Nature According to my Children

I was hoping to have good news for you by this point, but this week was still very stressful for me at work, and J has yet to be well enough to return to work, but is still managing to be stressed out at all the work he is not getting done while he's home being sick. He was better on Tuesday, and we felt optimistic. However, he plummeted back into serious stomach upset on Wednesday, and has been feeling awful ever since. He went back to the doctor, and we're expecting results of some lab tests on Monday, which will hopefully give us guidance as to how to fix this. It has been 11 days since he originally got sick, which is a long time to not be able to put much into your stomach. I am feeling somewhat healthier, although still tired, but I'm doing a better job of being J's nurse/helper, which I like to think is making him feel a least a bit better.

In other news, a few weeks ago my Head Teacher and I presented at a university conference on Early Childhood Education, called Rainbow in my Head. It was for educators and parents, and covered a range of topics about children, development, education, etc. We had presented at a Reggio Emilia evening a few months before that, and some of the people who attended asked us if we would consider presenting at Rainbow in my Head as well, and so we did. 

Our presentation centered around leadership, and how children can become leaders of their own learning, specifically when given time and space to connect with nature. Both my Head Teacher and I find that nature-based programming provides authenticity and meaning that empower children to take the lead, make informed decisions, and become experts in the world around them. We chose to call our presentation "Voices of Leaderful Learning" and to largely let the children tell their own story. (Side note: Neither of us like the word "leaderful," but it was the word chosen by the broader group when we started an extended self-review as a whole team on how to support children in leading their own learning). 

I don't feel that I should put our whole presentation on my blog, as it was a team effort and our team research, goals, and conclusions are not mine alone to make public, but I thought I could share some of the children's voices. They are not nearly as inspiring without the accompanying pictures, but it's what I have.

So these are three- and four-year-olds, and the quotes are from a variety of conversations, some during our weekly visits to the Botanic Gardens, some at our centre (Whare Kea). Some are from impromptu conversations throughout the day, some as a result of specific questions as we tried to understand their blossoming knowledge and the connections they're making. So here goes.

While she and I were working in our garden:

“When I grow up, I might grow into a gardener. Because I’m very good at taking care of my dahlias.” 

                     

Examining a tree at the Botanic Gardens, which had blue and green moss on it, as well as sap:

“See the blue stuff? That’s how the fairies make dust.”

“What’s the yellow stuff?”

“That’s sap. It’s a trees blood. This tree is sick… the green stuff is from the fairies, and its for helping the trees grow big and strong.”

Wandering through the Botanic Gardens:

“Emma, look! Look at this place on the tree! You can see the sap! The tree is bleeding… Maybe a really big stick came falling down and it thwacked the tree!”

Playing outside at Whare Kea, wrapped up in a hammock hanging in a tree:

“Look, I’m in my chrysalis so I can turn into a butterfly! A monarch butterfly!”

Gets up and flaps his wings:

“Someone found me and is taking me over to the Bug Hotel.”

(Our Bug Hotel is a safe haven for all insects we find, so that we can admire them and learn about them while remembering that they're living creatures and we have to be careful not to hurt them. I constructed it with the children out of a pallet we dismantled, and it's filled with sticks and bark and bamboo and leaves and all kinds of things to make a bug feel at home.)

Outside at Whare Kea, she is wearing butterfly-print leggings, on which a real butterfly landed:

“There’s a butterfly on my leg. Maybe it’s talking to his friends. Maybe he thinks I’m a tree.”

A group of children lay down quietly on the grass at the Botanic Gardens:

“We’re just looking up at the treetops.”

We observed a butterfly emerging from its chrysalis, and cared for it until it flew away:

“Butterflies like juice from oranges and bananas… They drink it with their tongues. Their tongues look like a really long pipe.”
(It was a good thing that he knew this, because none of the teachers did, and we didn't have any flowers, and the poor butterfly would have gone hungry without his expertise).

We saw a large bumble bee on the path in the Botanic Gardens:

“I think her has a ripped wing, so she’s crawling to her home.”

“You know, you can’t use cellotape on wings.”
(Cellotape is Scotch tape).

We moved said bumblebee off the path so she wouldn't get stepped on, and then continued our walk. On the way back, we stopped to check on her, and found her in the same place, waving a front leg:

“She remembers that we are nice to move her and we’re her friends.” 

“I think she’s doing like a wave with her leg!”

“I think she’s saying, 'Thank you!'”

Walking along a bush path in the Botanic Gardens, we heard a Tūī (a NZ bird):

“That Tūī is talking to me!” (whistles back.)“He said, ‘Hello’ to me and I said, ‘Hello’ to him!”

Observing the trees at the Botanic Gardens:

“Look at the trees, they’re all tied up in knots. It happened in the storm a couple of years ago.”

We asked, 'What do you know about nature?'

“It’s outside. It is green or brown or grey. I saw a Monarch butterfly today and it was flying high in the sky.”

“Flowers grow up… and leaves come out again. It’s bees and flies.”

“We have dead nature on the table. It’s a little bit dead, like the bumble bee. We have it so we can pick it up. You don’t pick up the bumble bees cause those ones will sting you, that’s why you pick up bugs on leaves.” (We have a nature table in our room, and it is a bit of a running joke that the most popular things that the children find and bring to the table are dead insects. We have taught them that if they want to pick up live insects, they need to use a leaf, both to keep themselves safe and to avoid squishing the insects. We have also encouraged them to be careful with bees, because even if they are dead, if their stingers are intact, they can hurt.)

“It’s all the trees. I think there’s so many trees. When I was a baby I learnt about nature and I learnt about statues.” (My best guess is that he's connecting the various lovely statues in the Botanic Gardens with his experience of nature, although I'm not sure).

“The Earth. Nature has lots of trees and butterflies.”

“That’s a path that I found. Sometimes we get to choose where we go. I like going that way because it’s where we spotted that tree that I thought broke and Dom thought it got cut.” (The children often get to choose which of many circuitous routes through the Botanic Gardens we take).

“My favourite thing in nature is the sky. I really love nature and they’re pretty awesome. Nature means you need some water.”

“Nature is something you need to learn about. You need to look for plants and birds because they might bite you.” 

We asked, 'How do we look after nature?'

“We water it.”

“The rain waters it.”

“You don’t shoot down trees.”

“You have to stop doing bad stuff to nature like putting it down and sawing it down.”

“By not cutting trees. We should recycle the paper."
(We have been reading The Lorax quite a bit - it's one of my favourites - and I have recently purchased a fancy new recycling bin, and the children are very passionate about protecting trees by not letting them get cut down, and by recycling paper).

"We need to pick things up off the ground, not things off the trees, otherwise they die.” (Our children love collecting beautiful things from nature, and making sure to not break pieces off living plants as been an ongoing conversation and growing understanding of plants as living creatures that deserve respect. This particular child is a staunch defender of all plants).

“There’s lots of kinds of nature. When you go outside there is nature waiting by themselves. Nature stays still. Except if the wind blows.”

(This may be my favourite quote).

Hopefully these few excerpts from our presentation give you at least a little bit of a sense of how confident and empowered these children are. They are connected with their place in the world and the nature around them, and when that becomes part of their sense of self, it gives them a strong place to stand as they reach out and learn more about the world. It is inspiring to be a part of it, and I'm excited to see what they will tell us and teach us as my team has more time to delve more deeply into nature-based programming and empowerment.