The Flowering of Children’s Natural Creativity

March 20-25    at Ananda Laurelwood near Portland Oregon

A six day training for those who work with and support the development of children.  Learn how to bring forth the shining soul genius of children through art and creativity- whether in the classroom or in the home.

All children are naturally creative and love to create. How do we cultivate their innate creative genius?  

Creativity is intrinsic to being human.  It is native to being alive, instinctive in us.  If you give a box of crayons and a piece of paper to a four year old they know exactly what to do.  They do not need explanations or instructions.  They immediately begin to scribble and draw with delight.  Not knowing how to draw has to be learned!

“There are children playing in the streets who could solve some of my top problems in physics, because they have modes of sensory perception that I lost long ago.” J. Robert Oppenheimer   ‘father of the atomic bomb’

What if you could preserve the genius of childhood?  In this training you will learn how to cultivate the innate creative genius of children.

The flowering of human potential begins in how we teach our children.

What We Offer:
• A Creative Experience that INSPIRES YOU and Transforms the Way You Work with Children
• A Week of Soul Replenishment with Healthy Food and Beautiful Nature
• A Lasting Antidote to Overwhelm and Burnout
• Guidance from Decades of Experience in Creative Process Using All Modalities of the Arts
What You’ll Get:
• A Heart Opening Experience of Authentic, Joyful Creative Expression
• Strategies to Ignite Multiple Intelligences and ‘Right Brain’ Genius
• Tools to Equip Children to Thrive in the 21st Century
• Cutting Edge Neuroscience to Maximize Teaching Effectiveness

Learn to guide the creative process of children so that they can experience the JOY and freedom and brilliance of their own creative process.

Whether as a parent or a school teacher you can learn the simple but profound ways to activate a joyful flow of authentic and soul nurturing creative expression in children.  Learn the steps to flourishing originality in the classroom, in the home and in the heart- and how to to avoid the common mistakes that shut down the flow.

According to Sir Ken Robinson, internationally revered expert on creativity, our education system successfully squeezes creativity out of children by around the age of eight.  The stifling of creativity and imagination is not deliberate, but it is systematic because it is invisibly embedded in our current paradigm.

“The current system was not only created for the purpose of industrialism, but also in the image of 19^th century industrialism- and you see it all the way through the ideology.  We even process children through a grade system based on the ‘date of manufacture’.” Sir Ken Robinson

Because of this approach many children’s art classes are more about assembly than creation. Our children are not products, or ‘another brick in the wall’.  Don’t let an outmoded model squeeze out their joy and creative vitality.

 Creativity is the core survival skill in a world of exponential change.

Creativity isn’t just for art- rather the Arts help us to activate our creativity!   Authentic creativity engages our imagination, sparks our passion, stretches our minds.  Real creativity involves open ended inquiry, expanded perspective and possibility thinking.  Once we learn how to easily enter into the creative flow, we can apply this dynamic mode of thinking towards all of life’s problems.

Creativity opens the portal to the inner world.

Last but not least, in flowing creative expression we experience the life of the Soul.  We come to the center of our own Being where we can feel the deeper pulses of our lives; our sense of purpose, our sense of who we are.  When we strengthen a child’s access to their own inner world we have given them a life of meaning.  If we know how to access the inexhaustible creative fount inside, we become victors in this world.

Schedule

Monday March 20th 10am – Saturday March 25th 1pm

Daily Flow

7am            Optional Yoga & Meditation

8am            Breakfast

9am            Morning Session

12:45pm    Lunch

2:30pm     Afternoon Session

5pm           Optional Yoga, Energization, Meditation & Affirmation

6:00           Dinner

7:00           Evening Program

Course Flow

Monday    Overview and Immersion

Guided Imagery, Movement Meditation and Watery color flow

Tuesday

Creativity Mobilization Techniques

Wednesday

Initiating and Guiding Creative Investigation

Thursday

Accessing Kinesthetic Intelligence through movement.  Working fluidly with archetypes & symbols- collage, improvisation & theater

Friday
Cutting Edge Neuroscience to Maximize Teaching Effectiveness + strategies for the classroom (and home)

Saturday

Review, Q&A, Closure

REGISTRATION

YOUR INVESTMENT
$700   Tuition includes all art materials
Early Bird before February 1    $497

+ $100 discount for Education for Life Teachers

All basic materials will be provided including drawing & paint paper, chalk & oil pastels, tempera and acrylic paint, brushes, painting tools, water bottles & jars, glue, glitter, glitzy accoutrements, assorted collage papers (tissue paper, velum, colored construction paper, poster board, etc), collage magazines, scissors, glue, glitter & glitzy accoutrements, 3D materials, collage mounting boards and more!  Students may also bring or purchase additional supplies.

NOURISHMENT    Our classroom always has an abundance of scrumptious healthy snacks as well as tea & coffee.

MEALS & LODGING    Meals & accommodations are separate.  The Green Hill Cafe provides delicious vegetarian meals.  If you are a guest they are included, if you are coming as a day student you may make advance reservations for lunch or dinner.

Arrangements for meals and accommodations can be made through Ananda Laurelwood

YOUR INSTRUCTORS
Dana Lynne Andersen is a multi-modality artist with a Master’s Degree in Consciousness Studies (JFKU). A pioneer in the field of Art & Consciousness, she is the founding Director of The Academy of Art, Creativity & Consciousness in Italy and the USA.
She is also the creator of the Transformative Arts Method and Certification Program that uses creative process as a vehicle for personal healing and spiritual awakening. Dana has taught and exhibited on three continents.

Laurie Marshall is a certified art and social studies teacher with 35 years’ experience in project-based learning, including making murals and dramas with children in public, independent and Waldorf-inspired charter schools.  She trains teachers in meeting standards using creativity, project-based learning, bio-mimicry and multiple intelligences. The author of 8 books and 11 plays, her work in using visual art and storytelling to build consensus, train leaders, prevent conflict and clarify values has served NASA, the Army Corps of Engineers, UNICEF, the U.S. Botanical Gardens, the U.S. Senate, prison inmates, hospice patients, and inner city students.