to nourish the personal, social and practical skills needed to be able to engage in and contribute to the future development of our world community, from a place of interbeing, joy, equality, compassion and understanding, knowledge and skill.
The adult models and guides each child in developing independence, self-discipline and responsibility, while feeling safe, included, and nurtured by engaging in purposeful activities. These are all qualities which cultivate the sense of belonging in a learning community.
The practices of Thich Nhat Hanh and the Plum Village community, including relaxation and mindfulness, and how to generate joy and take care of strong emotions, are deeply embedded in the curriculum. This also goes for the guidelines for educators on how to present the materials and activities to the children.
Our specific requests
At the moment all activities are done in our spare time. When funding is made available we will be able to engage more professional educators and trainers in the educational aspect of the project.
To establish a Flower Fresh Education Learning centre where families and children can learn and grow together in joyful and sustainable ways, we are looking for people who are skilled and experienced in:
1 - putting together a business plan for setting up and running a learning centre. The centre needs to be registered in France and to operate as an International school in France. Alternatively the business could be registered in a different country, in which case it needs to conform to the legal conditions for running an International school in France.
2 - creating a fundraising plan to obtain a building, either to buy a property or to raise funds to rent a suitable place for our educational activities.
3 - creating a fundraising plan for the establishment of the educational side of the project. The first stage would be raising funds to cover the costs of the administrative services and the professional salaries needed in the development process.
Thank you for your encouragement and support. We wish everyone a beautiful winter time and look forward to our next opportunity to share our news,
With a smile and a lotus for you,
Elena, project director and founder of Flower Fresh Education & Paul, president of the Still Water Peace Education Association.
Nature art creation