The Dragon's Head Blog: Once upon a time in China …

… there was a little boy whose name was Moy!

And this was the beginning of our interaction with a group of dynamic children in a downtown neighborhood primary school in Lisbon on July 4.

After the school invitation we immediately started constructing a plan for the activity which we considered very exciting: we consulted and asked for advice from our instruction committee and gathered insights from members with more experience about how to reach out to such a specific young group! Then, we started getting our members involved and finally a range of six of us had the opportunity to participate in this activity with about 40 children aged between four to nine years, in two different sessions, also with the participation of some of the school teachers.

Based on a storytelling around „little Moy boy“, his care for the health and well-being of the people he met while travelling and his sharing of special movements based on nature and animal images, we were able to explain how our association came from China growing into a big international organisation of 26 countries all over the world.

We practiced with the children some foundation movements and also some of the suggestive movements of the set helping them to connect with its health benefits. We related „white stork spreads wings“ with expaaaaansion (and of course getting taller!), „wave hands like clouds“ with tuuuuurning (moving inside while drawing circles), „parting wild horse’s mane“ with experimenting weight shiiiiifting (smooooothly), and finally we practiced „golden cock stands on one leg“ for them to test baaaaaalance.

To smile was very easy for everyone!!! And it was impressive how girls and boys kept attentive and receptive during around 50 minutes (each session),  asking questions, making comments but also very concentrated on the movements. And… we still had time to drink pu-ehr tea which was very much appreciated. FUN!

It was really a very lively afternoon and the members who participated felt so happy with this new experience … so, so happy … that afterwards they decided to have a super delicious ice cream in one of the super famous stores in the nowadays even more super touristic downtown Lisbon on that super marvellous sunny summer day. And with a super big smile on their way home!!!