Reschool Yourself

Tag Archive: laughter

Reschooling Tool #9: Laugh at Even the Silliest Things

One of the best things about hanging out with Darren all the time is that my daily laugh quota has skyrocketed. He doesn’t take life as seriously as I tend to and constantly gets me to lighten up. Being around him for a couple of weeks has reminded me how important it is to laugh, and how easy it is if you’re open to what’s around you.

I just wrote an article on “Laughter, the Best Medicine” (I’ll link to it once it’s published) and can say from experience that it’s true. When I’m laughing throughout the day, I’m more relaxed, optimistic, and engaged with whatever I’m doing at the moment. According to research, increasing the amount of laughter in my life is also making my immune system is stronger and my cells more full of oxygen, both of which help prevent cancer and other serious disease. There are myriad other benefits to laughing, including burning calories, increasing job satisfaction, and developing bonds between people.

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December 1, 2008 Reschooling Tools, 7 Read more >

All I Really Need to Know, I Learned in Kindergarten

“All I really need to know, I learned in kindergarten” was just a cutesy saying for me until I actually spent a day with kindergarteners. Now I understand.

I visited the kindergarten class in order to generate ideas for the first phase of Reschool Yourself, to decide  what I’d like to do in my old classrooms. I spent the day observing and interacting with the kids, ages five and six. I cut a cardboard box into a stage for a puppet show, listened to a story, and watched the kids practice movement and dance. I agreed to play tag at recess, and only then was informed that I was “always it.” As I chased the kids around the jungle gym, they joyfully teased me by sticking out their tongues and taunting me with singsongs of “Nanny nanny, foo foo.”

The day’s activities began with Kid Writing, a time for students to draw pictures in their personal journals and practice writing about them.

Max 2“Do you have a kid journal?” a boy named Max asked me. I told him that I didn’t.

“I’ll make you one,” he said.

He disappeared and then returned within a few minutes, presenting me with a paper booklet neatly stapled down the side. He had trimmed the side of the page “to make it look nice” and had printed the words, “Melia AND THE” on the fluorescent pink cover.

“Melia and the what?” I asked him.

“That’s up to you,” he said.

I raised my eyebrows, impressed by this 6-year-old sage. “Hmm, I’m not sure how to finish that,” I said. “I’ll have to think about it.”

Max looked me straight in the eye. “Sometimes it’s good to just do what you want to do,” he told me. “Sometimes that’s the best thing.”

I told Max that this was such great advice that I would write it down. I printed his words in oil pastel inside my new journal, on the paper with dotted lines for handwriting practice. When I showed him his own words on the page, he said, “This will be on the first page to remind you, for life.” This kid was a regular Yoda. I wished I could shrink him down to pocket-size and carry him around with me—my own insightful little Pez dispenser.

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March 1, 2008 About the Project, Childhood, Elementary School, , , , , , 9 Read more >