Here are some of our Contakids principles
A successful class (or, What is Contalikds?)
During our last local ContaKids Teachers Training in Tel Aviv end of November, Among many questions, 2 main ones stood out:
What is ContaKids?
What is a successful class?
Those always trigger fascinating discussions that roots to the core of our method. Here, we’ll start talking about the second question and, maybe, give some clues about the first one.
A “successful class”
We might think that a successful ContaKids class is a class where all the parents and the children do all the exercises and games together and right away? And everything goes smoothly, without too much noise and interruptions? And that would be the goal to move towards.
But that is not our approach, and it is also far from reality…
In reality, most parents have very busy lives taking care of their children and working. And children are children, they come with all their energy, and their emotions, just like us. As ContaKids teachers, we don’t know how the day went for the couples (parent-child/ren) before coming to class, not even just about the way in the car or by bike… to the class. During the class, children can be found running around and playing during the exercises, just watching for a moment, wanting to play with another child or adult, … (see article: “Non hierarchical activity”)
Which leads us back to our first question: What is CK?
Few answers are possible and it is important to us to keep the question open and alive. A long definition could be: “Contakids is a class for children between 2-5 years old and their parents. At Contakids, through a playful game of body, movement and touch, the parents and their children develop a new communication channel, in which the child improves his motor skills while the parent learns to develop trust in the child and one self. “ A short one could be: “ContaKids is, first, 45 minutes to be together.”
A successful ContaKids class, then, could be managing to create a space as a teacher for parents and children *to be together* for 45 minutes? All the while, making sure the class is moving forward from the beginning to the end.
This is a skill that demands training and improvisation capabilities.
Then, How do we do that? We teach our future teachers that events will happen during the class and offer ways we’ve developed over our years of experience to deal with those dynamics in order to allow magical things to unfold in space.
Our approach is the following: it is about the way we want/decide to relate to something. Not relating isn’t a possiblity. We wish not to ignore anything which is happening in space. So, our approach to relating is inclusive. We wish to allow everyone and everything to be part of the class instead of trying to control it.
But why so (not-so) simple?
Once this atmosphere is created, it supports a more natural expression from each participant. For example, parents can let go and allow us to lead the way, children have more space to express themselves and unfold in their own time. From there, this unusual context leaves room for the magic to happen.
And magic can take many shapes. Like, parents discovering a new side of their child or a different language through play and touch, experiencing a deeper bond of trust and complicity. It can come into the shape of a child that doesn’t want to participate during the first class but that is ready to do all the games with the parents once finally arrived home :-).
The ideas of success, fear, risk, … they are all adult ways to look at the world. When we allow time to release ourselves from those ideas for a moment, there is room for something else.
So, if everything is part of the class and we manage to share those 45 minutes of time only dedicated to being together, the context for beautiful unfoldings is set, so is the successful class. Perhaps this gives us a different view on success?
Once this atmosphere
During our last local ContaKids Teachers Training in Tel Aviv end of November, Among many questions, 2 main ones stood out:
What is ContaKids?
What is a successful class?
Those always trigger fascinating discussions that roots to the core of our method. Here, we’ll start talking about the second question and, maybe, give some clues about the first one.
A “successful class”
We might think that a successful ContaKids class is a class where all the parents and the children do all the exercises and games together and right away? And everything goes smoothly, without too much noise and interruptions? And that would be the goal to move towards.
But that is not our approach, and it is also far from reality…
In reality, most parents have very busy lives taking care of their children and working. And children are children, they come with all their energy, and their emotions, just like us. As ContaKids teachers, we don’t know how the day went for the couples (parent-child/ren) before coming to class, not even just about the way in the car or by bike… to the class. During the class, children can be found running around and playing during the exercises, just watching for a moment, wanting to play with another child or adult, … (see article: “Non hierarchical activity”)
Which leads us back to our first question: What is CK?
Few answers are possible and it is important to us to keep the question open and alive. A long definition could be: “Contakids is a class for children between 2-5 years old and their parents. At Contakids, through a playful game of body, movement and touch, the parents and their children develop a new communication channel, in which the child improves his motor skills while the parent learns to develop trust in the child and one self. “ A short one could be: “ContaKids is, first, 45 minutes to be together.”
A successful ContaKids class, then, could be managing to create a space as a teacher for parents and children *to be together* for 45 minutes? All the while, making sure the class is moving forward from the beginning to the end.
This is a skill that demands training and improvisation capabilities.
Then, How do we do that? We teach our future teachers that events will happen during the class and offer ways we’ve developed over our years of experience to deal with those dynamics in order to allow magical things to unfold in space.
Our approach is the following: it is about the way we want/decide to relate to something. Not relating isn’t a possiblity. We wish not to ignore anything which is happening in space. So, our approach to relating is inclusive. We wish to allow everyone and everything to be part of the class instead of trying to control it.
But why so (not-so) simple?
Once this atmosphere is created, it supports a more natural expression from each participant. For example, parents can let go and allow us to lead the way, children have more space to express themselves and unfold in their own time. From there, this unusual context leaves room for the magic to happen.
And magic can take many shapes. Like, parents discovering a new side of their child or a different language through play and touch, experiencing a deeper bond of trust and complicity. It can come into the shape of a child that doesn’t want to participate during the first class but that is ready to do all the games with the parents once finally arrived home :-).
The ideas of success, fear, risk, … they are all adult ways to look at the world. When we allow time to release ourselves from those ideas for a moment, there is room for something else.
So, if everything is part of the class and we manage to share those 45 minutes of time only dedicated to being together, the context for beautiful unfoldings is set, so is the successful class. Perhaps this gives us a different view on success?
Once this atmosphere
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