Abiding Heart's Early Years Curriculum
The following Abiding Heart’s meditation and contemplative early years curriculum is designed for all communities. This curriculum rests on the view of interdependence, universal ethics, awareness and mindfulness games, and loving kindness and compassion experiences.

Rhythms
Our early years curriculum follows the rhythm of the seasons, wilderness and farming year. Local heritage and cultural celebrations are also an important part of our kindergarten approach. In this way, we co-construct a physical, emotional and social environment for young children to flourish and learn in a way that respects and honours their developmental phase. We do this through our play based curriculum where children learn through imitation and caring adults who serve as role models to nurture gratitude, reverence, love, kindness and compassion in children. Naturally, our pedagogical approach to learning in early years is different than the one we have for primary. We designed a curriculum where teaching and learning happens indirectly with a strong focus on children learning through play, imagination and being.
Awe and Wonder Filled Early Years Curriculum
• Contemplative ecology andn Studies linked with the seasons: spring, summer, autumn, winter; wilderness; following the rhythm of nature: seasons; weather; the farming year • Local heritage and cultural festivals from other traditions • Celebrating children’s birthday using our unique approach; • Celebrating auspicious days and auspicious events; • Daily offerings and rituals • Mindfulness with young children: Developmentally appropriate awareness and mindfulness games; • Universal ethics and the young child: Impermanence, law of causality, interdependence, loving kindness and compassion, non violence, innate goodness, love, joy, compassion and equanimity • Contemplative stories • Contemplative circle time • Language teaching and learning (native language and additional languages): the bilingual/trilingual classroom • Storytelling: Nature stories, folk tales and fairy tales from around the world • People at work • Arts and crafts with young children • Cultural arts and crafts • Cooking with young children • Gardening with young children • Treading lightly on the earth: Contemplative ecology
Curriculum Delivery
Educating the will: forming positive habits and inner experiences. • Free play • Circle time • Story time • Learning to speak an additional language, i.e., English or Spanish (individual and group activities) • Individual group learnings activities (pre-literacy and pre-numeracy) • Daily moments of wonder and mindfulness games with children • Arts and crafts activities • Outdoor play • Gardening • Cooking and baking • Storytelling • Celebrating Festivals • Meditation • Art • Craft • Songs, and playing musical instruments • Verses and Poems recitations • Languages learning • Teachers being role models: ° Being a role model ° Awe and wonder ° Gratitude ° Generosity ° Holding the view of Interdependency, Impermanence, law of causality, innate goodness, and all encompassing compassion ° Set a heart wish ° Breathing in and out ° Classroom management ° Staying in awareness; holding the class in awareness ° Daily mindfulness and contemplation practice for teachers ° Understanding child development and human development to inform our teaching practice ° Back to innate basic goodness ° Healing: from unhealthy self towards a healthy sense of self
Abiding Heart's Meditation and Contemplative Early Years Curriculum
The Abiding Heart's curriculum is holistic and localised, taking into consideration diversity and inclusivity in designing our approach. Our curriculum is designed in such a way that certain areas of the curriculum can be adjusted and specific content is designed and created to meet the specific needs of each community using this curriculum. The following sections in the curriculum are designed to be flexible to slot in the following areas: 1. The curriculum must include the geo-socio cultural, climate, environment of the region this curriculum is to be implemented. This includes traditional cultural knowledge that is processed through a sustainability paradigm that rests on contemplative ecology. 2. The curriculum must include the specific tradition that the community is connected to. In the Abiding Heart's teacher training, the trainees learn to use our pedagogical indication and curriculum and design specific content to their tradition. Having said that, the Abiding Heart's curriculum includes a strong and stable universal foundational curriculum that is suitable for all traditions. 3. Identify the language of instruction that the curriculum be taught and translate all resources to that language. It is advisable that the native language be the main language of instructions. Other languages are then introduced as additional languages and or as a bilingual class. 4. The contemplative curriculum is adjusted to be working from the contemplative tradition paradigm, epistemology and methodology but using the particular community, spiritual, cultural and traditional knowledge heritage.
Abiding Heart's Meditation and Contemplative Early Years Curriculum
The Contemplative Year
At the heart of our Contemplative Year curriculum is experiential Contemplative learning. Teachers teach the content of the Contemplative Year curriculum using the teaching and learning methodology of Abiding Heart Education. There are three sections to the curriculum which interweave: The Contemplative year curriculum: our teacher trainees spend too years learning to understand and meditate on some of the practices the curriculum is based on, The Abiding Heart approach is designed to develop a bespoke curriculum content relevant to a specific tradition.
Nature's Year
• Winter • Spring • Summer • Autumn
Own Tradition Content
• Offerings ans rituals • Auspicious Days • Festivals
The Festivals Year
• Local festivals • Festivals celebrated by the families of the children attending the class • Festivals from around the world
The Rhythm of a Day in Abiding Heart's Early Years
The Rhythm of a Day in an Abiding Heart Kindergarten
• Washing (additional language/mother tongue) sometimes additional language and sometimes mother tongue 3 days English 2 days mother tongue • A Moment of Awe and Wonder (mother tongue) • Additional Language circle • Free play • Art/Craft activities • Cooking • Individual learning 15 minutes (3 days conversation – oral additional language and pre-numeracy in additional language) small groups of up to 3 children. (mother tongue 2 days) (optional) • Cleaning/Toilet Songs in additional language • Circle (mother tongue) • Lunch (additional language/mother tongue) • Outdoor play additional language • Toilet/washing time • Story (mother tongue) • Reading time • Nap (additional language/mother tongue) English nursery rhymes; • Mother tongue • Oral additional language learning and play (optional) • Pre-literacy and pre-numeracy (optional) • Snack • Meditation practice • Closing Circle additional language and mother tongue
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