At beginning of 2020, CMC course in Warsaw

Despite it being winter in Poland when all nature is hibernated – preschool teachers started the New Year with a CMC course run by Monika Mokrzyszczak in Warsaw . 12 teachers from different Kindergartens attended the course . Some of this year’s graduates will join the professional team of  teachers who have already been trained, with a new one at “Bobotechnika”  kindergarten situated in the building of Warsaw Politech – Institute of Technology  for their employee. In the picture are the first teachers attending this year’s CMC course in Warsaw.

CMC for HEATWAVE in Europe.

This summer in Poland was very unusual - very hot weather. Also, traffic radiated heat from the streets which raised temperatures inside buildings.  There is not air con in all kindergartens there.  How to perform Children Massaging Children –the  children’s favourite activity in such conditions?
Teachers from Integrational Kindergarten No. 45 in Warsaw came up with a brilliant idea.  One child  would wave a silk pocket square above the another one. The feedback was excellent. Students painted impressions of their sensations with sketches. They compared touch from the fabric to a spider web, gentle waterfall, butterfly touch.

Nature Play Community Day

On 12th  May at Ngataringa Organic Garden we hosted 2 Conscious Kids groups . This time I enjoyed the help of Remco Bakker – an experienced gardener and sports massage therapist who recently joined as a  volunteer at NOG. Our programme was very rich starting with foraging greens that children gathered for their salad, and herbs to make herbal infusion.
Running this programme  was a real pleasure for us, as our students were not novices with nature or as well as massage . Mums  received very good back massage from their offspring as an unexpected gift for Mother’s Day. Even though the weather was not perfect we all enjoyed our classes  despite frequent showers

12th March - CMC at Massage New Zealand Regional Networking Meeting

The beginning of  2019 has been celebrated at a new location,Wellark College of Natural Therapies in Alba

In the picture Eva Scherer demonstrates CMC - Back Massage Technique on  Mark Fewtrell.

The audience of members of MNZ had a lot of fun sharing children’s massage techniques in a professional Massage School environment.
ny. Now our regional MNZ meetings have two locations in Auckland;  New Zealand College of Massage (NZCM) Greenlane  and Wellpark-Albany.

CMC at The Gaya Tree in Mangawhai

Siri Embla, a CMC instructor, uses Children Massaging Children program in her activities with children in  theatre and clowning workshops for a mixed age group between 5 and 10 years old. She introduced CMC to The Gaya Tree Homeschool group in 2018 https://www.thegayatree.org/

Since then CMC has been a part of their school curriculum. The teachers are flexible with the use of CMC techniques,  integrating  it  whenever  there is a need and if it fits with other subjects. Students know the lyrics by heart and are often humming along when playing together. The children are very comfortable and at ease with each other.  The children shared how they brought the techniques home and the benefits it has brought to their families through more connection time.

CMC is a complex learning process

At the end of 2018, two groups of preschool teachers participated in a workshop run by Monika Mokrzyszczak in Warsaw. As well as CMC techniques, Monika always adds a few more processes to give deeper meaning to touch. In a picture, participants are finishing the phrase “What massage means to you”.
Through massage;
-you can feel warmth
-Muscles relax
-we become aware of our body
-decrease pain
-we can have fun
-we feel closeness to the person giving the massage
- we can know each other better
-we can calm down
Next CMC course in New Zealand is planned on the 21 September during Massage NZ Association Annual Conference in Hamilton

CMC still Growing in Poland.

At the end of the year, two groups of Polish teachers graduated with CMC course conducted by Monika Mokrzyszczak in Warsaw. It is uplifting to see that despite stupidty of politics, we in Poland can do the best for our children to grow in a humanistic society.

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