This September, WiseBodies offers CircleBee, a brand-new, whole-being sexuality class for families with children in the 6th/7th - 8th/9th grades.
In response to the motion toward a non-gender binary world, WiseBodies no longer hosts classes for "girls" and "boys", but rather classes for all.
To learn about, and register for CircleBee, a year-long class for families with children in the 6th/7th - 8th/9th grades, please join us for an Orientation evening on Tuesday, August 23rd, from 6:30 - 8:00pm, here at WiseBodies in Chatham.
We'll enjoy tea and desserts, learning about this year's curriculum, and exploring WiseBodies-style educational games. We'll all go home having learned something new!
CircleBee will meet Tuesday afternoons from 3:30 - 5:30 pm, beginning September 20th.
RSVP required! Please contact Isa at wisebodieshudson@gmail.com. We hope to see you here Tuesday, August 23rd, at 6:30pm!
In This Circle Girls, finally together!
With our late start, related to many of our girls being on sport teams, and last week's shared class with the be boys, it's taken us awhile for Circle Girls to arrive. I'm happy to report that, as of today, it felt like we finally have. We've arrived! We were able to recognize this good feeling.
My guess is, had you joined us at the end of class, and seen the girls puppy-piled, snuggled with blankets and pillows, you also would have known we've happily found home with one-another.
The girls and I figured out descriptive words that fit our personalities, that also begin with the first letters of our first names. The girls were on point when they came up with words like luminous, amazing, and compassionate. Since we're working with the concept of Speaking Up and Being LOUD this year, we increased the volume when repeating back the supportive descriptors.
We laughed as we played group-building games, including passing our linked bodies through our hoola-hoop, and un-knotting our clasped arms.
The girls spent time writing in their journals. Each of us drew a page that included all our names and birthdays. Many of us drew our names, together, inside a large heart.
We wrote about how we felt today, being together.
We built a very cozy nest to settle into while we drew on the blueboard. Mothers arrived, and helped us with the work of figuring out what body parts are very comfortable saying aloud.
Much too soon, it was time to hold hands and sing our finishing song.
Gorgeous work, Circle Girls. I'm looking forward to next week!
Circle Girls are Back!
We had a wonderful first day back!
The girls served each other tea and applecrisp, talked about their schools, reminisced about summer, figured out some of the likes they share, and made themselves at home.
We spent our first afternoon together enjoying several different kinds of introductions, including learning each other's names. The girls painted their names on cards that now hang from our classroom walls.
Also in our classroom, we made a chalkboard web of just a few of the things we've discovered we have in common. It's fun to see the beginning of the web of connection that we'll create throughout our year together.
New this year is the fact that two of our long-term girls have become high-schoolers! They have agreed to step into leadership roles, for which they are very well-prepared.
The first day of In This Circle always marks a special moment at WiseBodies. It's a moment when girls, together, begin to set their own agenda for a year of girl-led, community-building and learning.
And, actually, the girls already have begun to express their girl-power by insisting that they set our start-date. Each year, In This Circle girls request that we begin a full 5 or 6 weeks after the other WiseBodies classes, so that they can fully participate in school sports.
Yes to girls claiming the right to create their own calendars, participating in sports (or not!), and deciding when just the right time is for...well, for just-about everything we do together.
Here are just a couple of the questions we'll draw attention to this year:
In how many parts of the world, including our own homes and neighborhoods, are a girl's right to speak-up challenged and sometimes prevented?
In how many conscious, and unconscious ways, do adults, girls, and boys participate in quieting and silencing girls' voices?
These questions will be explored in all our classes, and particularly here, in our all-girl class.
We'll also explore the ways and places girls' voices are encouraged, how we can participate in this encouragement, and how we can make sure girls' voices are heard here at WiseBodies.
At the end of class, mothers joined in, helping to lead us in movement and stretching, and joining us in singing our class song.
We're a full and wonderful circle again this year.
Great job, In This Circle girls!
In This Circle Girls Begins Tomorrow!
And I can't wait.
It feels like forever since our last class.
And this year we have 3 new students!
See you soon, girls!
Tea time!
New and current In This Circle families joined WiseBodies today for a tea and watercolor party.
Girls, little sisters, and mothers all painted our impressions of a bouquet of zinnias gifted WiseBodies by a Science and The Body family!
While we painted, we got to know one-another a little bit more. We shared memories from 4th grade, drank herbal tea, and had a tour of the classrooms.
In This Circle begins two weeks from today!
It will be exciting to welcome back families for whom this will be their third year, families for whom this will be their second year, and brand-new families who will be joining a quite magical circle!
In This Circle Summer Tea for Girls and their Mothers!
“WiseBodies is a wonderful after-school class that teaches the mind, body, and soul to work as one. The atmosphere is calm, controlled, focused, safe, and learning friendly….” Emily, 13
In This Circle Summer Tea for Girls and their Mothers
In This Circle is a year-long teen girls’ coming-of-age class, for girls 12 - 15 years old, and their mothers. We meet Wednesday afternoons, October through May, in Chatham, NY.
To give you a chance to experience what In This Circle is like, we are hosting a Summer Tea for Girls and their Mothers, Wednesday, September 29th, 4:00 - 5:30 pm
You’ll be able to meet In This Circle girls (for many girls, September will be the beginning of their third year!); meet their mothers; meet Isa, the teacher; see the classrooms; and have an experience of what class is like.
Please visit our website, wisebodies.org
For questions, and to RSVP, please call Isa at 518-821-9676
or email her at wisebodieshudson@gmail.com.
“...I wish all kids had this kind of safe, wholesome and nourishing environment to learn about sex!”
Sarah, mother of three girls who attend WiseBodies classes
Haiku.
The girls began their new journals. We'll write in them each week. For our first entries we listed the names of all the girls in our class. Many of the girls made special drawings to symbolize each other's personalities.
We began writing our first haiku.
Continuing with our herbal study, we experienced different herbal waters on our faces, including chamomile, oats, and roses.
As always, we finished class with the girls' mothers joining for our final circle and song.
We had a lovely, gentle, thoughtful afternoon.
Our Mural begins!
Amy, brilliant artist, mother of one of In This Circle's girls, spent Saturday afternoon guiding the girls through the process of designing their wall mural.
This included looking through many art books, drawing sketches, weaving ideas together, learning how to work with paint and brushes, and learning how to transfer pencil sketches to acrylic wall-painting.
The walls, in their beginning stages, are beautiful! The room, transformed!
Amy and the girls will return this-coming Saturday, to work on the next stages of their mural, which will include a bean tree, birds in nests, stars, a lake. They'll also teach me how to paint a flower on the wall, so it can join the flower garden.
All photos by Mateo Coffey-Loring.
