New Trails Learning Systems
Ending the notion that suffering is necessary for learning
I got up early, cleaned the stalls, fed the horses. I pet the dog, kissed my husband and flew across the US. I arrived at midnight and hopped a cab to a funky rented bedroom hosted by a kind stranger. The next morning, I put on warm clothes and hiked a mile or so through an unfamiliar city. I descended three floors down into a basement of a high-rise. In my backpack was my presentation – my 25 minutes of the best I had to offer.
It is all related…
Just recently I spent some time at New Trails in Texas, the cradle of Movement Method and Horse Boy. People often ask me, “How do you do it all?”
Dissertation candidate- I did not even know that was a thing.
After a year of classes, always worrying for the ‘pink slip’ to be delivered, it was finally here: Residency 851 (whatever that meant…)
Flying out, I longed to escape. I am no academic, but to make the change I want to see, this was the route that higher spirits had placed me on. With an uncomfortable feeling, I packed my bag with dresses and high heels- no jeans allowed (yay for the land of the free!). The flight went well, but the Uber driver had to circle the hotel about three times until he realized it was in the gated compound complex, with armed security guards welcoming us to the high fenced in campus. The hotel was lovely, beautiful palm trees bordered pool, inviting heat, and cozy crackling open air fire place. Oh, but little did I know.
Working with Horse Boy and Movement Method makes you an expert in helping others- but I noticed, I am still a wife and mother, and often it is challenging to support and understand the ones closest to you.
Movement Method has proven to be ground breaking in schools. Students love to learn again, teachers on the verge of burn out refind the passion for education, feel re-energized by seeing the behavioral problems evaporate and students engage in learning activities and reaching their goals, while having fun, feeling relaxed and content.
Giovanni has autism and is considered for lack of better terms ‘low functioning’. You might have read some of his earlier success stories in the blog, and his journey continues. By following his interests and opening up to the way he learns- by moving, talking to himself, etc. Giovanni unlocked a potential that even his paraprofessional, who knows him for a couple years now, did not expect.
“Do you know what my favorite thing about horses is?”
The boy paused and listened. I went on-
“My favorite thing about horses is that they always forgive me – no matter what.”
This made me smile! I have kiddos- and to be honest, I am not a huge fan of the hand holding idea either- but we overcame it with small pool noodles, but I loved your teddy idea because it is a link that makes sense and you playfully overcame the barrier to join some games...nice work!
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Our families receive services for free. Horse Boy has really allowed many of our families to reconnect and move forward- this is an opportunity to... Show more
Hi Nicolette, I've send you an email! Thank you!
Hi Minne, I’ll be back in Indonesia on the 20th of August. Will you be traveling to West Java?
Use this group if you are interested in Horse Boy Method or Movement Method and are in Asia.
One year I had a 3 years old girl in my class who loved to play with her classmates, however she had sensory integration challenges and couldn’t hold hands. I carefully picked this challenge as my goal (at cognitive level of the child) for the first quarter of the school year (= allowing time). I collected as many ideas as possible for games and activity songs to be played while standing in a circle and holding hands, but instead of hands I started with 2 big soft teddy bears (no stress sensory experience for her). The girl would hold a front paw in each of her hands and the class mates standing beside her would hold the other. I would make jokes about the bears wanting to join us (humor) and enjoy holding her hands as it made them feel safe (explain) and over the period of weeks, I gradually used smaller and smaller bears (taking time). Each Friday I explained that the bears would come home with me for a refreshing bath and return on Monday. After several weeks, when she was already used to the small bears, I ‘accidentally’ (stupid-me-humor) and had to apologize for leaving one bear at home. She thought that was very silly of me and without any hesitation held a classmate’s hand instead. Two Mondays later I asked her to help me search my bags, while apologizing and using humor in a story of how I had to run for the toilet that morning and must for forgotten to bring the small teddy small teddy bears back to school. I had purposefully put some silly items in my bag (e.g. the spoon I had used to eat my yoghurt that morning), which made her burst out with laughter. I then asked her which circle game she wanted to play without the bears ...
End of the story was that before the October break the whole class had had tons of fun (and learned a lot, e.g. counting, colors, the names of the students) with all the circle games and the girl was initiating holding hands, as well as shaking hands.
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