Time to Wonder and Wander

Time to Wonder and Wander

Close your eyes and think about one of your favorite memories as a child. I recently attended a

conference where the speaker asked the crowd to do this. We were all very surprised as people

started to share their answers. Almost every single person who spoke up had a memory that was

connected to nature. I know this is certainly true for me. I was very lucky to grow up with fields and

forests to explore, the truth is children will find nature anywhere.

When my children were five and seven, we took them to Washington DC. They had never spent much

time in a city, so we were excited to see their awe over all the traffic and big city stuff. They enjoyed it

all, but their favorite part of our whole visit was a big tree on the open lawn by the Washington

Monument. They ran around on the green grass and climbed and played all over the tree, while my

husband and I took pictures of the monument. They complained when it was time to continue on with

our sightseeing.  This moment has stuck with me as a reminder of how much children need time with

nature. 

Another morning of our trip, we were on our way to one of the museums to see dinosaur bones and

other exciting stuff. That morning they got distracted by a line of ants on the sidewalk. We stopped for

a while, in the middle of the sidewalk, and let them study the activity for a few minutes. But as bored

adults, we couldn’t help but remind them that we had ants back in Maine, so let’s go! I think most

parents can probably think of a time when their child was more interested in the puddle or a particular

stick on the ground, than the amazing thing you were trying to get to.

Children don’t care if nature is big or small, fancy or just a rock they found. In fact, they often prefer the

ordinary rock that they found at the top of the mountain rather than the view that you climbed there to

see. As adults, we need to provide more space and time for our children to experience nature. 

Children need time to observe, time to dawdle and time to poke at things with a stick, without adults

feeling the need to teach them something every step of the way. As adults, it is easy for us to pull them

by the hand to the big exciting thing. The reality is they learn so much more if we just step back and

allow them the time to explore the world through their eyes. 

 

This post was originally written for my Growing The Future column for the Daily Bulldog. 

Far Reaches and Beyond!

 

Far reaches and beyond! 

I had the opportunity to meet and listen to Rachel Larimore of Samara Early Learning speak at the Maine State Early Childhood Conference. Rachel said a lot of things that were familiar and resonated. One thing she mentioned that really stuck was exploring "the beyond." The space beyond the playground. The outer world. I believe the use of the phrase originates from Claire Warden. 

Since then I have also been reflecting a lot on what I am now calling our "far reaches." We've always been fascinated with how children naturally congregate to most extreme borders they can within the playground limits. They feel hidden and like they can escape from the adults. 

In 2015, I wrote a post about letting the children wander. This was when we were first exploring our woods. Even though there was no fence, at this time they were a place only visited with teacher permission. After I wrote that post, the woods slowly became a more and more regular place we played. As I learned more and more about the importance of space, the children were allowed more freedom.

https://growinginchbyinch.blogspot.com/2015/01/let-them-wander.html

Recently our far reaches became our beyond again, when insurance required us to fully fence our playground. There is property now just beyond the fence that the children can no longer enter without adult help. There is a magical stone wall that the children always climbed on, since it was the farthest reach. The abutting neighbors always commented how much they enjoyed watching the children play there. We were all pretty devastated to lose immediate access to this property, but now I can look at it with a new perspective. I understand the importance of having a space beyond. It has also allowed the unintentional damage the children had done to the ecosystem to heal. We are excited to start exploring this space in a new way. 

Our GREAT Beyond: Trail Walking and Field Wandering

We are so fortunate to have a public trail nearby that we visit many times per year. 

We have familiar landmarks that we stop and explore along the way. 

We are hoping someday to have even more 

BEYOND to visit with our preschoolers.

The bouncy log is a familiar stop, but unfortunately after over a year of

bouncing, we discovered one day that it didn't any more.

Lots of theories from the children on why it stopped being bouncy. 

Our beyond has several water features that are great for throwing 

rocks and observing wildlife.

We have permission from the local farmer to wander through

the great green field several times a year. 

The great green field is just as spectacular in the winter. 

Visiting these landmarks in our great beyond is an important part of our curriculum now. This adds to our goals of place-based learning. The children see the changes that take place throughout the season. Is there ice on the swamp yet? Did the farmer hay the field yet? And even the local culture of staying out of the field once hunting season begins out of respect for the hunters (and our safety).

Teacher Tom wrote a related post as well. 

We have both recently been visiting playschools in Iceland, 

where the children can often be found in the "far reaches" 

and also are taken regularly to the beyond. 

http://teachertomsblog.blogspot.com/2022/10/disappearing-or-getting-lost.html

Icelandic playschool children exploring a nearby beach.

May Day Festival

Our teacher Angela planned a wonderful celebration for the children and has shared the experience here for everyone to read about. Thank you Angela for all the loveliness you bring to our little community.

Despite all of the recent illnesses and other setbacks, I still set out to do a small festival with the children as a part of my Lifeways training. Thankfully, festivals are a source of healing and harmony for a community, in our case the children were the community. It's very easy to forget that what is central for a festival is really to come together to celebrate, in one sense our togetherness, and in another more specific sense, depending on the festival, spring.

May Day is a wonderful chance to welcome the joys of spring and to come together after a long chilly winter. I brought a very simple small version of this to our preschool. The children don't need long explanations or fancy decorations, they really just need a few drops of magic in what is already there. We spent a majority of our festival outside on the most beautiful spring day in which the blue sky, rays of sunlight, singing birds, and budding flowers were all the decoration I needed to make it special, and of course their favorite place to be. I imbued a little magic into the celebration by introducing Lady Spring who had finally awoken from her long slumber and began to spread her springlike ways with flowers, berries, and more. These two things were really the platform of our celebration, magic and magic outside.

We started the morning with a short story about Lady Spring (whom we had the chance to meet briefly), a song, and finally a joining of hands to gather outside for the activities. 

We joined the birds, blue sky, and dandelions, to craft our own magic wands to fly in the wind, join in a spring snack of berries and coconut cakes, and finally to dance around our maypole decorated with ribbons in the many spring colors. 

A lot of these activities, small, but meaningful were special to the children. One child even suggested that before we dance around the maypole we collect as many dandelions as we could and all throw them in the air at the same time, what a small yet joyous activity inspired by Mother Nature for our festival. It was really the simplest parts of the whole celebration that brought them great pleasure; plucking dandelions from the ground, waving wands in the wind, joining on our rock for a special snack, and singing songs together. 

One of the most amazing things about sharing this day together was watching the joy in the children's faces, seeing them engage with each other happily, and playing outside joyously with what Mother Nature provided for them. We certainly felt a sense of healing and harmony in our tiny community for that time spent together.

Check out more Outdoor Fun at the...

Sometimes I Just Ignore the Children.

Confession #1: Sometimes I just ignore the children.

Confession #2 : I am not actually ignoring them. 

They just think I am (if they even notice at all).

I think outdoor play at preschool is such an important time for children to be "away" from adults. If I look busy to them, than they figure it out. They do their OWN thing. Work out their OWN problems. Use their OWN words with each other. They don't shy away from their imagination because they don't like the spotlight of an adult's attention.  This goes back to my post from a couple weeks ago about "Letting the Wander." 

The illusion of being away from us.

I often wonder when people drive by the preschool and I am off on my own shoveling snow or moving rocks if people think I am not paying attention to the children. I assure you that I am fully aware of the games they are playing and I'm usually trying to create some sort of invitation to add to their play.

Today was one of those days. There was a small crowd and they were playing happily on our GIANT snow mountain (made by the plow truck). They were playing ninjas and I thought that ninjas probably need places to hide. 

Without them really paying much attention to me or me to them, I started digging holes. It was a great way for me to get in some exercise too, while they were busy playing. *Local readers are probably thinking I'm crazy for doing extra shoveling this week just for fun.

 The holes quickly became very popular. As they started to "take over" the hideout I was digging, I would just move to a new space and dig another slightly different one.  Before I knew it the game had changed. Everybody was part of the ONE game, even from their separate hideouts. *I won't bother to try and explain the game, as it is most likely too complicated for adults to understand. Something about teams and ninjas and the leader of the just-born team members. 

Photo Op.

At the end of play time, each of the children ran to hide in one of the holes, to see how truly hidden they could be from the parking lot.

Where did the children go? 

Popping out of their hideouts when I called their name.

Please visit the Outdoor Play Party to see how others have been playing outdoors lately! 

Let Them Wander

Most of our outdoor time lately has been spent climbing on our plow-made snow mountain. This always provides a great place to burn a lot of energy and use a lot of muscles in a short period of time. There are always great imaginative games going on. Mountain climbing, rescuing, capturing and other adventurous ideas that naturally take place up high on a mountain. 

A couple days this week we were outside a little longer and the children started to do a lot of sitting and looking bored. I suggested that anybody who was interested could take "a hike" down to the woods, as long as they could still see me. The group on Thursday was especially adventurous and I eventually had to tell them they had gone far enough. 

"Given a chance, a child will bring the confusion of the world to the woods, wash it in the creek, turn it over to see what lives on the unseen side of that confusion. Nature can frighten a child, too, and this fright serves a purpose. In nature, a child finds freedom, fantasy, and privacy: a place distant from the adult world, a separate peace."

 — Richard Louv, Last Child in the Woods

I love being able to zoom in from far away and get a better idea of interactions. 

Children need space away from adults to feel like they can have their own conversations. 

They feel grown up and trusted. 

Decades ago children were always outside in their neighborhoods exploring for at least half the day without adults. We have taken that away from children. Children are losing the opportunities to work things out with their peers without adults swooping in to "help" them solve their conflicts or give them the "right" words. 

Several times I saw one child turn and look back to make sure that I was still there. 

The world must seem so big out there with no adult. 

 For More of the Outdoor Play Party and these homemade Bird Feeders at 

Mud Mud Marvellous Mud.

Water. Ice. Snow

Take children into the woods and they will learn. Guaranteed.

I am always reminded how much learning Nature has to offer, when children are given time to explore without the distraction of toys and equipment. 

Check out more outdoor fun at the

Outdoor Play Party Link-Up