The Lullaby Project

The Lullaby Project being present with one another 1

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The Lullaby Project © Kids’ Own Publishing Partnership Ltd. 2014 All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form without prior written authorisation.

ISBN 978Published by Kids’ Own Publishing Partnership Ltd. Carrigeens, Ballinful, Co. Sligo, Ireland. (+353) 719 124 945 ̷ ̷ http://kidsown.ie Charity number: 20639 Editors: Orla Kenny, Jo Holmwood Design: Karina Nachbar Printed by: Nicholson & Bass Ltd. Text & images: ........

Acknowledgements: ::: :::: ::: ::: Cover image:

̷ ̷ http://projects.kidsown.ie

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The Lullaby Project “The heart of the Lullaby Project is about a stillness and safety, which arises when all the conditions are right. We have achieved it several times and sometimes with such force that the room becomes tender and emotional and yet still safe and supportive as we collectively explore and discover one another and the sounds and activities available.”

Martin Brunsden

Introduction » Early Childhood Ireland

The Lullaby Project Early Childhood Ireland and Kids Own have worked together over the past 2 years – with a shared interest in creating opportunities for creativity and expression within the early childhood curriculum. With the Lullaby project, we wanted to regenerate an interest in lullabies among early childhood educators, parents and their babies. We thought of lullabies as a way of creating relaxed, peaceful spaces where adults and babies communicate and connect at an emotional, physical and deeply human level.

The project fits comfortably with Early Childhood Ireland’s strategic goal to be a learning organisation that promotes research and innovation and builds on ECI’s tradition of promoting the integration of care and education and the central role of relationships in healthy development.

What has emerged from the Lullaby project is the essence of the lullaby rather than a collection of songs. In keeping with Giannini’s (2012) basic premise that ‘in all cultures, lullabies arise from a need to communicate: with a child, with

lullaby as a song to embrace the understanding captured in the reflections of the project artist, Maree Hensey: At the moment for me, it is exploring the sentiment of Lullaby. A Lullaby is a moment of shared intimacy, of storytelling, of being, of holding and gentleness. It is about relationships. We are creating a sensory environment where the child is given the space to be and to hold and share their individual response to the environment.

and the project musician Martin Brunsden: The heart of the Lullaby Project as we’ve experienced it so far is about a stillness… this lull...this lullaby essence..…we have achieved it several times and sometimes with such force that the room becomes tender and emotional and yet still safe and supportive as we collectively explore and discover one another and the sounds and activities available.

oneself, with the community’, the project artists sought to

make deep connections with the babies and the early childhood educators and allow them together to bask in the sounds and sensory changes happening around them so that all participants could have what Trevarthen (2001:20) names as ‘the feeling of being present with one another’. In the process, the lullaby has moved beyond the

It is a view of learning as a process of changing relationships between people, places and things. We are fortunate in Ireland to have Aistear (NCCA 2009), a curriculum framework that supports this process. Early childhood educators are bound by this framework to create time and experiences that allow the young children to develop

a sense of well-being, identity and belonging, and at the same time the motivation to explore and think and share their thoughts and feelings. Aistear, as the name implies, recognises that these developments happen by travelling through a process where children build a repertoire of memories and dispositions that become part of both their being and becoming.

A day spent on the project brought me into the ‘lullaby’ zone. The artists had created a simple, uncluttered space to which they introduced wooden bowls, sand and shells.

The sounds of the big bass, the harp, the duckcaller become natural parts of our surroundings. In this zone there is an unspoken contract between us about slowing down and appreciating the moment. We pour the sand – but not for any purpose other than that we jointly focus on the beauty, the pattern, fluidity, grace, movement, possible images and meanings. Suddenly the senses come alive to art and music. We are in awe at the peace, the focus and the intensity. We have a shared lens for seeing and communicating. It is a beautiful lens for seeing the world – a lens borrowed from the children. Vecchi’s (2010:5) is so right when she describes this approach as founded on ‘an attitude of care and attention for the things we do, a desire for meaning; it is curiosity and wonder; it is the opposite of indif-

ference and carelessness, of conformity, of absence of participation and feeling’. The photographs in this book bring you

into this zone. Take time to engage. Put on your ‘aesthetic’ lens and see the beauty in the faces, the movements, the materials. Put on your ‘inquiry’ lens and wonder about what is going on with the materials, the minds and senses.

Put on your ‘rights’ lens and think about the child’s right to be, to wallow, to share beautiful moments. Put on your ‘advocacy’ lens and think about what you can do to make it happen.

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Accepting – or at least

acknowledging all of the

children’s offers is a real key into the endless realms of

imagination that are only waiting for our bravery.

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Be flexible. The measures of success are

the moments of engagement, the level of peace and relaxation,

the level of wonder and connection.

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Slow down. Take time to reconnect with your own sense of the aesthetic.

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Sounds bounce and listening becomes the focus.

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Today, a sort of effortlessness and flow.

Eireann’s harp playing and Rosie the spud with her belly laugh. Emer’s post snooze shine and alpha male ownerships and kindnesses.

The waves are recorded for our leaving gift and the ribbon curtain-harp was a fine blend of disciplines and so, so pretty!

Donacha loving his face popping ceol and helping with all removals... Rosie-spud’s instant stump claim, Georgia the fabric Queen and Eva the Great Peacemaker of today.

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A beautiful start. Very focused and gentle.

The feathers were so pure. Territorial questions helped us refine our hopes for the boxes...bells worked again and the dear old harp just makes cocoon upon cocoon.

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Been playing with bells for the bells on strings.......

now covering high pitches down to

melodious middle range massage.

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.......have a

beautiful choir

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Stay with what the children engage with.

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Look for and wallow in the beautiful – in children’s faces, movements, responses, connections, curiosities.

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The boxes are not about play but about changing the space and the familiar.

freedom to respond an individual expression very clearly, demonstrated by Donnach’s kicking out and

The interaction is about a

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again kicking out response. So for next week Drawing Paper Ribbon suspended.

Connect to the children’s sense of wonder

about the simple things.

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be in the nowand to savour each moment.

The little teachers reminded us yet again to

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Be present and enjoy.

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Our focus brought many musings‌

I asked for us all to listen to the room.

How unconscious we often are of all the data being sent in for us.

When we focus there is this stillness‌this lull...this lullaby essence.

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have a conscious ‘being’ time.

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Our language is now often

fluid and fast and wordless.

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Moving on into the

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fabric ocean

we had a beautiful time.

Bring in beautiful and natural materials.

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more listening and worked in silence and talked with our fingers.

We did a lot

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Create a time and space – remove the major everyday structures and materials and create a new frame.

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Be sensitive for the transition for children.

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Shared intimacy, storytelling,

being, holding and gentleness relationships.

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