Dear parents
We were so happy to see you all on our first class September 10th! It was exciting to meet so many new friends and to welcome our old friends back to Ethics for Children. Below you will find a short description of our classes and what is coming in the weeks ahead.
We have one more trial day scheduled for September 17th, so feel free to come back if you were trying a class, and tell your friends. To sign up for the trial class September 17th, please visit: https://bsec.org/trial-class-for-ethics-for-children/
Exploring Ethics (ages 3-6) Teacher Simba Yangala
Our first day of Ethics for children in Exploring Ethics. It was a fun Sunday morning to see all the beautiful children. Our high light was the story “A Sea of Pink”. It’s a story a boy who was told on his first day of school by other children who were not so nice to not wear pink t-shirt. Other children came to his rescue and made a day of children wearing pink shirts. He felt welcome and safe.Sea of Pink is the story that originated the Pink Shirt to School day, a worldwide anti bullying campaign. It’s about the power of kindness and getting together to do what is right. With our beautiful tangled up yarn, we made a web of friends together. Learn more about it by watching the video below. See you next Sunday.
Growing Ethics (ages 7-9) Teacher storae michele
The Growing with Ethics group created a roadmap of the year together! We discussed dates and holidays we were excited about and discussed what our journey into the future will look like. Afterwards, we wrote letters to our future-selves, that will be mailed at the end of the year. These messages included our personal hopes and dreams for the year.
Living Ethics (ages 10-12) Teacher Lea Bender After a sweet opening circle in the playground with all of the age groups, our Living Ethics group gathered in the Poly Prep library for our first meeting of the school year! Our theme this month is Welcome and Community. We shared times we felt like outsiders and also about places where we feel welcome. Gus said he felt like an outsider on the first day of EfC last year, but now EfC is one of the places where he feels safe and welcome. We also talked about times we helped others to feel welcome when they were new or felt left out. Later, we got on our feet with some get-to-know-you games and finished class by talking through the monthly themes for the year. Next week we will also be making creative maps of our lives. I’m already looking forward to next Sunday!
Taty and Lea here! Hope you are having a wonderful summer. We are looking forward to fall already!
There will be lots of new additions to our kids class this year, such as regular yoga and midfulness classes, permaculture and volunteering and service days and arts as regular part of our program for all the classes, but there are also some major staffing changes.
We will all be back in the fall and Simba will continue to teach the youngest children, but Taty and Lea are switching hats!
As many of you know Taty Sena and Lea Bender have both had two jobs at BSEC, Taty as the Outreach Coordinator and Lea as the EfC Director and both as EfC teachers. Starting in August, Taty will be taking over the role of EfCDirector and Lea will be picking up the teaching of the Evolving Ethics class. Lea has taught this age group at EfC in the past and is excited to return to do it again this year. This will allow Taty to be available to parents and visitors during class times and attend all platforms in her role as Outreach Coordinator, a job that is more streamlined with the role of EfC director than with that of teacher.
We also have an amazing and caring new teacher join our program: Storäe Michele. Storäe is a very dynamic teacher with over 10 years teaching experience and a very unique set of talents. we are so excited to have her join our team! Check out her bio at our teachers page HERE.
And to celebrate all the changes, we are offering a Family and Friends Early Bird discount. If you sing up for classes before September 8th this year, you can use the code EFC2017 for a 20% discount rate when paying for our semester or yearly fees. Just visit our registration page at: https://bsec.org/sign-up-for-ethics-for-children-classes/ and use the coupon on the bottom of the page.
And feel free to share it with your friends and family.They can also email efc@bsec.org, with subject “Subscribe” if they want to be added to our EFC mailing list.
We celebrated Martin Luther King Jr’s Day celebrating our community’s diversity and talents. More than ever, it was a good time to honor the cultural richness of our country and the power of peaceful action. A huge thanks to all who helped make this event so successful. All people who worked hard to put it together, the amazing volunteers who welcomed everyone with a smile and with willing helping hands, and all who came with their families to share this event with us.
Check out some of the pictures of the event below:
In times of darkness, we celebrate the Winter Solstice together to welcome the return of the light. Our inter-generational event focused on ancient South American civilizations and how they honored the sun. DuPree led the musical part of the event and the children answered questions about the seasons and helped distribute evergreens and welcoming the sun. The solstice the time to send wishes of peace and light into the world, particularly in times of great need, like now.
Big thanks to all who helped make this event such a success, and to all who brought food, came early and left late to help set up and break down at the end of the day.
Below you will find some pictures of the event:
Hello friends and families,
We are excited to see you this Sunday at Ethics for Children! Read below for info about this weekend and other updates…
THIS WEEKEND!!! There is a weekend full of local family events to check out, including EfC of course..read on below!
Saturday, 10/15/16: Join us at the 5th annual Permaculture Festival at Old Stone House. This is a really nice family-friendly fall event and a great way to learn about permaculture and sustainability. We are still in need of volunteers to help at our BSEC table, if you are available on Saturday morning or afternoon please let us know by filling the short form at: https://goo.gl/forms/wwNkPHA85MOcu8632 It is a fun opportunity to volunteer and meet others!
Sunday, 10/16/16: The weather is looking great for our Evolving/Living Ethics trip into Prospect Park with herbalist Teana David! We will leave BSEC shortly after 11 am and will be back on site by the end of platform (12:30). If you are running late, text me at 917-586-0130for our location. A reminder that this class will be filmed for a BRIC TV segment about Ethics for Children. A copy of the talent release form is attached if you are a parent of a child aged 8 and up and want to look at it before Sunday (no need to print it, we will have copies on hand for you to sign).
Herbalist and plant expert Teana David joins Living and Evolving Ethics to give us an introduction to plants, herbs and basic botany. Class will include a Plant ID walk in Prospect Park while Teana explains the plant’s medicinal uses (and whether or not they are edible) along with some historical and cultural context. We’ll end by making herbal vinegars, honey and infusion oils together.
After platform/classes, there will be a raising of a Black Lives Matter banner on the front of the building. This will include reading a poem; singing a song and a speaker. Kids are welcome to join their parents for this if interested.
AND, if you are looking for even more to do after EfC this Sunday, this free science event is happening close by:
CITY OF SCIENCE this Sunday, October 16 at Park Slope Armory YMCA. This family-friendly event is FREE and open to the public: City of Science Brooklyn Sunday, October 16th, 2016 10:00 AM–4:00 PM Park Slope Armory YMCA 361 15th Street (btw 7th & 8th Ave) Brooklyn, NY 11215
EMAILS Starting next week, we will be using MailChimp to send EfC related emails. This email may initially get filtered into your “promotions” or “updates” folder on Gmail, so please look out for it by the end of next week. If it does get filtered, just drag it to the “Primary” tab and click “yes” when it asks: Do this for future messages? and Gmail will send it to your inbox going forward.
EfC REGISTRATION: Registration is available through our website. In the interest of our environment, registration will be exclusively done online. Here is the link:https://bsec.org/sign-up-for-ethics-for-children-classes/Please complete your annual registration by the end of October.
